Hello and
welcome to this program
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called "Books of the Book."
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We're so happy that
you are able to join us
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and-- in this Bible study.
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My name is Deyvy Rodriguez.
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And we are studying
today the Gospel of John
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and in particular
today we are in chapter 11.
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And we're gonna talk about
the resurrection of Lazarus.
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And with us in this
study is Dr. Jon Pauline,
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he is a Bible scholar
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and he comes from
Loma Linda University
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in Loma Linda, California.
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And we want to thank you again,
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Dr. Pauline, for being with us.
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We're so happy,
we are so delighted
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that you are able to share
your insights in this Gospel.
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And you shared with us
early in another program
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that you love
this gospel, this book
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because you
said it's a spiritual
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and in so many
spiritual applications.
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And you also mentioned a
favorite verse in this gospel
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which is chapter 3
and verse 20-- Verse 8.
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Verse 8, which tells
again what is it saying,
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why is it important to you?
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The wind blows
wherever it wants to,
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no one knows where it's
coming from or where it's going.
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So is everyone who
is born in the spirit.
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And it encourages us to--
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when the spirit
comes into our lives,
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we don't become
cookie cutter people,
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rather we become uniquely
who God intended us to be
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and that for me
is so exciting. Amen.
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Well, now if you are-- if
you do have a Bible with you
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and you want to join us
in this Bible study again,
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we are in
chapter 11 and thus far
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we have been studying,
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the life of
Jesus in this gospel.
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And we've learned, Dr.
Pauline, that Jesus is define--
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the leaders of the church.
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We've learned in chapter
2 that He disrupts worship.
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Chapter 5, He
heals in the Sabbath.
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Again disrupts
worship in chapter 7.
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He is accused of
blasphemy for calling or--
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for placing Himself as God.
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Chapter 9, He is healing
on the Sabbath one more time
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and chapter 10, blasphemy again.
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Now we are in chapter 11.
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So tell us what
is the context here
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and what are we now?
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What is now Jesus
gonna do to defy the leaders
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and to make them upset?
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There's been
conflict all along there,
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all six of those
as you point out.
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And I don't know if
this is intentional or not.
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But it's fascinating that
the first and third encounters
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with the religious leaders are
in relation to a worship service
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that gets
disrupted by Jesus' presence.
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The fourth and sixth of these
are accusations of blasphemy.
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And the second and fifth
are relating to the Sabbath,
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accusations
relating to the Sabbath.
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So it's like
you've two sets of three
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in which an incident
related to the Sabbath
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is between a
couple of other incidents.
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So I find that interesting.
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Really with chapter 11,
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this is
therefore the last straw.
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In other words the raising
of Lazarus is the final thing
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and from that moment
on people are saying,
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okay, we've had enough of
Jesus, we got to get rid of Him.
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So right after
the Lazarus story,
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you have the
story of the Sanhedrin
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coming together to the
side what to do with Jesus.
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If we let Him go on like this,
everybody's gonna follow Him
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and the Romans are gonna come
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and destroy our temple
and our city and everything.
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So we got to do something.
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So raising of Lazarus
becomes the final provocation,
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not what you would think,
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you know, was
intentional by Jesus.
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I mean, He
simply raising a friend.
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But the fact that He
could raise the dead like this,
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it just brings to an
end, I think the opposition
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which has been
trying to resist the idea
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that He is Messiah and even God.
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But when He raises
the dead, it's gonna like,
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okay, now what do we do
that this is going too far.
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Now-- so now we are in what,
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the chapter
says Bethany-- Right.
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This is the place
where He has friends--
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Bethany is a small village
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on the other side
of the Mount of Olives.
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So it's very close to Jerusalem,
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two or three
kilometers from Jerusalem.
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And it's a place that
Jesus when He was in Jerusalem
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would often
spend the night there.
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So He was there with friends.
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Something I should mention
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that the Rabbis at
the time had a teaching
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that when a person dies
the soul of that person,
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not all the
Rabbis really understood
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the biblical
perspective on human nature
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which is that
body and soul are one.
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You know, that
we're complete unity.
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That's very clear
in the Old Testament
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but some Jews after the
time of the Old Testament
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began to read Plato and Philo
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and some of these
Greek philosophers
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and come up with
this idea of a division
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between soul and body. So
that's being reflected here.
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But those who believe that way
thought that when a person died,
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the soul would kind of hover
over the body for three days.
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And if the person
didn't comeback to life,
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it would then, you
know, just go off to God
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or wherever they
thought it might be.
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So the point here is
that after three days
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they believed
there's no more hope.
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Now you'll
notice that Jesus delays
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a couple of
days before He comes.
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The sister sends a-- you
know, your friend is sick.
