Episode Transcript
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I feel free to turn with me
if you like, but to John,
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Chapter Seven, Verse Twenty Five,
and I'm going to be reading into the
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next chapter, through eight, verse
thirty. I'll tell you now that I'm
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I'm struggling a little bit knowing how
to approach the section and actually much of
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John. There are so many good
ways to think about this material. There's
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things in which these long speeches or
sermons or teachings, how you might want
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to think about that, that Jesus
is giving, and it's very I'm finding,
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at least at the moment, difficult
to break them up in a way
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that is helpful. So I've not
preached through John Before. I hope you'll
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be patient with me as we maybe
allow a little bit of experimentation as we
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go forward, not with God's word, but just with perhaps the form in
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which these are in the order in
which things are presented. Nevertheless, I
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sort of always default to reading a
lot of scripture and trying to be really
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clear about it. So that's what
we'll do today and and I'm anticipating in
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the coming weeks as well. John, and now I'm getting into it a
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little bit. I will read it
a moment, but just to prepare you.
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One of the things that John Does
and Jesus does is he he brings
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up these themes again and again and
again. I'm it's not the same as
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Romans, where you have this sort
of one thing always leading to the next.
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There are things that are recapitulated or
brought back again, and what I
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want to do is help you to
see those things so that as we read
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the Scripture and as you read on
your own on that, you will learn
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to see them for yourselves as as
we go through this. So that's my
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intention going forward. So let's go
ahead and read now John Chapter Seven,
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Verse Twenty Five, and I'll read
through chapter eight, verse thirty. I
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will be skipping the section at the
beginning of Chapter Eight and I will explain
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that a little bit later. Like
I said, lots of lots to handle
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here, but we'll do our best. All right, let's give let's let's
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give our attention to God's word.
John Seven, verse Twenty Five. Some
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of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, is this not the man they seek
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to kill? Or speaking of Jesus? There and here he is speaking openly
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and they say nothing to him.
Can it be that the authorities really know
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that this is the Christ, but
we know where this man comes from,
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and when the Christ appears, no
one will know where he comes from.
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So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught
in the temple, you know me and
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you know where I come from,
but I have not come of my own
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accord. He who sent me is
true, and him you do not know.
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I know him, for I come
from him and he sent me.
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So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on
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him because his hour had not yet
come. Yet many of the people believed
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in him. They said, when
the Christ appears, will he do more
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signs than this man has done?
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things
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about him and the chief priests and
the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
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Jesus then said, I will be
with you a little longer and then I
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am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will
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not find me. I where I
am, you cannot come. The Jew
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said to one another. Where does
this man intend to go that we will
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not find him? Does he intend
to go out to the dispersion among the
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Greeks and teach the Greeks what does
he mean by saying you will seek me
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and you will not find me,
and where I am you cannot come?
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On the last day of the feast, the Great Day, Jesus stood up
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and cried out if anyone thirsts,
let him come to me and drink.
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Whoever believes in me, as the
scriptures has said, out of his heart
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will flow rivet rivers of living water. Now this he said about the spirit
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whom those who believed in him were
to receive, for as yet the spirit
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had not yet been or had not
been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
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And when they heard those are these
words, some of the people said
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this really is the prophet, others
said this is the Christ, but some
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said is the Christ to come from
Galilee? Has Not the Scripture said that
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Christ comes from the offspring of David
and comes from Bethel, him, the
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village where David was. So there
was a division among the people over him.
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Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on
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him. The officers then came to
the chief priests and the Pharisees, who
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said to them, why did you
not bring him? The officers answered,
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no one ever spoke like this man. The Pharisees answered them. Have you
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also been deceived? have any of
the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
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But this crowd, but this crowd
that does not know the law,
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is a cursed Nicodemus, who had
gone to him before and who was one
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of them, said to them.
Does our law judge a man without first
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giving him a hearing and learning what
he does? They replied, are you
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from Galilee to search and see that
no prophet arises from Galilee? Now,
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Chapter Eight, verse twelve. Again
Jesus spoke to them, saying I am
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the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will not walk in darkness but
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will have the light of life.
