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Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS024042S
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00:10 ♪♪♪ 00:13 >>Eric Flickinger: Welcome to "Sabbath School," 00:15 brought to you by It Is Written. 00:17 We're glad you're with us today as we continue to take a journey 00:20 and delve into the themes in the book of John. 00:24 This is lesson number 3. 00:26 We're going to be looking at "The Backstory: The Prologue." 00:29 So we've moved forward in John; now we're coming back 00:32 and looking at some other things, starting in John, 00:34 chapter 1. Again, we're glad that you're with us. 00:37 Let's begin with prayer. 00:38 Father, we thank You for blessing us 00:40 with a deeper understanding of the book of John already. 00:43 And today, as we delve into it once again, 00:45 we ask for increased light, increased wisdom, 00:49 increased understanding as we get to know 00:52 more of the gospel story through the book of John. 00:54 We thank You, in Jesus' name, 00:56 amen. >>Thomas Shepherd: Amen. 00:57 >>Eric: Well, we're grateful to have, 00:59 helping guide us through this study, Dr. Tom Shepherd. 01:02 He's a senior research professor of New Testament 01:05 at the Theological Seminary, Andrews University. 01:08 Tom, thanks for joining us again. 01:09 >>Tom: It's a joy to be here. 01:11 >>Eric: So we are in lesson number 3, 01:13 "The Backstory: The Prologue." 01:14 We're going back to chapter 1 of John again, 01:16 which begins with the words, "In the beginning was the Word." 01:20 Help us understand this word "logos" or "logos," 01:24 depending on how one wants to pronounce it. 01:26 Why does that term--how does that term refer to Jesus, 01:30 and what does John link that usage to? 01:33 >>Tom: Okay, so we're going 01:34 to the very beginning of the book. 01:36 Each of our gospels, our four gospels, 01:38 begins in a different way. 01:40 The book of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus 01:44 and then the birth narrative 01:46 about His story and the wise men 01:48 who come to visit Him. 01:50 The Gospel of Mark, as we studied last quarter, 01:52 begins rather abruptly, actually with an introduction 01:55 of the Father and Son discussing things, 01:58 but then the story of John the Baptist's ministry. 02:01 The book of Luke starts with an interesting 02:05 intro where he's writing to a man named Theophilus, 02:08 and then he gives a long discussion 02:11 of the birth narrative, 02:12 but in a different way than Matthew. 02:15 There's different people that are kind of emphasized, 02:18 Elizabeth and Zechariah and so forth 02:21 and people are singing in the songs of the Spirit. 02:25 The book of John begins differently 02:28 than all the other three. 02:30 It begins with this prologue 02:32 that goes back to before Creation. 02:36 And it says, "In the beginning was the Word, 02:40 "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 02:44 "He was in the beginning with God. 02:46 "All things were made through Him, 02:48 "and without Him was not any thing made that was made. 02:52 "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 02:56 "The light shines in the darkness, 02:58 and the darkness has not overcome it." 03:01 It's so beautiful. It's actually poetic. 03:04 And there's a special way that he writes this 03:07 that the phrase, the one phrase will end with a word, 03:12 and then that word begins the next phrase. 03:14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 03:19 and the Word was God." 03:21 And he does this several times through this prologue. 03:25 So we wonder why does he use 03:26 this word "logos," which means "word." 03:31 Interestingly, the word "logos" 03:34 meant different things for different people. 03:36 For some of the Greeks, the word "logos" was the-- 03:41 we get the word "logic" from the word "logos." 03:44 And for some of the Greeks, it was the organizing principle 03:50 that was behind all the order that they saw in nature. 03:54 That was the "logos." 03:55 For the Hebrews, for the Jews, 03:58 the word "logos" 04:00 was a translation back in the Old Testament 04:04 for Hebrew words referring to the word of God, 04:10 God speaking and things happen. 04:12 You know, "He spoke, and it stood fast," 04:15 you know, He created it. He speaks, and it happens. 04:18 So the word of God is His creative power 04:20 that shows itself in Creation. 