Hello friends and welcome back
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to this program
"Books of the Book."
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We are so glad that you
are taking this time to join us
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and be part of this Bible study.
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My name is Deyvy Rodriquez
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and again I welcome
you to the Gospel of John.
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We are studying this
with Dr. Jon Paulien.
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He is a Bible scholar.
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He is the Dean of religion
at Loma Linda University
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in Loma Linda, California.
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And today we are talking
about the "Bread of life."
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And if you have a Bible
you can certainly join us
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and open your bibles
beginning in chapter 6 today.
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Dr. Paulien, thank you
again for being with us.
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It's really good to be with you,
Deyvy. It's been a good time.
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Now earlier in a
different program
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you said that the Gospel
of John is a spiritual gospel.
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So I was a bit
surprised to hear that
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because I thought, well, aren't
all the gospels spiritual?
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And so explain to
us what does that mean
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when you say that the
Gospel of John is spiritual.
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That's an excellent question.
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I think all of
the gospels are there
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to tell the story of Jesus.
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So there's value in simply
knowing the story of Jesus,
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who He was?
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What He did?
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What He said?
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But the Gospel of John has
a deeper purpose than that.
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The story of Jesus is there.
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There's stories that
the others don't have.
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There's a few stories
that they all have in common,
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but in John
each of these stories
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is a pointer to
something else, as well.
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It's a pointer
to something deeper.
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It's seeking the
deeper spiritual focus
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that underlies the stories
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and it takes you
another step further.
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And I think
that's really important
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because in today's
world what our eyes see,
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our ears hear, our hands handle
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really distracts us from
God more than leads us to Him.
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Unless, we can learn like John
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to see glimpses of
Jesus in other people,
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glimpses of Jesus in the
circumstances that we have.
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When we take bread, it
reminds us of the bread of life.
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When we drink
water, shall we? Sure.
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Mmm, that's good.
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So what about the water?
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Reminds us of the water of life.
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In the next program, we'll have
a lot to say about that, see.
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So John is inviting us
to look past the surface
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of what our five
senses can tell us.
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And to go deeper and
to see glimpses of Jesus,
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glimpses of God in
everything that comes.
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And he teaches us how
to do that in the gospel
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by taking the stories and going
beyond the surface with them.
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Well, let's see some more
of those glimpses in chapter 6.
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Now briefly tell us the
background on this chapter.
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Okay, I think if you,
if you open chapter 6,
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you notice right away
that this is in Galilee.
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Now here's one of
the striking things,
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the Gospel of John
focuses on Judah and Jerusalem
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whereas Matthew, Mark and
Luke all focus on Galilee.
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In the Gospel of John
the only parts of the Gospel
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that take place in
Galilee outside of the story
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at the very end are
the wedding of Cana,
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the story of the noble man
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who wants his son
healed in Capernaum.
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And this chapter 6 is
in Galilee, that's all.
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So most of Jesus'
time is spent in Jerusalem,
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chapter 5, He is in
Jerusalem at an unnamed feast.
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We talked about
that in last program.
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In chapter 7, He is in Jerusalem
at the feast of Tabernacles.
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So sandwiched between Jerusalems
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is this story in
Galilee once again.
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From chapter 7 through
pretty much the end of the book
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everything is in
Jerusalem, in Judah,
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the surrounding area
except the very last scene.
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So Gospel of John focuses
on the parts of Jesus' life
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that we were
particularly in Jerusalem
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and the surroundings.
And that makes it unique.
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I would suggest that
the other three gospels
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were probably
written well before John.
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He knew what was in them
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and he is going in
a different direction.
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He's emphasizing
parts of Jesus' career
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that they missed
for whatever reason.
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I think that
probably the last year or so
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of Jesus' life in Galilee
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is what the other
three gospels focus on.
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John focuses on the
whole ministry of Jesus
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and particularly the
parts in Jerusalem and Judea.
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Now what is going
now in chapter 6 then?
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Well, it's Passover time.
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And we already mentioned
that John is a spiritual gospel
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and I've noticed that
whenever Passover shows up,
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there's references to the cross
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and references to
the Lord's Supper.
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Now one of the features
of John that's interesting,
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there's no Lord's Supper.
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The cup, the bread, you know,
the ceremony around the table
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it's not there in
the Gospel of John.
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When he does go to that event
he emphasizes the foot washing,
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but says pretty much
nothing about the dinner itself.
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So in John, the Lord's
Supper is not explained,
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probably because it's already
been adequately explained
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by Paul and Corinthians and by
the other three gospel writers.
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But what John does is
bring the Lord's Supper
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surprisingly into other venues.
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For example, this is a test.
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All right. All right.