So the Pharisees said to him. You're
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bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony
is not true. Jesus answered. Even
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if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I
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know where I came from and where
I am going, but you do not
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know where I come from or where
I am going. You judge according to
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the flesh. I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge,
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my judgment is true, for it
is not I alone who judge, but
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I and the father who sent me. In your law, it is written
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that the testimony of two people is
true. I am the one who bears
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witness about myself, and the father
who sent me bears witness about me.
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They said to him, therefore,
where is your father? Jesus answered you.
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Neither. You know, neither me
nor my father. If you knew
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me, you would know my father
also. These he words. He spoke
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in the Treasury, as he taught
in the temple, but no one arrested
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him because his hour had not yet
come. So he said to them again,
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I am going away and you will
seek me and you will die in
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your sin. where I am going, you cannot come. So the Jews
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said to him. Will he kill
himself, since he says where I am
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going, you cannot come. He
said to them. You are from below,
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I am from above. You are
of this world. I am not
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of this world. I told you
that you would I and your sins,
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for unless you believe that I am
he, you will die in your sins.
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So they said to him. Who
Are you? Jesus said to him,
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just what I have been telling you
from the beginning. I have much
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to say about you and much to
judge, but he who sent me is
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true, and I declare to the
world what I have heard from him.
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They did not understand that he had
been talking to them about the father.
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So Jesus said to them, when
you have lifted up the son of man,
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then you will know that I am
he and that I do nothing on
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my own authority but speak just as
the father taught me, and he who
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sent me is with me. He
has not left me alone, for I
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always do the things that are pleasing
to him. As he was saying these
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things, many believed in him a
man. So I hope you can see
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why I read this long passage.
I'm Jesus begins by saying there are these
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questions surrounding Jesus. Who is this
person? They think they know where he's
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from. He's from Galilee, but
even that they're confused about sort of Jesus's
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physical or his incarnation. The place
of his incarnation is at Bethlehem. Is
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a Galilee. They're confused even on
that point. They are even more confused
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about these things that he's saying.
I am not of this world, I
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am from above and where. They're
not confused. And they hear that he
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is saying things about his divinity.
They are mad, they want to kill
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him, they want to arrest him, and these are themes that Jesus brings
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up in the beginning, he develops
and then he returns to again at the
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end of this section. I wrote. I'm sorry, I read for I
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know where I came from. I
know where I'm going. This language about
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that Jesus comes from the father that
Jesus is sent from the fathers, is
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our truths that I want to spend
some time on in the next coming weeks.
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Who is Jesus? That's the question
of of this passage. And as
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some reject him, you know what
he says. They die in their sins,
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and those who accept him, those
who trust him and believe in him,
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he promises eternal life, forgiveness of
sins. I am the light of
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the world, the Lamb of God. Now, one of the things that
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it's helpful to know about the gospel
of John as we begin to approach this
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section and then also reflect on things
that we've considered in chapter five and six,
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is that John is one of the
best books. I'll say it's the
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best book anywhere of all time for
you to learn and understand the doctrine of
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the train unity, for you to
understand who Jesus is as the son in
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relation to the father? Did you
hear that language over and over and over
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again? Perhaps there are things that
Jesus said that you went what? How
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could that be true? How can
he be denying, for example, that
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he's able to do this thing or
that thing while he's God, or how
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can he say that he and the
father have the kind of relationship that he
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describes? We'll talk about that.
We'll talk about that in detail, because
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one of the things that John is
telling us is that it's very important for
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us to understand these things. The
doctrine of the Trinity, what we understand
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about God's nature is father, son
and Holy Spirit, is one of the
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things that is hinted at in the
Old Testament, like many things in the
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Old Testament, but is revealed in
this very full way in the New Testament
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and one of its greatest expressions,
perhaps the greatest expression, is here in
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the gospel of John. So it's
worth spending time on this, especially since
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this is the book we are are
working through and trying to understand better who
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god is and what he's doing in
our passage is an example of this.
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All though, the language about father
and son. Notice how this question about
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who are you, Jesus, is
only answered in reference to his father.
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Jesus is understanding of himself and his
expression or his teaching about himself is in
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this language. In this way,
you might go back to the beginning of
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John and remember this is how it
all started. John wants us to understand
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that our eternal life is to be
understood in the person of Christ, and
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the person and work of Christ is
to be understood in relationship to the father.