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And instead of coming,
Jesus spends two more days there
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and then comes, and He
arrives on the fourth day.
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And what does He
say when He arrives?
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We are in verse--
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Yeah, I think it's verse
15, you've read it to me before.
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Okay. I'm glad--
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"I am glad for your
sakes that I was not there,
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that you may believe.
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Nevertheless let us go to him."
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Now this sounds
bit disrespectful,
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bit rude for Jesus to say
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"I am glad that I was not there"
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you know, so His--
His good friend has died,
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His two sisters are mourning
and Jesus is glad. Yeah.
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What's with that
comment there? Yeah.
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Well, it appears, I think
if you go back to chapter 7
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you realize that Jesus'
timetable is not set by friends,
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by mother, by
brothers, by anybody.
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Jesus schedule is
set by His Father.
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And so Jesus delays two days
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not out of
disrespect for Lazarus
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but because he does not sense
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the Father wants
Him to go just yet.
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He apparently is not
aware that Lazarus had died
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when He actually comes but
He is glad that He delayed,
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because now the
glory of God can be seen.
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And so He arrives four days in,
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raising Lazarus at the four day
period is an undeniable miracle.
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Nobody's gonna doubt
it, this is indisputable.
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And so the delay ends up
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showing of the glory of
God as we see in verse 4.
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"Now the disciple seem to be
confused for what Jesus said.
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And earlier He said that
our friend Lazarus is sleeping.
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And so I-- I go so
that I can wake him up.
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And so verse 16 says,
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"Then Thomas, who
was called the Twin,
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said to his fellow disciples,
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'Let us go, also that
we may die with him.'"
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That's after Jesus
said, Lazarus is dead.
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Now I don't know what
Thomas means by that to say
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Okay, let's go with
Jesus that we may die with Him.
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I think he is reflecting
back on those six encounters
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with religious leaders
that the gospel has been
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full of your time
after time after time.
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Jesus has been in
contention with them.
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And the last couple of
times, they pick up stones.
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So when he says let us
go that we may die with Him,
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referring-- with Him Jesus,
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or with him who is
already dead, Lazarus. No.
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I think he's
saying there with Jesus,
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that Jesus is gonna die
if He goes back to Jerusalem.
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Remember they are by the
Jordan because of the encounter.
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When he was last in the temple
on the Feast of Dedication
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He says, "I and
the Father are one."
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And they pick up
stones to stone Him.
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This is the second time.
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So disciple are saying,
don't go back to the temple.
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Every time you go, they
are ready to beat you up,
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you know? Don't go there.
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So Jesus takes His disciples
at the end of chapter 10,
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they go out in
to this quite place
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and disciples are glad that,
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you know, things
are little better.
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But now, Jesus wants to go back
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in to the lion's
den and Thomas says,
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alright, let just go
with Him and to die with Him.
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And apparently they are
ready to die for Him at least,
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Thomas--at least they
say they are ready to die.
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This is doubting
Thomas. This is doubting Thomas.
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You see, that's absolutely,
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He's not really
doubting Thomas, see.
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He was put in an
unusual situation.
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When he was doubting and
it turns out in chapter 20
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that God was able
to use that situation
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to set the tone
for the entire gospel,
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which I think is powerful.
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The real doubter in
Gospel of John is Phillip.
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He is the one that
constantly questioning
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and--do we have enough
bread to feed all these people?
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You know, hey Lord, you
said, we've seen the Father,
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come on, I've never
seen the Father, you know.
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So Phillip's the
one that's kind of--
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So doubting Phillip
would be more appropriate.
00:10:14.72\00:10:15.75
Yeah. Perhaps. In this case.
00:10:15.78\00:10:17.69
But I guess Thomas did the more
spectacular crime, you know.
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He is the person with
the really spectacular crime
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that's remembered I think,
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and that's where Thomas gets it.
00:10:25.84\00:10:27.67
But he-- in this case is the one
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who really express his courage.
00:10:29.55\00:10:32.88
Now go back to this idea
00:10:32.91\00:10:34.10
of Jesus saying
that Lazarus sleeps.
00:10:34.13\00:10:38.51
Why did Jesus say
that Lazarus is sleeping
00:10:38.54\00:10:41.29
and later He
says that he is dead?
00:10:41.32\00:10:44.29
Well, sleeping
was a way of saying
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that a person is
dead in the ancient world.
00:10:47.84\00:10:51.15
You know, when
the person is dead
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and kind of
like this, looks like
00:10:52.36\00:10:54.04
they are taking a
nap that sort of--
00:10:54.07\00:10:56.31
so this is widely, you
know, in the Greek world
00:10:56.34\00:10:58.67
and the Jewish world and so on.
