Chuck Missler - - John chapter 2, Session 3

[Music] well I like again to welcome you to our exploration of the Gospel of John and indeed every time we enter the Word of God we always want to do that with prayer so let's bow our hearts Heavenly Father we thank you for this opportunity we thank you for your word and we solicit the presence of your Holy Spirit to open this word to our hearts and lives that we might grow in grace the knowledge of our Lord and King and that we might be more effective stewards of the opportunities that you'll put across our paths in the days ahead as we commit this hour and ourselves into your hands in the name of Yeshua the Lord Jesus Christ indeed amen well the Gospel of John this is a favorite of many you know everybody has their favorites the Gospel of John is kind of a strange one many people got introduced in the Bible by a little pamphlet version of the Gospel of John it's used as an introductory thing for beginners and it lends itself to that on the one hand on the other hand it also will challenge the most sophisticated theologians as they as one wag quipped he said it's shallow enough for a child to wade in but it's deep enough to bathe an elephant in other words it'll go as deep as you can they can you can have a lifetime study and still make new discoveries as you go through and you're going to probably see some this evening that you may catch you by surprise and so we're in the third session and we are in John chapter 2 those of you that were the first few sessions thought we'd never make it through the chapter what we did okay so we are in chapter 2 and one of the just a few review items one thing John does in chapter 20 near the end of his gospel he he gives us the reason he's writing this he's not trying to get a journalistic reward or something no he's written this with a specific agenda since then many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Messiah the Son of God and that believing you might have life through his name and that's his objective John's objective is that you might have life through his name and we talked about logos last time and so forth Jesus is the Christ the International Standard Version Bible which is just coming out doesn't have the word Christ in the New Testament it uses the word Messiah same word but it carries I think a little more roots if you will and for us last time we summarized a few things and I won't recap all that except to alert you and the need to double back on these metaphors can often be masquerades to hide the fact that there are underlying mysteries that we have yet to resolve and so that's a key thing for us and we studied logos last time that's not just word in a simplistic sense it's a concept that's being opened and manifested and it's a title of Christ that he puts above his name which is a staggering insight we talked about light one of the fundamental mysteries to this day in physics we talked a little bit about that not that these are terms that we in churchianity we tend to throw these words around loosely and I hope we outgrow that in terms of recognizing these metaphors have a depth that we have yet to probe in terms of the word as a title of Christ John uses a lot in his epistles as well as as well as here but also the idea he's the light of the world what does that really mean especially when you realize there's aspects of light we still don't understand to this day there's going to be a third one and that is carrots or grace and that's the most amazing of all and the the song was very well named grace the grace the more you understand it the more amazing it is but something else from last time we also had a little exploration of the tabernacle how everything in the tabernacle points to Jesus Christ this portable a Worship Center that moved with them for the 38 years in the wilderness and so in roughly 75 by 100 defeat white linens and circle you enter the door you came to the altar of sacrifice and the labor to enter then into the temple proper the tabernacle properly a portable building really designed for this purpose and that all the elements in it each one are identified with Jesus Christ specifically not just rhetorically he himself identifies with them and there's a holy place and the Holy of Holies and the Holy of Holies is defined by the presence of the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant there's a subtlety there that you won't chase down but there's a door and then there's the seven-branched candlestick that we elapsed and is more precise that called the menorah and then we have the table of showbread and then the golden altar this little small thing that is held via the incentive the incense altar before going through the final veil into the Holy of Holies only the high priests only once a year after great preparation was like dinner with the Ark of the Covenant and of course the mercy seat itself and what's interesting about all of this of course last time we close on the first fourteen the word was made flesh and dwelt among us tabernacled among us and Jesus made a claim before the Gospel of John is finished he's going to claim to be that door anyone that enters some other way is a thief or a robber he says I am the light of the world we have the one he's the primary branch and the six for man gives you the seven the men are on there's a whole study behind that and I am the bread of life he would make that statement and he makes intercession for us and of course he's our sing bearer and of course it is our propitiation so he he specifically identified with each one of these before this gospel was finished and so the more you study the Gospel of John the more you're going to find evidences of designing not just a John but the whole Bible and that's something you need to find for you to accept it because I say so hard I hope you don't do any of that I mention it so that you'll be alert to it but you need to discover those things for yourself our goal is not to teach you a specific theology our goal is to equip you to come to your own perceptions of these things to be what's called a self feeder that's our goal that's part of what we're all about anyway chapter one of course introduced Jesus the Lamb of God and offering for sin we talked about that and we'll be talking much more about that chapter two explores two events and these two events are very strange one is the changing of the water to