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That's what it means to be a
Christian. John One in the beginning
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was the word that speaking of Jesus, and the word was with God,
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and the word was God. Those
say two different things and both of them
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are true. He was in the
beginning with God. All things were made
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through him and without him was not
anything made. That was made in him
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was life, and the life was
the light of men. The light shines
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in the darkness and the darkness does
not overcome it. One of the things
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that we will be tempted to do
when it comes to really anything. Any
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doctrine in found in scripture, but
especially this one concerning the doctrine of God
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or what we might say, feel
aology proper than and and the trinity in
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particular, is that it will be
very tempting to always want to sort of
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tie it down to just one thing. What's the one thing that I need
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to know to get this right?
And I'm not saying that simplification isn't important,
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and we do say things. God
is one in three persons. That's
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about as short as you can get
it. But there will always that you
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will never be able to say one
thing that says everything, and that will
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be somewhat frustrating to you. If
understanding God as he has revealed himself in
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this way is is new. There's
a lot of information, a lot of
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data points, you might say,
a lot of things to take in and
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put together. How does it all
fit? Well, might be encouraging to
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you to know two things. One, you're not alone. This is something
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that every Christian works with and in
the history of the Christian church God has
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given people, I'm bright minds too, and and and and perseverance to study
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the word and to come to greater
and Claire, greater clarity about this.
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And as certain heretics have risen up
and to deny the central truths of scripture.
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God has empowered his church to learn
better and teach more clearly the things
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that are in the scriptures. And
so, for example, when we recite
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the apostles creed and the nicene creed, one of the things that we're doing
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is we're standing upon the theological work
that has gone before us. We're not
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doing it uncritically, we're not doing
it in a way that is not submissive
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to the word of God. The
word of God is over it all and
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determines it all. But nevertheless,
I'm trying to say is we're not having
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to totally start from scratch. I'm
God has preserved by his spirit of faithful
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witness in the world that we might
learn and grow im not just here in
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this body but even across a time
as well, learning from people in the
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past, walking together in the Lord
in these things. The second thing that
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I think is encouraging, and is, I think, even more encouraging than
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what I just said, is that
it shouldn't be any surprise to you that
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you can't wrap your minds around who
God is. If good, if understanding,
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the Lord and may one who made
everything in this world and all that
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you say see in it and experience
and it simply by saying things like let
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there be light. If you could
just sort of understand that, by a
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person on one day saying you know, the one thing you need to know
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is this. Okay, I got
it, we wouldn't be worth shipping the
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true God. We struggle to understand
the most basic things about math or philosophy
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or basic skills, car mechanics or
any I could list a lot of things
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for myself, but you have your
own issues all together. We struggle right
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with not Gregory of Nancy ensus makes
this great point. He says we don't
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even understand our own nature, why
we do the things we do, where
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we came from, exactly how everything
is working. People talk about this all
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the time, especially in an age
that's filled with neuroscience. You know,
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what is the mind? Where is
it held? I mean these are great
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we don't understand ourselves and we're daily
living out our own lives. What makes
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us think that with, you know, one or two theological punches that will
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have, will be able to knock
this problem down and be able to go
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home? It just doesn't work like
that. God is incomprehensible. His ways
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are not our ways. He is
far beyond anything that we can imagine,
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and so we approached this topic with
humility, both wanting to learn the lessons
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that he is teaching us, not
running away from them in false modesty or
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pride or something like that. We
submit ourselves to the lessons and yet we
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remember who our teacher is and we
remember that the things that he is telling
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us are awesome and beyond us in
many ways, certainly beyond what he he
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gives to us. So with that
perspective, as we approach these very weighty
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issues, remembering that we are coming
to them because they are a benefit to
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us, because God himself has revealed
to them to us. Let's look at
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some of the particulars of this passage. I'm going to start by briefly mentioning
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two and then mind my way into
the third. So the two are just
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reminders of what we've some two things. We've already covered two themes that come
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up in this passage and have come
up before and we'll continue to come up
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in the next few chapters. The
first one is that the world and Jesus
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are at odds. Says if you
knew who I was, you would know
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who the father was, because I
am from above and you are not.
