Hello, friends,
and welcome again.
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This is "Books of the Book."
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My name is Deyvy Rodriguez,
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and every time we're so happy
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that you can take this time
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and be with us
in this Bible study.
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We're studying
the Gospel of John,
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and with us is Dr. Jon Paulien,
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and he is the Dean of Religion
at Loma Linda, California--
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Loma Linda
University in California.
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And we're so happy that he
is able to share his insights.
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He is a Bible scholar,
very brilliant, by the way.
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Dr. Paulien, welcome
back. You have a doctorate.
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Tell us a little
more about this doctorate,
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what is it, when did you get it?
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Maybe I should tell you what you
don't want to hear. All right.
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And that is that I
started working on my PhD
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before you were born.
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How do you know when I was born?
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You told me the other day,
it was about 30 years ago, and--
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I started 32 years ago,
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and it was at Andrews University
in southwestern Michigan,
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and I began the
program in the fall of 1981
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and finished it in
the spring of 1987.
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So it took about 6 years,
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which is not too bad considering
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that I was working
pretty much full-time
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5 of those 6 years so--
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Andrews
University is in Michigan?
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Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay.
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And a doctorate
basically is three things
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at least at Andrews University.
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You spend time in class work
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where you're
learning from other people
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who know your broad field,
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New Testament, a little
bit of Old Testament in my case
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and then there's
the comprehensive exams
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where you spend 6 to 9
months just reading everything
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you can get your hands on
until it all sounds the same.
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You know, when
you're not learning anything
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more from the reading, you've
probably mastered the field
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and you pass exams
on all those topics
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in the broad field
of New Testament, etc.,
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and then the dissertation,
you go deep into a narrow area,
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in my case, my
dissertation was understanding
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the "7 Trumpets of Revelation,"
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with a particular eye on
how they used the Old Testament
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to bring out the message.
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And so my primary contribution
to world scholarship
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is probably a methodology
for studying illusions
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to the Old Testament
in the Book of Revelation.
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So, if I'm
interested in a doctorate,
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would it be easy for
me to pass your exams?
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Well, in about 15 years, no--
It would take a while though.
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You would--you would want
to get a master's degree first
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and then you would
get into the course work
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for the doctorate
and then come the exams.
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So, yeah, you might be 3-4
years away to where you are now.
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And that's--
that's full-time study.
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That's full-time study.
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Well, today, we
are in Chapter 13
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by the way of
the Gospel of John.
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If you have your
Bibles, you can get them
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and open them with us.
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We are going to be
studying the spiritual gospel,
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as Dr. Paulien says it.
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So, Dr. Paulien, you
said that now we are in the--
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in the private
ministry of Jesus. Right.
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With Chapter 13,
you've made a transition.
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Up until Chapter 12, Jesus
is ministering in public places.
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And-- He's not
much of a teacher there.
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It's more what he
does, sometimes negotiations,
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conversations
with different people,
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but here, from Chapter
13 through 17, it's private.
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He's with his own disciples
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and it's more of
a teaching context.
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He is sharing things
that he wants them to know.
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In particular, here in private,
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he is preparing them
for life without him.
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So, in a sense, he is
preparing the next generation.
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He is the first generation.
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They are the next generation,
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and then, John is
directed to those who follow,
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those who don't know
any disciples like us
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and who simply
need to make our way
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in the world through the words
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that John has left for us. Okay.
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So, which verses
are we studying here
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and where do we pick up?
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We'll be
studying verses 1 to 31,
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in Chapter 13, of
the Gospel of John.
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And we won't cover every verse,
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but we will be able to cover,
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I think, some of
the main points here.
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I would point out
that you're definitely
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in the Shadow of the Cross here,
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in Chapters 13 through 17.
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Jesus knows He's
going straight to the cross.
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Disciples probably are
not yet sure what's going on,
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but it's clear, He's going away
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and so they feel like
they're about to lose Him.
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They're not entirely
sure why in this gospel.
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So, the Shadow
of the Cross is over
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the upper room here throughout,
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and the purpose
really of writing all this
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is for that second generation,
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who has to live without
Jesus and without the disciples.
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After John's
death, Chapters 13 to 17
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give the solid
spiritual grounding
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of that everyone
needs to relate to Jesus.
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So we're going to
spend several programs
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on this section of the gospel.
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So you have, first of
all, the foot washing story
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and then there's a discourse
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at the end of 13 and Chapter 14,
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and then, Jesus says,
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"Let's go," and
they're gonna go to the garden
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where He will be betrayed,
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but I guess when they get up
from the table like we often do,
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people still hang
around and talk, and so--
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For Chapters 15 and 16,
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they kind of got up to go,
but Jesus keeps on talking.