wine we all know the little story we're going to go into it but I suggest to you that I have yet to find any commentators that really explore why all of that there's some issues there that come out of that and also in this chapter he will leave Cana going to get burn for a few days and then go to Jerusalem and cleanse the temple cast the money changers out so these two make up chapter two and the question I'm going to ask you at the end is are these two things connected is there a connection with the water into wine and Cana and his cleansing the temple of the money changers have you got anything to do with one another you wouldn't think so let's see what happens as we go forward so we're in John chapter 2 verse 1 and 2 and the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage so this is a passage that extols marriage many people use it as an example that God blesses marriage that has me just this one that's all through the scripture but it certainly isn't keeping with that but there is a strait that is also what is a little strange to many is this apparently as this first miracle why is that significant well for one reason you can save a lot of trouble not wasting time on these legends of childhood miracles by Christ because they're phony they're nonsense how do I don't so so this is his first miracle so all these stories you hear are nonsense in terms of childhood miracles and so forth but there's something else here and the third day there was a marriage in Cana what does that mean the third day now it turns out there is a Jewish reason for that there may be a more mystical reason for that and if we study the book of Genesis we'll discover something that the third day has a uniqueness to it God created the earth of the world in universe and how many days okay here you six days good okay so far okay all the way through there six times he says and it was good he did this that nothing and it was good except on Monday the first day fine the second day there's no it was good when you get to Tuesday the third day he blesses it twice there are six and it was Goods but they're not uniformly distributed because Monday doesn't have a blessing as they Jewish would say but Tuesday is known when among the Jews rabbis as the day of double blessing and that's why Jewish marriages are usually on Tuesdays because it's the day of double blessing this may be part of that you see day one we had darkness let there be light and it was good they to the water separated but there was no it was good statement of the earth emerges from its watery grave and that's a whole nother study the third day's the day of ss scene and it was good but twice he says that so that's why he called the day of a little blessing now let the waters be and having to gather together one place a dry land appear it was so and he called the dry land earth and gathering together the waters he called the feast and God saw that it was good and and let the earth bring forth grass under a bearing shield a seed and fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind whose seed is in itself and the earth and it was so and the earth brought forth grass and the herb yielding seen after his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his and God saw that was good now the point here and then the evening in the morning were the third day so we're together so far third day two blessings one and verse 10 and the other one in member as well and so that's why it's called the tag ability that may be why we have the event in Cana occur on the third day okay I'm going to show you some other reasons maybe that you can't find any commentary so be on your guard would have a meeting on you may be fraught with some error here go down to verse three and when they wanted wine the mother Jesus said unto him they have no wine jesus said unto her woman what have I to do with thee mine hour is not yet come now it's it's interesting that Mary is never mentioned by name in this gospel that maybe some reasons for that you may recall that John was given the stewardship over Mary at the cross and so maybe calling her Mary was uncomfortable for him I don't know our mother or whatever but okay so when he says woman what have I to do with thee that is not a put-down it sounds like that me English woman what do I it seems like a denigrating remark it's not and it's a good I in the Greek it means a wife of betrothed it's actually an expression of respect and affection so don't jump to conclusions not one of the Buse some people miss miss miss understand that okay the other word could have been mater which was a if he wanted to emphasize the authority thing for some reason member seed of the woman was his first title in the in the Torah in in in the Justice 3:15 so seed of the woman is a major major title of our kinsman redeemer but in any case' he says mine hour has not yet come this phrase that you're going to find occurs eight times in this gospel and in the first three the emphasis is on the hour not having come yet and there is a specific time when as hour has come and of course you're going to discover some surprising things then over half of the Gospel of John occurs in the last week of the ministry one-third of the verses in the Gospel of John deal with the last 24 hours or I should say with a 24 hour period so he's going to telescope that as we go so the hour is coming obviously and is auditioning Joseph the father the the legal father of Jesus is not disappears from the record most commentators presume we don't know that he had passed away and there are six disciples present those are the six that we encountered in the previous chapter okay they were two brothers Peter named Ruth and two brothers John and James all four of them were in the fishing business maybe them together in bargains for all we know and then of course Philip and Nathanael Nathaniel's hometown was Cana by the way port it's worth now Jesus had two half-brothers that are not the picture yet because they don't become believer he had four half-brothers two of them become believers after the resurrection they're not number of the Apostles okay both Jude and James are the names and when we say James the word is actually Yakov or Jacob but that's okay let's not get too confused here continuing with verse five and six his mother said unto the servants whatever he saith unto you do it and they were set there six