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You are from below. You are
of the world. I am not of
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the world. And this comes up
in a lot of ways. I won't
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get into it again. We've talked
about this before. Just to say one
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sentence. The world either ignores Jesus
or wants to rule him. The True
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Disciples of Jesus follow him, they
take his lead. The world does not.
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The world either says we don't want
anything to do with you, or
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they say find you're here, but
on our terms. Jesus in the world
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are at odds. Number two.
The second truth that we fought about and
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we I want to recall your minds, is that the world comes to these
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conclusions about Jesus because they judge him
by appearances. Right. This is what
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we thought about last time. or
Jesus says don't judge by appearances, but
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this is exactly what the world does. They look at Jesus through their blindness
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and bad assumptions. Right, you
heard about this last time in here too.
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We he's from Galilee. We know
who this guy is. How could
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he could he be the Christ?
How could he be the Christ? And
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nicodemus right screws up his courage a
little bit, comes out as one of
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these leaders, one of the Jewish
leaders, and he comes out he says,
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hold on, guys, maybe two
or three witnesses before we come to
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any conclusions, Hark's conclusions about who
Jesus is. And what's their response?
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They say, good point, Nicodemus. No, they say, are you
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from Galilee? To right, they
attack him and they accuse him of being
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this backwater whatever, that Jesus that
they're assuming Jesus is too. We know
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him. Oh, are you like
him now? Just you know, so
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much for being a leader of the
Jews, Nicodemus right. So they are
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assuming all kinds of things about him. Their way of understanding. This is
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true of all of the world,
not just the Jewish leaders and the people
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who are all mixed up at this
time. The world's way of understanding itself
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and the ways in which it lives
and the God who made it all is
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inconsistent. It's full of blind spots
and sin and error. When the light
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shines, people in the world hide
in the darkness. All this to say
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their theology is bad. It's really
bad. They are they have the revelation
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of God this final glorious revelation of
God, the thing that all of human
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history is being built up to,
the reason that God all are preserved people
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after the flood, is right now. Is Right in front of them and
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they can't see it, because what
they believe about God is a mess and
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what they believe about Jesus is a
mess, and because it's lodged so deeply
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in their hearts and in their minds, they're unwilling to submit to correction.
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They just throw accusations out against him. Jesu, Jesus, their only savior,
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is right in front of them.
He's telling them about who he is
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and what God is doing for them, and he remains their enemy. Don't
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let this happen to you. There
are a lot of people today who want
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you to believe the one thing that
John is telling you. You must believe
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that Jesus is the son of God. Now, I'm not just making that
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up. John says this in Chapter
Twenty, verse thirty. He says these
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are written, this is the the
end of the Gospel. He says,
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these are written so that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
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son of God, not so that
you can check a box and say Orthodox
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doctrine, check, but so that, by believing, you may have life
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in his name. That's what pastor
John Wants. These are written so that
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you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the son of God, and
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that by believing, you may have
life in his name. So you can
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see, then, I hope,
why theology matters a huge amount right,
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that Jesus is the Christ and he's
this promised Messiah who's not just another Elijah
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or another Moses, some great,
well equipped and anointed man of God.
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He is that, but he's also
the son of God. To understand that
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and then to believe that is to
have life. This is, with no
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exaggeration, a life or death matter. And so now I've wound our way,
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hopefully, to this point. That
Jesus that I want to focus the
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rest of our time on. This
one that Jesus makes that he comes from
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the father and he is sent from
the father. Next time I anticipate thinking
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about his next statement that he will
go to the father. These are two
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things he says a few times in
this passage. So what does Jesus mean
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when he says he comes from the
Father? Does he mean when he has
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says he's sent from the father.
Well, helps to enter into our thinking
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by remembering what this passage with the
context of this passages, and you remember
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that it started back in chapter five
when Jesus healed this crippled man on the
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Sabbath, this day of rest in
which no work should be done. So
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he heals this man on the Sabbath. The Jewish leaders confront him and they
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ask him, why are you doing
this? Why are you working on the
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Sabbath? Why are you causing this
man to quotation marks for those are listening,
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work on the Sabbath, as he
was heeled and picked up his bed
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and walked away. Jesus's response was
this. This is a theological grenade right.
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He says, my father is working
until now and I am working now.
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It's hard to express how much Jesus
packs into these few words and essentially
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he's saying I'll say three things.