00:10:58.70\00:11:02.01
But I think it's an
excellent reference to death
00:11:02.04\00:11:06.18
because as we see with Lazarus,
00:11:06.21\00:11:08.60
the death that we
suffer in this life
00:11:08.63\00:11:11.47
is not the ultimate
death. It's like a sleep.
00:11:11.50\00:11:15.76
It's a diminishment of death
when Christians use this term
00:11:15.79\00:11:20.19
because the death
that really matters
00:11:20.22\00:11:22.85
is eternal separation from God
00:11:22.88\00:11:25.32
or what Revelation
calls the second death.
00:11:25.35\00:11:29.12
So here when He
says, Lazarus is asleep,
00:11:29.15\00:11:31.74
it's one of those
misunderstandings,
00:11:31.77\00:11:34.10
you know, Jesus is saying
00:11:34.13\00:11:36.17
he is asleep, they
take him literally.
00:11:36.20\00:11:39.22
Oh, well good,
he's gonna get better.
00:11:39.25\00:11:41.14
But no, Jesus is saying he
has died in the final sense
00:11:41.17\00:11:45.17
that human beings
experience in this life.
00:11:45.20\00:11:48.45
But the resurrection of Lazarus
00:11:48.48\00:11:50.60
proves that the
death as we experience
00:11:50.63\00:11:53.06
it is not the ultimate thing.
00:11:53.09\00:11:54.96
It's not the
thing to be most feared
00:11:54.99\00:11:57.70
and people live their
lives in consciousness of death,
00:11:57.73\00:12:01.99
in almost fear of death.
00:12:02.02\00:12:04.34
And one of the
beauties of Christian faith
00:12:04.37\00:12:05.96
is it takes away
the fear of death.
00:12:05.99\00:12:08.41
Because really we know
that's not the ultimate thing.
00:12:08.44\00:12:10.91
With the resurrection of Jesus,
00:12:10.94\00:12:13.47
something better is
coming for all of us.
00:12:13.50\00:12:16.05
So it takes away
some of the fear of death.
00:12:16.08\00:12:21.31
But just summarizing
this chapter as a whole--
00:12:21.34\00:12:25.96
it goes through the
story and people can read it,
00:12:25.99\00:12:29.16
Jesus greets the sisters again.
00:12:29.19\00:12:30.82
We've have more to say
about that after the break.
00:12:30.85\00:12:33.93
But then He goes and He
raises Lazarus from the dead.
00:12:33.96\00:12:37.06
And as I said,
that's the last straw,
00:12:37.09\00:12:39.49
raising Lazarus from the dead.
00:12:39.52\00:12:40.80
And the next thing that happens,
00:12:40.83\00:12:42.07
you know, the council
00:12:42.10\00:12:43.65
and the council is
trying to kill Jesus.
00:12:43.68\00:12:47.87
So here is the thing,
00:12:47.90\00:12:49.48
the raising of Lazarus is
the seventh action of Jesus
00:12:49.51\00:12:54.23
that creates hostility.
00:12:54.26\00:12:56.69
And as a result of
the raising of Lazarus
00:12:56.72\00:12:59.08
three things happened.
00:12:59.11\00:13:00.63
Mary has increased faith.
00:13:00.66\00:13:03.62
When she sees Jesus
raise Lazarus from the dead,
00:13:03.65\00:13:06.39
her faith comes
up to its fullness.
00:13:06.42\00:13:10.76
On the other hand,
the raising of Lazarus
00:13:10.79\00:13:13.92
creates
hostility in the Sanhedrin
00:13:13.95\00:13:17.10
and even for Judas.
00:13:17.13\00:13:18.88
It seems that Judas
starts turning his head
00:13:18.91\00:13:21.94
to betraying Jesus after this.
00:13:21.97\00:13:23.88
Why exactly would not be clear?
00:13:23.91\00:13:26.59
But more than this, it creates
a lot of inadequate faith.
00:13:26.62\00:13:30.47
Remember the
three types of faith?
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The inadequate faith is the kind
that gets excited by miracles.
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And a huge crowd goes
into Jerusalem saying,
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Jesus raised the dead.
00:13:40.87\00:13:42.39
And when Jesus rides
into Jerusalem the next day,
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huge crowd is waiting for them.
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Are they true believers? No.
00:13:47.52\00:13:49.47
They were excited
about another miracle.
00:13:49.50\00:13:51.72
So the death of
Lazarus creates hostility,
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genuine faith
and inadequate faith.
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All three of those
in chapters 11 and 12.
00:13:57.99\00:14:00.86
Okay, well, we're gonna continue
on this story of Lazarus
00:14:00.89\00:14:04.11
after this short
break, so stay with us.
00:14:04.14\00:14:06.09