Hello, friends and welcome back
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to this program
"Books of the Book."
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My name is Deyvy Rodriquez
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and I am so happy
that you can take this time
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and study the
Word of God with us.
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If you have a
Bible or if you don't,
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go ahead and grab it
and turn your pages with us
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in the Gospel of John
and we are in Chapter 15.
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With us is Dr. Jon Paulien
and my name is Deyvy Rodriquez,
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together we will be
studying this gospel,
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at least portion
of it in this program.
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And Dr. Paulien
is a Bible scholar
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and he comes all the way
from Loma Linda, California.
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And again, Dr. Paulien,
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I have been blessed
to study this gospel
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and you call it
a spiritual gospel.
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And as I continue
to learn more and more
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I understand why its a
spiritual because you say that
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some of these characters
have a more of a parable.
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And so tell us before
we get into the chapter,
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you where or what do
you do at Loma Linda?
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I am the dean of
the School of Religion
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and so our mission
is to integrate religion
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into all the different
curricula in the school,
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medicine, dentistry, pharmacy
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and that's a very creative
and unique way of doing religion
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integrating it
into science or so.
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It's quite a challenge
but it's also very exciting.
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And you said earlier
that you are responsible
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of organizing
the religion classes
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so that each student
of Loma Linda University
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will take at least
some religion courses.
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At least one class every year.
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Okay. Yeah.
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So we have about
5,000 different students
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taking classes from
us in any given year.
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Wow. All right.
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Well, we are in Chapter 15.
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Where are we in this
chapter because in previous one
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they were-- Jesus was giving
discourse in the upper room
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but now we are in
Chapter 15. Right.
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Well, Chapters 13 through
17 are all connected narrative.
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It starts with the foot washing
and then after Judas leaves,
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Jesus begins to
talk to the disciples,
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does a little bit of
debate back and forth.
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So through Chapter 14, Jesus
is discussing with the disciples
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but then at the
end of Chapter 14,
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there's an interesting marker.
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If you go to
the very last verse,
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the very last part
of the verse, 14:31,
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Jesus says, "Come
now, let us leave."
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And so that sounds like
they are gonna get up and go.
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But then in Chapter
15, He continues talking
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and you're saying, well,
are they talking on the way?
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Is this somewhere else?
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But then you get to Chapter 18
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which is the end of this
farewell discourse part of John.
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In 18:1, it says, "When
he had finished praying,
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Jesus left with His disciples
and crossed the Kidron Valley.
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On the other side
there was an olive grove,
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and He and His
disciples went into it."
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So Chapters 15, 16 and 17 which
includes a long prayerof Jesus,
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none of that is
happening in Gethsemane,
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rather it's happening
probably still in the upper room
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and it's after
Jesus prays in Chapter 17.
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Then they go out
and go off to there.
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Now you notice He
doesn't say Gethsemane,
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just says an olive grove
and that's where they went to.
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So at the end of Chapter 14,
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it seems like they
get up from the table,
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they are ready to go
but like people often do,
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you get up to leave
then you kind of linger
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and talk some more and
one thing leads to another
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and one story leads to another
and couple of hours can go by.
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That seems to be
what has happened here.
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After all, if the
disciples have the sense
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and Jesus has the sense
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this is their last
calm meeting together,
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they kind of doesn't want to
make it last as long as possible
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even though it's late at night
by now, they lingered there.
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So Chapter 15 really
continues on Chapter 14,
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except that in Chapter 14
there's a lot of back and forth.
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Disciples raise objections,
ask questions, make comments
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and Jesus is going
back and forth with them.
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We didn't point any of
that out in our last program
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but if you read the
chapter you will see it.
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One another thing we
didn't do in Chapter 14
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is note the passages
about the Holy Spirit.
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In 14, 15 and 16 are
some of the strongest mentions
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of the Holy Spirit in
the entire New Testament.
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So what we are going to do
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is do Chapters 14,
15 and 16 separately
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and then we gonna go
back and do a whole program
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just on the Holy
Spirit in the Gospel of John.
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Okay. So where are we reading?
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I think we should
go to Chapter 15 then
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and we can read
verses 1 through 8.
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"I am the true vine,
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and My Father
is the vinedresser.
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Every branch in Me that does
not bear fruit He takes away,
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and every branch that
bears fruit He prunes,
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that it may bear more fruit.
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You are already
clean because of the word
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which I have spoken to you.
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Abide in Me, and I in you.
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As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself,
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unless it abides in
the vine, neither can you,
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unless you abide in Me.
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I am the vine,
you are the branches.
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He who abides in Me, and
I in him, bears much fruit,
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for without Me
you can do nothing.
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If anyone does not abide in Me,
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he is cast out as a
branch and is withered,
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and they gather them and
throw them into the fire,
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and they are burned.
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If you abide in Me,
and My words abide in you,
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you will ask what you desire,
and it shall be done for you.