One, he's saying this is sort of
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the argument God is allowed to work
on the Sabbath. We all sort of
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recognize that. True, God did
rest from his works of creation. However,
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even on Saturdays, God continues to
preserve and govern the world, it's
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creatures and all its actions. This
common sense and was granted by Jewish rabbis
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and others. Second, or,
I'm sorry, still on that first point,
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not only does God continue to preserve
the world, but we also believe
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that he's doing that in a way
to establish this everlasting kingdom that he has
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promised in the Old Testament and is
bringing forth in Christ. He does that
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even on the day of rest.
So that's one point. One God is
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allowed to work. That's acceptable in
in this way, in this way.
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Second, Jesus says that God is
his father, a statement that would have
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sounded a little weird, scholars think, to Jewish ears, because the fatherhood
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of God is something that comes up
in the Old Testament, but not a
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lot and not in the not nearly
at the level and in the ways that
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we have in the New Testament.
Nevertheless, it could be excused for thinking,
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well, yes, of course we're
all God's children, especially as his
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dependence and especially as his special chosen
child, Jacob Israel, this one born
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and and special and God ordained ways. But notice that when you say or
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pray our father, who's in heaven, no one accuses you of making yourself
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equal with God. Right, it's
never happened to me anyway, probably never
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happened to you. When you say
I pray to my heavenly father, no
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one says, are you serious?
Are you making yourself equal with God?
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So why do the Jews say that? The kicker is the last sentence.
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He says I am working, by
saying that he was doing the same work
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as of same work as God,
which of course no one does except God,
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preserving the world, etc. He, Jesus makes it clear that his
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sonship is not like yours or mine
or Adams or Jacobs or David's. He
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what he is saying is that through
him, or sorry, that he's saying
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that this work that he is doing
comes through him as the son from the
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father. The he is equal with
the father in the work that God does.
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That's quite a statement. The he
is equal with the father in the
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power of God. And he adds
to this. We won't go back and
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look at it, but he might
remember that. He adds to this the
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work not only of preserving the world
or maybe even healing and things like that.
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But Jesus goes on to talk about
Resurrection, the power of Resurrection and
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the power of Judgment. These are
things that only God can do and Jesus
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says I am working, my father
works and I work. So it's hard
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for me to underestimate how powerful this
sounded to them, but it's pretty clear.
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The scriptures tell us that after they
heard this, they wanted to arrest
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him and they wanted to kill him. Here is Jesus, this Galilee and
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whom they knew, saying that he
was God and God's son. Now this
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is a challenging idea even for the
Christian mind that has been introduced and thought
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through and maybe read through John or
heard sermons on the trying nature of God.
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You can imagine the kinds of questions
that would have been whispered in the
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market market places. Jesus is teaching
these things in the temple, things like
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he's crazy. What kind of pride
would it take for somebody to say that
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they are God? Or How can
God have a son? We're not gentile
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pagans that believe in Pagan Miss God
doesn't even have a wife. How can
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he have a son? Or if
if God had a son, wouldn't that
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get make God mutable and changeable?
Would that create a second god? But
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God is one. Jesus himself says
that there is only one true God.
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So how can he be saying that
he's the son of God? Or if
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he did out of a son,
he certainly wouldn't be God, would he
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may be a demigod, a half
a god, an elevated man. He
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certainly does amazing works, but and
I can accept that he's the promised Messiah,
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but how can we say that he's
actually divine? Besides that, we
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know this guy, we know his
parents, we know where he's from,
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his brothers, his sisters, he
was born, he has a body.
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How can he be God, God
when he is so clearly a man?
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And we could keep going. This
is hard stuff and indeed people have all
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kinds of ideas and speculations about who
Jesus is and what these things could possibly
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mean. have been accepted or suggests? Well, both accepted, but I
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meant to say suggested. Now I
intend to overwhelm you a little bit for
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the purpose I made at the beginning. We can't approach Jesus, the divine
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creator of all the world, and
we and say, Oh yeah, no
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problem, I can understand you,
I can understand what you're all about.
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My mind is so great, my
soul is so enlightened. This is no
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problem for me. We ought to
have a sense of fear at the greatness
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and the grandeur and the Majesty of
God, not just the things that God
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has done, but of God himself. And, as I said before,
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you might also be tempted to just
walk away from all of this, and
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there is some wisdom in that.