waterpots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three firkins apiece now a firkin is a goatskin measurement above about six to eight gallons two or three firkins would equal about 1224 gallons of wine each and there are six coats six of these pots so that's a lot of stuff that's a lot of wine that we're going to end up with okay we're going to come back to the water it's amazing to me how commentators I've been through 50 or 60 of them don't comment on the one that was used we're going to come back to this as we go anyway what Jesus said and fill the waterpots with water and they filled them up to the brim and he says and then draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast and they bear it now the word governor the feast that's actually a servant of a cussing your servant kind of guy he's a chief of the banquet hall and three couches of what the word actually means and your governor of the feast now something a footnote here by the way we're talking about wine right one of the things you all should do is learn if you don't know it already the agricultural calendar of Israel understand that to understand both the older the new testament okay grapes are harvested in the fall that's just a fact fact of history the harvested in the fall there was no refrigeration there in those days so there's no way you're going to end up with grape juice in the spring Passover is in the spring we celebrate communion as an echo a Passover which means it's in the spring in third day they couldn't have grape juice if they wanted it because wine has a natural way of preserving itself it ferments into wine or vinegar whatever you're after so what I mentioned that because I'm not disparaging communions in today's world we all have communion with grape juice for lots of good reasons not the least of which is in deference to people who do want to touch wine fine but I'm tired of trying to read theological writings saying they really had grape juice back then no that doesn't make sense if you I know anything about the agricultural calendar was for what it's worth anyway when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and who NatWest it was but the servants which drew the water knew the governor of the feast called to the bridegroom Amos 3:7 Lord will do nothing with much which he reveals to his servants I think that's interesting they said then every man at the beginning does set forth good wine and when men have well drunk then that which is worse but thou has kept the good wine until knuckle very interesting comment by the by the experienced provider here normally people put the good wine first and the second stuff later says you saved the best wines last that if nothing else tells me it was good wine okay and so he tasted the water line and it was excellent obviously good wine until now the best to last no surprise and then John gives us a summary here says that this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee which manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him so it's interesting one of the byproducts this didn't impress anybody at the fit at the feast but disciples servants that and the disciples knew what was going on and they were obviously impressed and they believed on him so that's that's the beginning the beginning of miracles and so now there's also some hint here several times we saw it in verse fourteen and there's also here which this medicine when it speaks of manifesting forth his glory that could be a generic phrase it also might be a specific allusion to the Transfiguration and we talked about that last time I just mentioned in passing you manifested for the glory well what I like to do here is stop a little bit and take a little closer look and remember that the Old Testament period ends with John the Baptist the law and the prophets were until John the Baptist one of the things that we see here that one of the teachings that comes out of the that you'll see in some of the commentating literature is that this can speak to the regeneration of the believe that's an anticipating chapter 3 the ones coming there were six waterpots six is the number of man they were empty presumably in stone they were from purifying religion is empty in other words that's that's the premise here they from the command of Christ they filled it with good wine and the new beginning of miracles and so we have assess his glory and the fruit here is that many believed on him so some people spiritualize the application of this so far along that flavor you with me of our I'm not disparaging and I want to go one step further if we can okay also here we can talk about obviously kana is a springboard to talk about the marriage and God uses the marriage to communicate his most intimate truths we have a whole study on that we have materials on that and you we have all probably studied marriage in terms of its biological basis procreation and so forth it's psychological basis to partner sharing light the ups and downs of life dream as the sociological basis is the molecule of our community and so forth and most of us probably haven't studied marriage in its spiritual or supernatural basis and that's what if that would take you to the fusions v and is a very very fruitful study to tackle out I'm going to derail the whole study here one just mentioned in passing and it's interesting when you go through Ephesians five you'll discover there are two rules one for each person and will turn a woman let the man be in charge and to the man love the woman supremely and it's amazing just two rules and amazing can't we can't follow even just having one rule but we'll move on here let's go to the mother said to the servants whatsoever he saith do it and they were set there are six waterpots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews that's a phrase but even if you're somewhat expert in the Old Testament you may not realize what that's talking about and so i want to peel that back just to cover that ground here what water was used now the water was almost empty because they added water to make it wine but they weren't totally and because there it was the possible purifying of the jews how did they do that to get into that whole subject um the water of purification I want to give you a little background insert your notes here about the ashes of the red heifer there is a topic we occupies the full chapter 19 of the book of numbers called