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By this My Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit,
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so you will be My disciples."
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So here we have an analogy.
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As we've mentioned many times
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the Gospel of John
doesn't have parables
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in the way that
Matthew, Mark and Luke do
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but the closest you get to a
parable is may be right here.
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This analogy we could call
it of the vine and the branches.
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Grape vine
basically has two uses.
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You can use it to
produce food and drink,
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the grapes and juice and
wine or you can use it for fire.
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You see, the
branches of a dead vine
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can be use to start a
fire and keep people warm.
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So there's two uses.
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Now in an analogy like
this the food and drink
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would be positive
if you stay in Jesus.
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You know, if you
remain connected to the vine,
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the fruit would be
produced as productive,
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this is a positive thing.
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But if you don't,
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if you get separated
from the vine, you dry out
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and all that you're good for is
the fire now to be used as fuel.
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So the fuel would be
negative type of approach here.
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So Jesus uses an analogy.
He's not the first to do this.
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Plenty of times
in the Old Testament
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you have analogies
of Israel as a vine.
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The interesting thing
is in the Old Testament
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all of those
analogies are negative.
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There's never a positive thing.
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So when Jesus brings this out,
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probably the
readers are wondering,
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you know, where is the dark side
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and the dark side of
course is the implied threat
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that if they don't
stay connected to Jesus,
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they will end up
useless and be destroyed.
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Now most Christians through
the years have come to this
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and thought of
themselves as the branches.
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I think that's a helpful
devotional approach to this text
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the idea of
remaining connected to Jesus.
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But as you look at this
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from the perspective
of the original disciples,
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Jesus isn't
talking directly to us,
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He is talking to His
disciples and He's saying,
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"If you remain in Me,
you will bear much fruit."
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And in the light of
the whole second generation
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theology of the Gospel of
John this becomes significant.
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We connect to Jesus
through the disciples.
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Unlike the
disciples we don't have
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the direct
connection with Jesus.
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We don't see Him.
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We don't hear Him.
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We don't touch Him.
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So we have our
connection through the disciples
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and we connect to the
disciples through the word.
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So these words, the gospels,
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the Gospel of John is our
connection to the disciples
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and through them to Jesus.
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So when He says, "I am the vine,
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you are the
branches if you remain in Me,
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you will bring
forth much fruit."
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We would be the fruit
that is recognized here.
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You mean that we would be
the fruits of the disciples.
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Of the disciples' efforts, yeah.
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Disciples witnessing through
what they learned of Jesus
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writing these
things down etcetera.
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Now we were talking
a little bit earlier,
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you were saying but you know,
if you or someone were preaching
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or holding a class
and you bring this up
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that will make them
very uncomfortable and so on,
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feel like you
are attacking them.
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I just want to tell you,
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devotional
readings are perfectly fine.
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There's nothing wrong
with the devotional reading
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because I-- and I don't
bring my scholarship to church
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or to class of people who
are doing devotional studies.
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Devotional study is when
you sit down with the word
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and you lay yourself before God
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and say, God, what do You
want to say to me today? Okay.
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And the Holy Spirit can use
any turn of phrase in the Bible
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to say something to
me that I need to hear.
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The problem is
when the only things
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we get out of the Bible
are devotional readings,
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we tend to end up in
the same place all the time.
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In another words we
only learn from the Bible
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what we already know.
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The beauty of an
exegetical reading
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like we've been
doing together here
00:10:31.37\00:10:33.63
is that the Bible takes you
where it wants to go, you see.
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You are not limited
to what you knew before
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but you can learn
new things from the Bible
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because the exegetical approach
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points you to things
that you didn't see before.
00:10:44.23\00:10:46.87
And when we realize that
the vine and the branches
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actually had a
different use originally,
00:10:49.42\00:10:52.26
it gives us an added
understanding that is helpful.
00:10:52.29\00:10:56.08
And it's applicable
if I read the verse,
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you know, if I
abide in Christ then,
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you know, I am the
branch, He is the vine.
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Without Christ I personally
can do nothing. Right.
00:11:04.37\00:11:07.68
And that would
still be applicable to me.
00:11:07.71\00:11:10.69
And then the fruits would be
like the fruits of the spirit.
00:11:10.72\00:11:12.76
If you stay close to Christ then
you will be a better person.
00:11:12.79\00:11:16.07
And that's perfectly fine.
00:11:16.10\00:11:18.31
Even if that wasn't
Jesus' original intention
00:11:18.34\00:11:20.70
or the disciple's original
understanding it works well.
00:11:20.73\00:11:24.37
And God has used that
reading very powerfully
00:11:24.40\00:11:27.75
but when we take the
second look to this gospel
00:11:27.78\00:11:31.03
that is always taking us
00:11:31.06\00:11:32.26
a little bit different
place than we expected.
00:11:32.29\00:11:34.81
We can see that this gives
00:11:34.84\00:11:37.21
a powerful message to
the second generation.