There is great mysteries here and there are
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things that can't be known, can't
be figured out, because they're not revealed
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to us, and you would be
right to say that it's impossible to remove
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all the mystery. But you would
be wrong to walk away, because what
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is John say? These things have
been written so that you may know that
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Jesus is the Christ, the son
of God, and that by believing him,
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you may have life in his name. To walk away from them and
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say I don't want anything to do
with this, I'd rather just sort of
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believe in assumptions or my abstractions about
Jesus or just keep an open ended question
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is to walk away from God when
he's saying I am wanting to tell you
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these things so that you can have
life. So what does John say?
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What is Jesus saying? He doesn't
say that we believe in Jesus as a
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demigod or second God or no God. He doesn't say that Jesus is a
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mask or a different form of the
father, that the father sort of moves
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and shifts into these different persons,
though he says that he is the son.
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We know that not. We know
that not because we base God or
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not because we judge God on our
own experiences or our knowledge from reasons,
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from a bullow, but we do
it by receiving heavenly wisdom, that is
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from above. We allow him to
break us, in a way, our
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assumptions about him and ourselves, to
reframe our knowledge, our experience, our
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ideas from the word that is from
above. We do he is teaching us
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not to judge by appearances, but
to judge from him, who is true,
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as Jesus puts it, he's telling
us what we ought to think,
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he's telling us what we want to
know, and that's exactly why the Jews
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react by wanting to kill him.
He's undermining their lives, he's undermining their
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their strengthen themselves and their pride in
themselves. Some people choose to ignore him.
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What will you do when you hear
Jesus's words when he reveals himself as
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the son of God, will you
ignore him? Will you walk away?
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Will you try to rule him?
He already rose from the dead, so
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you can't murder him. My suggestion
is that you serve him, that you
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worship him, that you follow him
that and that you may have life in
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his name. What's in all this
context, this stirring and this brewing and
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these questions and this Sabbath event and
these things that Jesus is saying, with
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murder in the air, that Jesus
now says, the things that we have
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heard this morning, that he says
I have not you know me, but
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you also don't know me. Sure, you know I'm from Galilee, but
407
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where? But but you don't recognize
where I have truly come from, or
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that I have also come from.
And, as Jesus says, that I've
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not come on my own accord,
but I come from the one who sent
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me. I'll close by thinking about
what this means. What does Jesus mean
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when he says that he comes from
God? What does Jesus mean when he
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says that he is sent from God? Number One, he does not mean
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that there are two gods when we
confessed in the nicecene creed this morning that
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he is a very god, of
Very God. We do not mean that
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sort of one God, birth forth
another God. No, and we know
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that because Jesus says himself in Chapter
Five, and he calls us to quote,
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seek the glory that comes from the
only God. So how is Jesus
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revealing himself? Not as a second
God, because there is one God.
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John Four, for says that.
Similarly, in John Seventeen, three Jesus
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says, and this is eternal life, right, whenever you hear that,
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your ear should perk up. And
this is eternal life. That they he's
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praying to the father and he says
that they know you, the only true
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God, and Jesus Christ, whom
you have sent. These verses and others
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like it, teach us that there
is one God. Jesus himself says it
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not true, not to that's what
Jesus teaches. Second he also tells us
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that his will is God's will,
his power is God's power, his Authority
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is God's authority. In other words, he is God. We've seen that
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in his miracles, in his Sabbath
explanation. Is An authority to teach and
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is a statements about bringing judgment and
Resurrection, things that only God can do
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00:37:38.219 --> 00:37:44.179
that he attributes to himself as having
the capability of doing, and not just
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saying it but actually doing it too. In these things and many other ways,
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he teaches us that he is the
one, true only God, not
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a second God. The only God, though, Jesus has a human nature,
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and we know that. Why?
That is because Jesus, the son
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of God, added humanity to his
divinity in order to save us men,
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right nice in creed. For us
and for our salvation, he became man.
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Yes, he's truly man, as
the people see, but he is
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also fully God. He in fact, he goes so far as to say,
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and it is absolutely true, that
it is impossible to know the father
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without knowing him. He says,
if you knew me, you would know
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the father, one and the same. You know the father, you know
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me. You want eternal life from
the father. It's from me. Eternal
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00:38:46.769 --> 00:38:52.289
life from God comes to us by
believing in him. So now you can
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see why in Chapter Seven people say
no one ever spoke like this man.