the ashes of the red heifer what is bizarre about this if you study the commentators of the Old Testament most of them are incorrect is how they deal with this because it is not an offering and is not a sacrifice is usually done for those it's not that's neither it's a procedure that's totally weird different distinct what-have-you so regard on your guard here as we get into this it's very strange and widely misunderstood understand upfront it is not a sacrifice nor an offering if you define either one of these it alludes both of those definitions the Book of Leviticus the whole Torah is full of sacrifices and offerings of all different kinds in a different circumstance this is not one of them and so it's interesting that the red actually redheffer on the news a lot because there are rabbinical efforts being put to get a red heifer to comply with this in preparation for rebuilding the temple which is also by the way footnote silly because the mission of the deceptor the Tanakh you don't need the red heifer to build a new temple it'd be nice but it's not turns out there's procedures around that by the way but let's get that's neither here the red heifer I want us to look at numbers 19 started verse 1 and the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying this is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded saying speak unto the children of Israel that they bring the a red heifer that's a female is the only place you got a female in the procedures by the way a red heifer without spot wherein is no blemish and upon which never came yoke so it's got to be perfect and it's got to be never been yoked and ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest easy to think the acting High Priest sort of here that he may bring her forth without the camp and one shall slay her before his face so they're doing this outside the camp of Israel but in the presence of the high priest without the camp that's important Elya is the pre she'll take of her blood with his finger and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times so his gesture here is to tie this to the temple or to the tabernacle and one shall burn the heifer in his sight her skin her flesh her blood with her dung shall he burned that's the whole thing not a sacrifice this has been offering they're bringing the whole thing and the priest shall take cedar wood hyssop and scarlet apparently anything started something red okay and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer southall is they burn in the whole package and it'll be and deal with the ashes that are left then the priest shall wash his clothes and shall bathe his flesh in water and afterwards he shall come into the camp and the priest shall be unclean until even he that burn is her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his flesh and water and shall be unclean until even and a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without the camp in a clean place and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation it is a purification for sin not uncommon but some kind of ritual cleansing okay and he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until even and it shall be unto the children of Israel and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them for a statute for ever it's a purification for sins okay he that touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days he shall purify himself with it on the third day who there he's again and on the seventh day shall he be clean but if he purifying not himself the third day then the seventh day he shall not be clean so if somehow a Jew an observant Jew stumbles touches something dead he's no ceremony when clean he's got to go through this procedure the procedure takes a whole seven days but there's an emphasis on the third day of the seventh that somehow is significant you with me so far okay the third day again whosoever touches the dead body of any man that is dead and purified not himself get this B file at the tabernacle of the Lord what's that got to do with anything how is his conduct somehow defiling the tabernacle of the Lord that's a linkage there's two linkages here that are puzzling one is the third day issue the other one is how is this tied to the tabernacle or later on the temple and that soul shall be cut off from Israel because the water separation was not sprinkled upon him he shall be unclean and his uncleanness is yet upon him this is the law when a man diet in a tent all that come into the tent and all that is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days and every open vessel which have no covering bound upon it is unclean and whosoever touches the one that is slain with a sword in the open fields or a dead body or a boat of a man or a great shall be unclean seven days and for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the bird temper a purification for sin and running water shall be put there unto and if there - in a vessel and a clean person so take the hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle upon the tent upon all the vessels and upon the persons that were there and upon him the touch of the bone or slain or one dead or a grave and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day there it is again and on the seventh day and on the seventh day shall he purify himself and wash his clothes and bathe himself water and shall be clean and even and so but the man that shall be unclean and shall not purify himself that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation because he have defiled what the sanctuary of the Lord again the linkage that himself had defiled is defiled the temple let's get that linkage the water separation has not been sprinkled opponent he is unclean because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord by not conforming to this so that puzzles me and she'll be a perpetual statute unto them that he the sprinkles the water of the separation shall wash his clothes and he that touches the water separation shall be unclean good even and whosoever that the unclean person touches shall be unclean the soul that touches it shall be unclean until even okay the ashes of the red heifer a Red Cow free of any defects never been yolk was slain outside the camp the presence the high priest then he dipped his fingers in the brother and sprinkle it seven times in the direction of the sanctuary Tabernacle in the