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The interesting thing
about this whole section,
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it's not a coherent
sermon or conversation.
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It's almost as if
John was collecting
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bits and pieces of
all kinds of good stuff
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that Matthew, Mark,
and Luke didn't share.
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Nearly all of
this is new to John,
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and so, it's
almost like sound bites
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like a highlight film
of some of the best sayings
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that Jesus said that Matthew,
Mark, and Luke didn't notice.
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So if you try to
read Chapters 13 to 17
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through as a coherent
narrative, it's hard to follow.
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But it seems almost like
collecting bits and pieces
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that they go together.
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So why don't we go to
Chapter 13 and verses 1 to 3
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setting that up
in ancient times,
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of course, people
didn't have showers,
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you know, and bath tubs
and all that kind of stuff.
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So most people were
pretty accustomed to dirt,
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and if they took a bath,
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if they washed
everything and we're clean,
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which they would do before
going to a banquet for example,
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then, walking to the
banquet, it's very dusty,
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and so the feet would get dirty.
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They'd just have sandals
on, some would even go barefoot.
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So when you get to
the place of the banquet,
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you need to have a foot washing
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in order to be truly
clean for the banquet.
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So that's the
setting behind this
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and foot washing was
normally done by slaves.
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It was not something
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that a person of any kind
of status would do for another.
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So that's the setting for
what Jesus was about to do
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and totally shock the
disciples. Verses 1 to 3.
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"Now, before the
Feast of the Passover,
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when Jesus knew
that his hour had come
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that he should depart
from this world to the Father,
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having loved his own
who were in the world,
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he loved them to the
end, and supper being ended,
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the devil having already put in
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into the heart
of Judas Iscariot,
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Simon's son, to betray him,
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Jesus knowing that
the Father had given
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all things into his hands,
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and that he had come from God
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and was going to God."
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And Verse 4, "Rose from supper,
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and laid aside his garments,
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took a towel
and girded himself."
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Now, these verses are very,
very deeply meaningful to me.
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First of all,
Jesus knows who He is.
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He knows that He is God
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come down in the
flesh at this point.
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He may not have known
that completely as a child,
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but He certainly knows it here.
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He is conscious of who He is.
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He is also conscious
of who the disciples are.
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The disciples are a mess,
and one of those disciples
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is right now thinking
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of how he is going to
conveniently betray Jesus,
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and yet Jesus
doesn't pick and choose.
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Well, here's the good
disciples, here's the bad ones.
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No. He washes all those feet.
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He knows what He is doing,
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and to me this is so precious
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in that He doesn't
turn away from Judas,
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but He washes Judas' feet too.
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He treats them all
the same even though some,
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at least one, is
about to betray Him
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and He does this
conscious of the cross
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and conscious that
He is God in the flesh.
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If I'm going to the
cross and I know it,
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I'm thinking
about me and Jesus in--
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in facing all of that is
thinking about his disciples.
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That's amazing.
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And the whole point
is, knowing that He's God,
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He is now going to
demonstrate what God is like.
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There are so many people
that think of God as punitive,
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as arbitrary, as
severe, you know, judgmental,
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and here you have the
clearest picture of God
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that we will ever see.
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God in the flesh
at a moment of crisis
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when He's about to be
abused by just about everybody,
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sits down to wash
the feet of disciples
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who don't even care.
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They're all talking about,
who's going to be the greatest,
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you know, and
the greatest of all,
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of course, would be Judas
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and He washes
their feet nevertheless.
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This is a God,
who keeps on loving,
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keeps on giving no
matter what we've done
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and for me, that's important,
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because for people who
have been afraid of God,
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people who feel
insecure about their faith
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to realize what Jesus did here,
put yourself in Judas' place,
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Jesus would wash your feet too.
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Have you done anything
as grievous as Judas did?
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If the answer is no,
I haven't gone that far.
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Then, there's hope for you.
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Jesus would wash your
feet too, right now, today.
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And that's the
message that comes through
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so powerfully here.
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And that's very encouraging,
verse 1, it says that,
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"He loved them to the end,"
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and that statement right
there is just so powerful.
00:11:05.40\00:11:08.65
Even to--on the cross,
He's thinking of them. Right.
00:11:08.68\00:11:11.55
He's thinking of His mother.