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So number three, Jesus is both
calling God his father, or he is
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both identifying himself as the only true
God and also saying that he is the
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divine son of the father. John
Sixteen. You know this verse when he
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00:39:20.269 --> 00:39:24.059
says to Nicodemus, who reappears in
our chapter, God so love the world
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00:39:24.179 --> 00:39:32.619
that he gave His only begotten right
that we would have eternal life by believing
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00:39:32.659 --> 00:39:37.969
in him. So Jesus said?
Does Jesus says? He's. He doesn't
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00:39:38.010 --> 00:39:44.570
say I am the only true God, the father. He says I am
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00:39:44.690 --> 00:39:52.289
the only true God, I am
the son of the father. Number Four.
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00:39:52.639 --> 00:39:57.840
People will then be tempted to say, since there can't be two gods
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and since Jesus is clearly divine,
perhaps the father and the son are the
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same person. This is the ancient
heresy of modalism. It's still around.
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00:40:08.269 --> 00:40:12.710
You can find it, for example, in well lots of different places.
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00:40:12.829 --> 00:40:15.989
It also exists. This error exists
in other forms, like in UNITARIANISM,
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which denies the divinity of the son, the very thing John tells us that
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we have must believe. Denies the
divinity of son and unsurprisingly, also denies
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00:40:25.579 --> 00:40:31.539
the Trinity, hence the name UNITARIANISM. Now there's this different I different ideas
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00:40:31.579 --> 00:40:36.730
with modalism, but the ideas that
God basically puts on different mass so you
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00:40:36.849 --> 00:40:38.690
can for example, he's the father
and the Old Testament, the son and
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00:40:38.730 --> 00:40:44.409
the New Testament and then the spirit
after pentecost. In other words, that
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00:40:44.489 --> 00:40:47.929
the distinctions between the father and the
son and the spirit are in name only
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00:40:47.969 --> 00:40:54.559
right. They are not actual distinctions. It's just a way of God talking
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or revealing himself. What's the problem
with that? It's a biblical problem,
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00:41:02.039 --> 00:41:07.309
not a problem with the Bible,
but the Bible reveals the problem with this
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00:41:07.510 --> 00:41:10.469
thinking. That's why I'm trying to
say the problem is one that God does
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00:41:10.550 --> 00:41:15.989
not lie. And true, he's
very clear about the distinction between the father
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and the son, that it's real. God is one person who exists in
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three persons. God is one.
What is is? I I'm sorry,
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00:41:29.019 --> 00:41:31.820
I think I said God is one
person. God is one in nature,
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00:41:31.820 --> 00:41:39.530
essence substance, and he exists in
three persons and these three persons relate to
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00:41:39.730 --> 00:41:50.039
one another as father, son and
spirit. And you can hear the real
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00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:54.519
distinctions between the father and the son
and versus, like I come from the
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00:41:54.760 --> 00:42:00.079
father. He doesn't say that the
son is the father, he says that
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00:42:00.119 --> 00:42:05.510
the son comes from the father.
There's even a difference in in authority.
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He says that he is sent.
Other verses make this distinction as well.
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00:42:10.630 --> 00:42:15.309
I came not to do my will, Jesus says, but the will of
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00:42:15.349 --> 00:42:22.099
him who sent me. Or you
know neither me nor my father. You
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00:42:22.179 --> 00:42:28.980
hear the distinctions. Or I declare
what I have heard from him, or
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00:42:29.500 --> 00:42:32.210
I have nothing, I do nothing
on my own authority, but speak just
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00:42:32.369 --> 00:42:37.289
as the father has taught me,
or I can do nothing on my own
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00:42:37.010 --> 00:42:40.889
or as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I
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00:42:40.929 --> 00:42:45.360
seek not my own will but the
will of him who sent me. So
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00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:52.920
if we are to take the divine
Jesus at his word, then we must
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00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:59.230
affirm all of these things, that
he is truly God and that he is
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00:42:59.429 --> 00:43:04.750
the son of God, who is
distinct from the father. This tells us,
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00:43:04.829 --> 00:43:13.420
then, that God is indeed one
in three persons. In conclusion,
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00:43:13.539 --> 00:43:17.380
what do we make of all of
this heavy stuff, big stuff, things
491
00:43:17.460 --> 00:43:23.460
that's hard to wrap our minds around. Why does it matter even? Well,
492
00:43:23.500 --> 00:43:28.369
the most important thing it does is
it affirms for us. It it
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00:43:28.769 --> 00:43:34.170
it affirms for us the divinity of
Christ. Why in the world would you
494
00:43:34.210 --> 00:43:38.369
follow Jesus as a religious, moral
man. If he's a liar and a
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00:43:38.570 --> 00:43:45.960
blasphemer walking around saying that he's the
son of God doesn't make any sense.