old days temple you know after when was the temple and then the carcass was burned in his presence that hide the flesh the blood also added cedar wood hyssop and scarlet to the pyre and another man so I'm only clean gathered up the ashes stored in the clean place outside the camp to be use in preparing the water purification I get the picture here as the years go by and they grow into a nation there were people that needed ritual cleansing that were a long way from Jerusalem so what they did with the azure red heifer they would make quantities by just taking the ashes and adding water to it they would make the water purification they had that access to that across the country they had summon kana if somebody there needed purification that's where they went to go through the procedure with the water purification they didn't have to go all the way to Jerusalem that wouldn't work and that when the prospect follow me so that was part of the procedure and it was that water that was set aside for that purpose that they were using you know in the the wedding to turn into wine you with me so far okay all involved washing themselves the clothes and remain ceremony clean until sunset and the ash were dissolved in fresh water which were sprinkled on those who were contaminated by contact or proximity to a dead body the ones so contaminated remained unclaimed for seven days he was sprinkled on the third and seventh day and was cleaned after the sunset on the seventh day and all who touched the water or the unclean person were unclean till sunset anyone inflected to observe the law was deprived the religious Buddhist for he defiled two really lovely and so this is not a sacrifice it's not an offering and it's a very problematic if you try to study the more you know about Leviticus the less this fits why the emphasis on the third day in this proceeding number signet number is a banking why how does that fit to anything how is this connected to defiling the sanctuary those are two issues that puzzled me why the third day what's that got to do with anything there secondly what why how does this connect to the temple it's going to connect to the temple before chapter 2 is over but that's when he goes Jesus goes to Jerusalem that's why I have a feeling there is a connection here that everybody's missed Hebrews 9 since 4th the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh that's he's making allusion here in Hebrews 9 how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God so is Christ in some sense a fulfillment of this that we've overlooked he's over is a is a fulfillment of so many things but this may be one that's been a look let's get to John verse 12 after Cana now after this he went down to Capernaum he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples and they continued there not many days so Capernaum of course in somewhat of a capital its calf organized a village of may home not necessarily the name of the Bible that's coming in but anyway cut the capernaum village name is the fenced town as opposed to an unfinished village it's on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee so it's a obviously one you'll visit when you go there it is located on a major trade route from Damascus to the interior of MVT revenger to the Mediterranean Sea it probably served as the Jewish capital Tiberius was the Roman capital but there's no record of any of them going to Tiberias is a Roman city but further around around to the north is Capernaum and that was apparently the Jewish equivalent if you will well now we get into in the gosset going reverse going through John chapter 2 the next major event is the cleansing of the temple and from verses 13 to the end of the chapter and the Jews Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem now by the way Deuteronomy 16 16 to tell it says that every able-bodied male Jew it was compulsory to go to Jerusalem and it was not optional and so there were three feasts that were compulsory the feast of unleavened bread that really included an eight-day period on the pet the Passover the feast of firstfruits and the feast of unleavened bread they collectively called that Passover prophetically three of the seven feasts that are included then the feast of weeks Shalit which is roughly forty nine plus one days later and then the Feast of Tabernacles which is in the fall those three feasts Passover collectively Loc feast and then feast of weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles okay now this passover is the first of four the fourth passover is the one where he's offered so his ministry will it will spread over for Passover don't confuse this cleansing of the temple with one that the other three synoptic Gospels mark Luke and Matthew Mark and Luke mentioned which happened just before the last Passover so either John has taken the liberty of recording this up here for his own purposes or there were two cleanses like that most scholars feelers to did twice because he clearly did it here and he also did in the final one this is Jesus first visit as a messiah to Jerusalem and he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and changes of money and they were sitting there and there that by the way they were in the outer court in the place of Gentile worship which itself is a Jewish failure because God had intended Nations is there's another whole aspect of this but anyway in contrast and now is the high run is the auto Cornelis is the temple of the sanctuary proper now something else you to understand Roman coins had the image of the emperor in contrast to Jewish claims coins for the temple were specific so you might be trading in Roman coins for commerce but they wouldn't work in the temple you had to have temple coins and that's what the money picture that was a legitimate role for the money changers to be making that conversion okay because the the problem they were in the wrong place they were in a place of worship not outside that's the that's why it was offensive and so they found in the temple those that were and so forth and when he had made a scourge of small cords he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen poured out the changes money overthrew the tables and he said unto them that sold doves take these things hence make not my father's house a house of merchandise my father didn't say our father my father we're exposing it it's interesting that there's