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He's thinking of
the beloved disciple
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even on the cross and
that's not so much to say,
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boy, you should be like
that although we can aspire to,
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but it's telling
us what God is like,
00:11:22.81\00:11:26.20
that God is other centered,
that God is us centered,
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even in the midst of
all the complications
00:11:31.33\00:11:33.29
the universe might present.
00:11:33.32\00:11:35.63
In the midst of
that, Peter resists,
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he's the only one that resists
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and it shows you the
two sides of resistance.
00:11:41.41\00:11:44.06
You have the
rebellious side of Judas
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who doesn't really care.
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He's going to go out
there and do what he wants to do
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and then you have
the true believer,
00:11:50.47\00:11:52.33
Peter, the ultra conservative.
00:11:52.36\00:11:54.39
He will follow Jesus anywhere
except to have his feet washed.
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What's up with that?
00:12:00.36\00:12:01.58
Somebody will go
anywhere for Jesus,
00:12:01.61\00:12:04.23
but doesn't
want his feet washed.
00:12:04.26\00:12:07.06
It's a pride thing.
00:12:07.09\00:12:09.45
Even in our eagerness
and devotion to follow Jesus,
00:12:09.48\00:12:13.98
sometimes we're doing it
ultimately for ourselves.
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We want to be there with Jesus
00:12:16.89\00:12:18.29
when he's crowned
King of the Universe,
00:12:18.32\00:12:19.96
you see, and so, this
subtle human side comes in.
00:12:19.99\00:12:24.91
And Peter says, "No, you won't--
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you know, no way in all eternity
00:12:27.49\00:12:30.76
is kind of the
meaning of the Greek there
00:12:30.79\00:12:32.53
that Jesus could
no way in all eternity
00:12:32.56\00:12:34.25
you're gonna
wash my feet, you see.
00:12:34.28\00:12:37.23
Peter comes
face-to-face with the fact
00:12:37.26\00:12:41.94
that the gospel is free,
but in order to have the gospel,
00:12:41.97\00:12:47.09
you need to come in humility,
00:12:47.12\00:12:50.00
the key to receiving the
gospel is admitting our need
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and that's where
some of us fall short.
00:12:54.58\00:12:57.72
The one thing we don't
want to admit is our need.
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The one thing, you know,
how many marriages have gone on,
00:13:00.05\00:13:03.41
no one ever used the
phrase, "I'm sorry," you see.
00:13:03.44\00:13:06.39
There's
something about us to say
00:13:06.42\00:13:08.00
"I'm sorry, to truly
admit, need to admit mistakes."
00:13:08.03\00:13:12.19
It seems to go deep against
the grain for human beings
00:13:12.22\00:13:15.77
and Peter, the most faithful
disciple of Jesus in many ways
00:13:15.80\00:13:20.77
falls into this
trap, where he says,
00:13:20.80\00:13:22.74
"No way, you're
not washing my feet."
00:13:22.77\00:13:25.81
And Jesus is about to teach him
00:13:25.84\00:13:27.37
that great lesson
of humility-- Yeah.
00:13:27.40\00:13:30.01
And he-- Here he is so proud,
00:13:30.04\00:13:32.06
and Jesus is going to
teach him that lesson of--
00:13:32.09\00:13:35.36
contrary to his character.
00:13:35.39\00:13:37.84
Let me say one thing.
00:13:37.87\00:13:38.98
I mean, when you
hear something like this,
00:13:39.01\00:13:40.76
there's a temptation to say,
oh, I got to be more humble.
00:13:40.79\00:13:43.15
"No." You can't produce it.
00:13:43.18\00:13:45.90
Human beings can't produce it.
00:13:45.93\00:13:48.39
Humility is a miracle of God,
00:13:48.42\00:13:50.94
and if you recognize in
your own heart right now,
00:13:50.97\00:13:53.79
you know my pride is right
out there, my humility is zero.
00:13:53.82\00:13:59.44
The only way I know to
deal with is take it to God,
00:13:59.47\00:14:02.02
just say, "Lord,
help me to do that
00:14:02.05\00:14:05.42
which I can't do myself.
00:14:05.45\00:14:06.97
Help me to totally
yield myself to you
00:14:07.00\00:14:09.96
to be used by you
any way you wish."
00:14:09.99\00:14:12.10
If you ask Him to do that,
He will do it for you. Amen.
00:14:12.13\00:14:16.56
Well, friends,
we're going to continue
00:14:16.59\00:14:17.72
on the Gospel of John in
Chapter 13, stay with us.
00:14:17.75\00:14:20.98