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00:43:50.679 --> 00:43:54.750
But if Jesus is who he says
he is, then we throw himself at
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00:43:54.750 --> 00:44:00.550
our feet, not hesitantly, not
worrying that we might be committing idolatry by
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00:44:00.590 --> 00:44:07.469
worshiping this man from Galilee, but
we throw ourselves at our feet because he
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00:44:07.869 --> 00:44:13.380
is not just a man from Galilee. He is the incarnate son who has
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00:44:13.500 --> 00:44:20.539
been sent from the father, who
was not created but has existed from all
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00:44:20.900 --> 00:44:30.170
time, Having Been Eternally Begotten as
a son. We bow before him because
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00:44:30.250 --> 00:44:39.039
he is God and we give him
all honor and glory and praise. The
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00:44:39.159 --> 00:44:45.760
second thing is that Jesus comes and
is sent for a reason. If you
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00:44:45.800 --> 00:44:50.239
don't know it by now, I
don't know what to tell you. You
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00:44:50.360 --> 00:44:53.150
haven't been listening at all. He
comes and he sent for a reason.
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00:44:53.269 --> 00:45:00.989
And what is the reason? To
give us eternal life. The revelation of
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00:45:00.150 --> 00:45:06.030
God in the Sun reveals not just
something about his nature, but about his
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00:45:06.389 --> 00:45:14.380
love and his will for you,
that you might belong to him. and
509
00:45:15.539 --> 00:45:20.380
Jesus says to them where I am
coming, you cannot go. But remember
510
00:45:20.420 --> 00:45:24.530
he says that to he says it's
to unbelievers who are refusing to hear God,
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00:45:25.170 --> 00:45:29.849
who refusing to submit to God.
But what does he say later on?
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00:45:30.010 --> 00:45:31.130
I didn't read it, but what
does he say later on to the
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00:45:31.210 --> 00:45:37.000
disciples? He says, I'm going
to a place to prepare it for you,
514
00:45:39.559 --> 00:45:45.679
to established, to get ready this
kingdom for you that I am going
515
00:45:45.760 --> 00:45:52.309
to give to you because I love
you. He doesn't bar the door against
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00:45:52.349 --> 00:46:00.630
us, to those who believe they
enter into life. That's why it's important
517
00:46:00.670 --> 00:46:07.340
to know him as the son,
to understand who he is in his divine
518
00:46:07.380 --> 00:46:12.099
nature, to worship him as he
truly is, to depend on him for
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00:46:12.539 --> 00:46:20.329
everything. And so I have nothing
more to say other than to admonish you
520
00:46:20.369 --> 00:46:22.329
to do that, to exhort you
to do that, to beg you to
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00:46:22.570 --> 00:46:28.250
do that, to give yourselves all
the in fall a, completely and in
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00:46:28.409 --> 00:46:35.920
every way to Jesus. He is
our perfect savior, he is everything,
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00:46:36.920 --> 00:46:42.320
everything that the father has has been
given to the son, that the one
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00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:46.269
who would die on the cross for
us, would save us and we would
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00:46:46.269 --> 00:46:52.269
have life in him. So,
hearing these things, let's turn to the
526
00:46:52.389 --> 00:46:58.030
Lord in prayer and ask for him
to save our souls and to cause us
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00:46:58.070 --> 00:47:01.500
to persevere into the very end,
looking to Jesus, the author and Perfector
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00:47:01.579 --> 00:47:02.380
of our salvation,