only one time that Jesus didn't refer to him as my father that's when he hung on that cross and bail it out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me why didn't he call him father because he couldn't he was in our shoes he was not a place and we have no capacity to grasp what really went on there we'll be dealing with that later in the in the study of this Gospel my father's house and if interesting Jesus being portrayed here is inflexibly religious righteous I should say riggs and flexibly righteous most people have the impression that he was only meek gentle and compassionate we're in for a speak surprise he is capable of anger as we see it here we're going to see him in a different light beware the wrath of the Lamb I preached on this once and someone sent me some bumper stickers for my car beware the lamb I kind of like that that's pretty good okay remember when he ends up in Nazareth in Luke 4 he said that so to Gauguin he calls for the Book of Isaiah he reads Isaiah 61 verse 1 and 2 and we finished his reading shuts it says this day is that scripture fulfilled in your ears when you compare what he read in Luke 4 with Isaiah 61 you discover he stopped at a comma he didn't finish the sentence the part he didn't read was and the day of vengeance of our God he stopped at the comma closes that this day as this scripture fulfilled the other will be fulfilled but that comma has lasted about two thousand years but when he comes back it's going to be a very big surprise in terms of the Jesus that comes back the in vengeance of our God Wow verse 17 the disciples remembered that it was written the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and that's a quote by his disciples from Psalm 69 Psalm 69 is the most quoted some in the New Testament for other reasons not for this one another part of it that is worth your be aware of verses eight nine that described his childhood days of how he and his mother were made mockery of because he was apparently illegitimate how the drunkards made up songs about him down in the tavern about he and his mother about the tension within the family among the children they don't know who Jesus father is he did that stigma of illegitimacy hovers on him and his mother for over 30 years we all know about as we all we know we have some glimpse of this pain and suffering on the cross most of us haven't had had no grasp of what he put up with for 30 years as a child so that you and I could have an unblemished family three as a son of God Wow anyway quoting Psalm 69 moving on verse 18 then answered the Jews and said unto Him what sign show us now unto us seeing that thou do is these things always looking for a sign it's actually just to collect the different places that the Pharisees are what we're asking for a sign and it will just finish something really wild and they still look for a sign and the Jews answered and said to them destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up what's he talking about okay see this is this this phrase will be misquoted during his trial when we get to the end but and in three days there's this three days come up again is there a connection of this three days in the three days of numbers okay I said the Jews forty and six years was this temple in building and wilt thou rear it up in three days that's the rebuttal to the strange remark that destroy this temple and reason four days see Herod's temple actually was a massive weakened restoration as Everette syllables temple built the days of nehemiah because the reconstruction the temple began about eighteen BC and was continued to about 63 ad if this is 46 years from the beginning that would imply that this is all occurring about 28 AD if Jesus was born in 2 BC as we suggested the possibility of it a previous session then this would make him about 30 or priesthood age so it all would fit together by the way forty and six years but of course here that John explains but he spake of the temple of his body well we not an understanding that that's he destroy this temple meaning his body in three days we all know that it's three days between the the crucifixion and the empty tomb but he's equating all of this to himself his temple right I wonder what this means in comparison to the ashes of the red heifer procedure seven times the scriptures by the way it also declares ye are the temple of God here we have Jesus plenty to himself as equivalent to the temple of God all right but you'll discover that seven times in the scripture the same designation is given to you we'll come to that in a minute here - so spake of the temple of his body but he answered and said of them well this is back on another case but it's another place where you looking for a sign instead of an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign but there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah but for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whales belly so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth wow that tells you that Hades is a geocentric concept at least conceptually and of course he's linking Jonah and his experience to him predictably which tells you something about Jonah most people don't know I believe you from the text and Jonah Jonah died most people don't they assume that he was just that he somehow survived he did survive it but he went to Sheol term was used and she was the abode of the Dead the departed spirits a grave and Sheol are two different things three days again you know how many times you see three days well we see new life on the third day in Genesis 1 we looked at that Abrams offering of Isaac when God told Abraham to offer his son it was three days that the son was dead to him and that's what he was loving 19 points that out Abraham knew he's acting out prophecy that's why he named the place in the malware shall be seen and again 2000 years later on that very spot another father would offer his son and so on and we always run Christmas we always say cook Isaiah 9:6 for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given those are not synonymous the child is born occurred in Bethlehem the son is given occurred on Golgotha they're both true but their different aspects Jonah the great fish we just looked at that one the tall worm and when he hangs on the cross he says I'm a worm and no man the word he uses Tola the toll is a worm and attach itself to a tree this