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Where would you see
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the Lord's Supper
and the wedding of Cana
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because there's a
Passover in that chapter?
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Well, I don't think
there is even a dinner there.
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That's a wedding feast. Yes.
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There's a miracle there where
Jesus turns the water into wine.
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Into what? Wine.
So we see a wine.
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So, What's wine?
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Represents the blood of Jesus--
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The Lord's Supper. Okay.
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Okay. Where's the bread?
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In chapter 2, at
the wedding of Cana.
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I am going to fail this
question, this quiz test.
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If you go to the
cleansing at the temple,
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He replaces the
temple with His body.
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Okay, doesn't say
bread anywhere there
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but He replaces
it with his body.
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You have multiple references
to the cross in chapter 2.
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We've already
noticed that we were there.
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But there's a
reference to the wine
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and then the body of
Jesus and those who read that
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Passover is
mentioned, wine body of Jesus.
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You see hints of
the Lord's Supper.
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Here in chapter 6
and in chapter 21,
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both of them at Passover time,
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we are going to see other
hints of the Lord's Supper
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embedded in the text.
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And why don't we
go there right now?
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Sure. Chapter 6:11.
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Because He is teaching us
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to see divine things
in the ordinary things,
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our spiritual
eyes need to be trained
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and that's what John
is doing. Chapter 6:11.
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"And Jesus took the loaves,
and when He had given thanks
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He distributed
them to the disciples,
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and the disciples
to those sitting down
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and likewise of the
fish, as much as they wanted."
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Now it may not be
obviously English language
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but when you get to the
Greek that lies behind the text,
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you see he has
chosen to describe the scene
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in Lord's Supper language.
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Jesus, what does it say there?
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"He took the
loaves, He gave thanks,"
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and by the way the Greek
word for thanks is eucharisto
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which means, yeah, we say
Eucharist for the Lord's Supper.
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So it's using a
special way of praying
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that's associated
with the Lord's Supper.
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"He took the
bread, he blessed it,
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gave thanks and distributed
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to those who were
seated around Him."
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This is language that triggers
the mind to the Lord's Supper.
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And here's the
exciting thing about this.
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In the Gospel of John,
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Lord's Supper references
come in relation to Passover,
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there's mention of
Passover in verse 4.
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But Lord's Supper references
come in ordinary circumstances.
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A wedding,
here's a picnic lunch.
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In Chapter 21,
"Breakfast by the beach."
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In the ordinary aspects of life,
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the supernatural is brought in.
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And so we see that he is
bringing God into everything.
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And this is really
crucial for our time
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because it is extremely
distracting in today's world.
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You have for
example bright lights,
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you have the internet,
you have television and so on.
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And someone was just
saying a little bit earlier,
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"Hey, I go to a
health club to exercise
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and there's a TV
screens everywhere.
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I want to get away from
that. I want to exercise."
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You see, and not be watching
connected again some more.
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So the world today
closes in around us
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and no one has ever
seen, heard or touched God
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which means that the things
we can't see, hear and touch
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tend to crowd Him
out of our consciousness.
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And John is inviting us
to see touches of the divine
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that every time
we sit down to eat,
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even in a picnic that we
remember the Lord's Supper,
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what we drink, what we
eat here is a miracle of God.
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No farmer grows anything.
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Growth of plants
is a miracle of God.
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You can nurture
plants, you can trim them,
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you can fertilize, you can water
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but the growth
itself is a miracle.
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The greatest engineer in history
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can't make a
blade of grass, you see.
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So it's learning to
see the realities of God
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in the wider
circumstances of life.
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And so one thing that I've
learned from an old friend,
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Glenn Coon was to thank God
for the ordinary things of life.
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And one way to do that is just
make a list of ten everyday.
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Just ordinary things,
thank you Lord for the cat.
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Thank you Lord for
the color of the carpet,
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thank you Lord for
that beautiful orchid
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that just opened
up today, you see.
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Each one of these
things is a miracle
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in the larger scheme of things,
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but those miracles are crowded
out of our consciousness,
00:11:09.73\00:11:13.20
by the simple fact that
the world is so much with us.
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Moving on, in the text
00:11:19.16\00:11:21.06
and because the text is so
big and our time is so short,
00:11:21.09\00:11:25.03
we just going to touch base with
a few things in this chapter.
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In verses 16-21
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you have the story
of the walking on water
00:11:30.69\00:11:34.49
and why don't
you read that for us?
00:11:34.52\00:11:36.40
Chapter 6:16-21.
00:11:36.43\00:11:40.33
"Now when evening came, His
disciples went down to the sea,
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got into the boat, and went over
to the sea toward Capernaum.