00:11:37.24\00:11:40.23
People who didn't have the kind
of direct connection with Jesus.
00:11:40.26\00:11:44.23
How do you connect with Jesus?
00:11:44.73\00:11:46.13
To a lot of people you
say, "Well, remain in Jesus."
00:11:46.16\00:11:50.13
Okay. What does that mean?
00:11:50.36\00:11:53.28
How do I do that, you know?
00:11:53.31\00:11:55.51
Where is He that
I can remain in Him?
00:11:55.54\00:11:57.69
And when people
really try to get practical
00:11:57.72\00:12:01.27
it becomes
difficult but when you read it
00:12:01.30\00:12:04.20
this way you realize,
now, we remain in Jesus
00:12:04.23\00:12:07.20
by connecting to the disciples
00:12:07.23\00:12:09.35
through the words
that they left behind.
00:12:09.38\00:12:11.81
We remain in Jesus
by studying His words
00:12:11.84\00:12:14.86
and by obeying them,
by carrying them out.
00:12:14.89\00:12:17.80
And that's what you
see in verses 9 and 10.
00:12:17.83\00:12:20.37
If you would take a look.
00:12:20.40\00:12:22.99
"As the Father loved
Me, I have also loved you,
00:12:23.02\00:12:26.25
abide in My love.
00:12:26.28\00:12:28.24
If you keep My commandments,
you will abide in My love,
00:12:28.27\00:12:31.44
just as I have kept
My Father's commandments
00:12:31.47\00:12:34.34
and abide in His love."
00:12:34.37\00:12:36.37
So Jesus connects to the father
in this loving relationship.
00:12:36.40\00:12:39.68
We have a loving
relationship with Him
00:12:39.71\00:12:42.15
through hearing His
words and obeying what He says.
00:12:42.18\00:12:45.70
So this remaining in
Jesus is not something we can do
00:12:45.73\00:12:49.42
like you and I are
talking to each other here.
00:12:49.45\00:12:51.58
You know, we can
touch each other, right?
00:12:51.61\00:12:53.42
Just like that. Okay.
00:12:53.45\00:12:55.55
I know you are
there. This is real.
00:12:55.58\00:12:57.77
I can get my head
around this very easily
00:12:57.80\00:13:01.41
but to remain in Jesus,
someone I've never seen,
00:13:01.44\00:13:03.96
heard or touched,
that's a bit tougher.
00:13:03.99\00:13:06.93
And this gives us
a practical idea that
00:13:06.96\00:13:09.55
now we remain in Jesus by
staying connected to these words
00:13:09.58\00:13:13.55
so as we study these words,
00:13:13.61\00:13:15.01
as we do it what we
are doing right here,
00:13:15.04\00:13:16.71
we are connecting to
Jesus in a very real way.
00:13:16.74\00:13:19.96
And the Apostle John
even said what we have seen
00:13:19.99\00:13:23.43
and what we have
heard this we preach to you.
00:13:23.46\00:13:26.26
So it is that you are saying
that its through the testimonies
00:13:26.29\00:13:29.00
of that first
generation-- Exactly.
00:13:29.03\00:13:31.64
Who are disciples who did see
Jesus, they saw His miracles.
00:13:31.67\00:13:35.64
It is through their testimony
00:13:36.97\00:13:38.30
that we are then the
fruit of that testimony.
00:13:38.33\00:13:41.99
Beautifully put. Beautifully--
00:13:42.02\00:13:43.41
Is that how I
understand it? Absolutely.
00:13:43.44\00:13:45.33
See, that's I think
exactly what John is saying
00:13:45.36\00:13:48.28
that through this
book we are connected
00:13:48.31\00:13:50.76
to the
testimony of the disciples
00:13:50.79\00:13:52.47
who had a living, physical,
real connection with Jesus.
00:13:52.50\00:13:56.43
And that
relationship, our relationship,
00:13:56.46\00:13:58.77
the one we have with Jesus
00:13:58.80\00:14:00.56
and the relationship
the disciples had with Jesus
00:14:00.59\00:14:03.49
would still be the same one.
00:14:03.52\00:14:04.90
It's the same in quality but it
takes place in a different way.
00:14:04.93\00:14:09.95
We don't have that advantage
of having that personal,
00:14:09.98\00:14:12.86
direct physical
relationship with Jesus
00:14:12.89\00:14:15.60
instead we relate to Him
through the words that are here.
00:14:15.63\00:14:20.03
And through the Holy Spirit,
the quality of that relationship
00:14:20.06\00:14:23.45
is as good and often even better
00:14:23.48\00:14:25.63
than the one they could
have with Him in the flesh.
00:14:25.66\00:14:29.76
Well, friends we are going
to continue on this gospel,
00:14:29.79\00:14:32.51
again we are in Chapter 15,
00:14:32.54\00:14:34.39
so stay with us
after this break.
00:14:34.42\00:14:36.41