larva becomes a source of red dye and three days it peels off white though your sins be as scarlet they should be white as wool it's a three-day process that is alluded to it strange enough by the Lord on the cross Rahab's counsel there's a web there's a strange pun the Holy Spirit uses to put three days between the pebble and trauma over Hebel and the hope of the tick left three days in in Webb's counsel it's another whole study the wedding at Cana we've just been through that also had a three a third day emphasis both in the front end of it and in the procedure that's invoked and of course Israel's petition for repentance as the prerequisite of the second coming in Hosea and last verse of five the first part of six so three days seem to be relevant to all of this and we've we could go through to one of these but let's go on here when therefore he was risen from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said so see they may not have understood it when it happened but upon reflection John is saying they understood it later it's basically a no surprise now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast name many believed in his name and when they saw the miracles which he did so it was a fruitful time apparently and this are going for the feast day anyway and we're going on here but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and he needed not that any should testify of men for he knew what was in man pretty dismal clothes isn't it so Israel spiritual status you had a blinded priesthood we saw that earlier in chapter one they had a joyless nation they were without wine as the flavor here and they had a desecrated temple we discovered and it's interesting to me that as we peel the onion on on numbers 19 that that whole procedure had to do with the temple to the screwed temple so the third day is emphasized of the critical aspect it's linked with the temple we notice that of his body apparently a ritual separation from death in other words to life and it's not a sacrifice our offering itself takes advantage of a task symbolic death the death of the red the being with the actions of a red heifer and Jesus is of course our high priest I'll let you - on these pray that through and see if you feel there's any connection between the whole Cana experience and the rest of the chapter where Jesus speaks of himself coming up on the third day meanwhile let's get back to ourselves you are the temple of God that's declared seven times in the scripture in first Corinthians 3:9 at 6:19 and 616 in Ephesians 2 and Hebrews 3 those five are by Paul and then we have first Peter - and first Peter four by Peter himself obviously so Paul four times Peter twice but I'm always fascinated when I see the architecture by more than one that tells me the architectures by the Holy Spirit not a stylistic of some particular pendant so when we get the first Thessalonians five there's an insight you need to be aware of it a very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in this passage is where we get the insight one in several places the insight of what's called the tripartite design the spirit the soul of the body in that order the spirit should be on top being the soul which drives the body we get it upside down we let the body rule our appetites and but hey that's part of the problem we get it upside down and so it's interesting is another thing only the Word of God can discern the distinction between the spirit and the soul and what's my authority for that well several but Hebrews 4:12 is our Authority for that for the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart this is the reason that psychology is doomed to frustration because only the Word of God can discern between the spirit and the soul psyche and so psychology is doomed for sure that very reason if you've done a study of automata and Computer Sciences you know that it's impossible to discern the architecture of an infinite state machine from its external behavior whether you know it or not you are an infinite state machine mathematically speaking and it's impossible to discern your internal architecture from your external behavior it's a victim of a theory of a dominantly John DeLorean and that's exactly the dilemma that psychology faces because they're trying to infer your architecture from your external behavior it can't be done because your inference state machine so as we look at this again we've looked at this be the past with it using the the tabernacle as a model here we can see the outer court being the body the holy place being the soul the self if you will and the the spirit in the Holy of Holies there's a parallelism here of body soles the tripartite design on the Tabernacle would seem to be an approximation at least of our architecture that's why you can say seven times ye are the temple of God well if you say temple you're going one step beyond this you're going to the Parliament we went through these before the mercy seat their account of the golden oil all the elements of their and those were those became the elements of the temple and so it's feasible to get into all of this from the same point of view set aside the furniture for the moment and take a look at the zones here we have the body we have the soul and the spirit but there's something different here there's a couple of elements that deserve attention as this is this is amplified in the materials of my wife's ministry called the way of agape and be transformed where it really develops practical implications of this kind of architecture because it also deals with these strange wooden storerooms which the hidden chambers that seem to be Co relative to what we call the subconscious those things that can affect our behavior but their subconscious to us if we if we don't deal with them properly and that the main point is there's a relational area where you make choices that's between the soul of the body and the porch if you will and it has significance this may sound strange to you but I invite you to get acquainted with my wife's materials the way of agape and the D transform materials they're the profoundly relevant in terms of practical guidance in these areas because we have the greatest commandment did you know we have the greatest commandment we all know it right as Jesus quotes the the shabak from Devon e65 thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy light and Matthew 22:37 