00:11:43.72\00:11:48.06
And it was already dark,
and Jesus had not come to them.
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Then the sea arose because
a great wind was blowing.
00:11:51.55\00:11:54.73
So when they had rowed
about three or four miles,
00:11:54.76\00:11:58.40
they saw Jesus
walking on the sea
00:11:58.43\00:12:00.65
and drawing near the
boat and they were afraid.
00:12:00.68\00:12:04.01
But He said to them,
"It is I, do not be afraid."
00:12:04.04\00:12:07.60
Then they willingly
received Him into the boat,
00:12:07.63\00:12:10.42
and immediately the
boat was at the land
00:12:10.45\00:12:13.31
where they were going."
00:12:13.34\00:12:16.30
This is probably the only story
00:12:16.33\00:12:19.28
outside of the
crucifixion itself
00:12:19.31\00:12:21.04
that all four
gospels have in common.
00:12:21.07\00:12:23.50
The baptism of Jesus
is referenced in all four,
00:12:23.53\00:12:25.83
but John doesn't
actually portray it.
00:12:25.86\00:12:28.19
So the story of
the walking on water
00:12:28.22\00:12:30.32
is one of the main connections
00:12:30.35\00:12:32.00
between John and
the other gospels.
00:12:32.03\00:12:36.39
And for John I
think just to be brief
00:12:36.42\00:12:40.51
the boat represents
the church in a real sense.
00:12:40.54\00:12:44.79
As John is speaking
00:12:44.82\00:12:46.19
the disciples are
the members of the church
00:12:46.22\00:12:49.15
and life is all around them.
00:12:49.18\00:12:51.01
Life is store me,
life is distracting.
00:12:51.04\00:12:54.02
They can't see Jesus.
00:12:54.05\00:12:56.06
This is touching base
back on what we just noticed
00:12:56.09\00:12:58.07
with the Lord's
Supper in chapter 6.
00:12:58.10\00:13:00.13
So life is overwhelming to them
00:13:00.16\00:13:02.42
and in the
process Jesus shows up
00:13:02.45\00:13:05.56
and how do they
react when Jesus shows up?
00:13:05.59\00:13:09.06
And they were afraid.
00:13:09.09\00:13:10.46
It says, "They
saw Jesus approaching
00:13:10.49\00:13:11.98
and they were terrified."
00:13:12.01\00:13:14.23
Okay. Why are they terrified?
00:13:14.26\00:13:16.01
One of the other gospel writers
thought he was a ghost, you see.
00:13:16.04\00:13:19.82
But disciples feel
like they are abandoned,
00:13:19.85\00:13:23.34
they feel like they are alone.
00:13:23.37\00:13:24.74
The second generation
when John dies they are going
00:13:24.77\00:13:28.11
to feel abandoned
by God in a real sense.
00:13:28.14\00:13:31.44
And so this story reminds them
00:13:31.47\00:13:33.93
now Jesus comes
to you in the storm.
00:13:33.96\00:13:38.17
He comes to you
in the suffering.
00:13:38.20\00:13:39.84
He comes to you in
the challenges of life.
00:13:39.87\00:13:42.58
And the spiritual
gospel encourages us
00:13:42.61\00:13:45.33
to see Jesus in the
midst of the turmoil,
00:13:45.36\00:13:49.13
in the midst of the
difficulties that we face.
00:13:49.16\00:13:51.86
Earlier you said also
that the Gospel of John
00:13:51.89\00:13:54.74
is your favorite
book of the Bible
00:13:54.77\00:13:56.96
your favorite gospel. I suspect.
00:13:56.99\00:13:58.36
And I am understanding why now,
00:13:58.39\00:14:00.29
because you said that the Gospel
of John is a spiritual gospel
00:14:00.32\00:14:04.14
and when we start to read,
00:14:04.17\00:14:06.90
you know, we
often just read a story,
00:14:06.93\00:14:08.88
oh, there's another miracle,
00:14:08.91\00:14:10.28
you know, second
miracle and so on and so forth.
00:14:10.31\00:14:12.54
But when we start to
just dwell on the text
00:14:12.57\00:14:15.48
and start to see
those glimpses of divinity
00:14:15.51\00:14:19.75
and how they
apply to my life today
00:14:19.78\00:14:22.78
as you just
mentioned those points,
00:14:22.81\00:14:24.25
it becomes
powerful, isn't that right?
00:14:24.28\00:14:27.38
Well, friends we
are still continuing
00:14:27.41\00:14:29.28
to study the Gospel of
John and we are in chapter 6,
00:14:29.31\00:14:32.53
stay with us as we continue
to see glimpses of Jesus.
00:14:32.56\00:14:36.39