is one place where he said thou shalt love Lord thy God with that heart soul and with my mind and the question this is is that sounds great but how do you do that how do that that will require you having some insight as to what do we mean by heart soul and mind don't think that mine means brain they're not the same thing heart soul mind and what do these things really mean and my bride spent 20 years tracking down every Greek and Hebrew word that in any way related to any one of these to get their usage and discover made all kinds of discoveries which is what led to her a family things a heart soul and mind well see we have a systems architecture you know we if I have a computer up here obviously I've got hardware it has micro circuits and memory and those things but does that tell you anything about the behavior of the computer it's here in this platform not at all because it all depends with the softness the hardware is simply eight residents for the software the software determines what happens when I push my buttons and there's a user interface and there's internal interfaces and there's a machine language don't get all is here the point is is that my problem tonight I can't see you I can see the temporary residents that you're in okay and so you know we can we can simulate that hardware got man that's pretty simple to switch on and off you go on off I deal with woman it's a little different and so on why are you guys laughing you'd like a remote there to which it has some so we can play with these things ideas but now the truth of matter is is that you have a physical body that's called relative to the hardware environment flesh bones circulatory system etcetera etcetera etcetera but you also have the software part of you your cell your actual self call it soul spirit mind whatever your thoughts themselves that makes up you has got nothing to do with the physics of your body that's not a physiological issue and it's the parallelism of software in the computer and the software that makes up the real you that I want highlight here because there are some things we know about software that might be worth your understanding if software has no mass a light switch that's on or off can be storing a 1 or a 0 but it doesn't change the mass of it does it it weighs the same when it's on rough write software has no mass if I take a little diskette how we're using different things but you remember the little biscuits I'll just use that as my example here and I weigh a blank cassette it weighs about seven tenths of an ounce if I load that cassette with a million bytes of software and weigh it it will be seven pencil else didn't change the mass I can even send software through the airwaves and I it's off because no mass and so I can go through that see the real you is is software not hardware and it's self-modifying history dependent and space transcendent but that's you now it has no mass you need to understand that if you if we had the background and use of toilet you know that that time has it varies by mass acceleration gravity if you're outside if you have no mass you have no time South Korea has no yes so it's not restricted to a time domain that means you are eternal whether you're saved or not still software when you're saved or not the dilemma is where you going to spend it that's what it's all about eternity is a long time and that's what we're going to deal with in depth in Chapter three of the Gospel of John so will that we in our next session we've been through wedding at Cana and the cleansing of the temple we have the water purifications are tucked behind the scenes of the wedding of Cana we have the Tri part residency highlighted by Lord Himself in chapter 2 is up to you to reflect to see are there connections that have not really been made in our literature between the two halves of this chapter and we've had some topical tutorials here we obviously went through the acid redheffer in the back room of the water purification and we talked my personal architecture in terms of Jesus saying destroy this temple and raise it up in three days and so for our next session I want you to prepare by studying John chapter three it's a very rich chapter it's in that spirit then you might also read numbers 21 the familiar tale about the brass serpent the brazen serpent and there's aspects that that may surprise you where where is this strange remedy that God has Moses use in numbers 20 where is it explained anywhere else in the Bible so weird deal where does it explain and how is this event in numbers 21 significant apologetically on the word apologetic may be a new term to you comes from the Greek word apology which means speaking in defense it's the discipline of defending a position through systematic use of reason in the second Peter 3:15 be ready always to give every man an answer of the hope that is within you that's a call you're not going to win anybody through apologetics because it's not it's not a logical issue so they logically should either but the point is you are called to be able to defend your position rationally and that's what apologetics is we don't spend a lot of time on that because I'm not sure there's fruit usually but we shouldn't be inconsistent with that so the question is what do we learn from number 21 that's going to be exemplified in chapter 3 that's useful to us apologetically that's your challenge for next time and so on apologetics is a practical tool but it's not an end in itself so with that let's stand for closing word of Prayer father we thank you for who you are we thank you for your word and we thank you for the mysteries that lie behind these metaphors we do pray father that through your Holy Spirit you would illuminate the text that we might understand precisely what it is that you would have of us in these days that we might be more effective for you as we commit ourselves into your hands without any reservation whatsoever the name of Yeshua our Lord our kinsman redeemer our coming again you [Music] you

Channel: Emmaus Road

Views: 4,981

Rating: 4.6417909 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, Christ, Messiah, Christian, faith, believer, Salvation, Gospel of John, New Testament, Grace, Love, Jesus Christ, Apostle John, God, The Lord, The Good News, The gospels, The beloved apostle

Id: ffj23v2CxHU

Length: 61min 25sec (3685 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2017