04:24 Now, what John says here 04:26 at the very beginning of this is, 04:29 "In the beginning," which, you know, 04:32 rings to us of Genesis 1, verse 1, which says, 04:37 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." 04:39 "In the beginning was the Word." 04:41 So the Word, this "logos," 04:44 was there before Creation began, right? 04:49 "And the Word was with God." 04:51 So the Word, this "logos," whatever or whoever this is, 04:56 was present with God, and then he says, 04:58 "And the Word was God." 05:00 Now, we should maybe pause 05:03 for a moment and note that our friends, 05:07 the Jehovah's Witnesses, 05:09 translate this "and the Word was a god." 05:13 That's actually not a good translation. 05:17 They point to the fact that the term "God" 05:20 in that last phrase does not have the Greek article. 05:24 Now, the Greek article is what we call the word "the," 05:29 and you'd think that the word "the" 05:32 was not a very important word. 05:34 It's just a small little word that we use all the time. 05:37 But when you have a small little word 05:39 that you use all the time, 05:41 and grammarians get a hold of it, 05:43 they have to figure out all the different uses. 05:46 They're like a post office box. 05:48 They want a cubby hole for every usage, you see. 05:51 The word "the" in Greek is somewhat complex, 05:56 and so grammars will have pages and pages 06:00 and pages explaining to you the usage. 06:03 Now, so, the word "the" in Greek originally was 06:08 a demonstrative pronoun; that means "this" or "that." 06:11 So it pointed towards specificity-- 06:14 this book, that iPad, you know, things like that. 06:18 And so it has that, you know, kind of concrete connection. 06:22 The absence of the article-- 06:24 they didn't have an indirect article like we do, 06:26 a little "a"-- 06:27 the absence of the article was more qualitative in nature. 06:31 So when it says, "The Word was God," 06:34 it doesn't mean He was a god. 06:37 We don't use English grammar to explain Greek grammar. 06:40 We rather say, okay, 06:41 so what does this signify for a Greek mind? 06:45 What it would signify was that the Word, 06:48 this "logos," had the qualities of God. 06:52 So you actually have two individuals in verse 1. 06:54 You have the "logos," and you have God-- 06:58 that would be God the Father, all right? 07:01 And we'll find out later, of course, in verse 14, 07:03 "The Word became flesh." It's Jesus Christ. 07:06 So the Word is Jesus and becomes that this Word of God expressed 07:13 in becoming a human being. 07:17 >>Eric: So we're getting a better idea 07:19 of who the "logos" is here and why John uses that term. 07:22 Also in John 1, we kind of see an idea 07:25 of maybe where John is comparing and contrasting 07:29 Jesus with John the Baptist. 07:32 What do we see there in that comparison? 07:34 >>Tom: Yeah, so if you read those first five verses again 07:37 that we looked at, we see that it starts off in verse 1, 07:42 "In the beginning was the Word," 07:44 okay, so that's a concept of, like, eternal existence. 07:48 "And the Word was with God," 07:50 this intimate relationship with God the Father. 07:53 "And the Word was God"-- He has a divine nature, okay? 07:56 So, now you go down 07:59 to verse 6 and read verse 6 to 8. 08:05 >>Eric: "There was a man sent from God, 08:07 "whose name was John. 08:08 "This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, 08:12 "that all through him might believe. 08:14 "He was not that Light, 08:15 but was sent to bear witness of that Light." 08:18 >>Tom: Okay, so, "There was a man sent from God, 08:22 whose name was John." 08:23 So, "In the beginning was the Word," so the Word has-- 08:27 He's before Creation, He has eternal existence, 08:29 but John is a man; 08:32 he has human existence. 08:34 He is not with God, like the Word, 08:37 so he doesn't have an intimate relationship. 08:38 He's sent from God. 08:40 He has--he's a messenger sent by God, whose name was John. 08:44 He has a human name-- where the Word, 08:47 Jesus, has the nature of God. 08:50 So there's a comparison made between them in each case. 08:53 And Jesus, the Word, has life: 08:57 "And the life was the light of men," 08:58 and "the light shines in the darkness, 09:00 and the darkness has not overcome it." 09:01 That's verses 4 and 5. 09:03 John, it says, "He came as a witness, 09:05 "to bear witness about the light, 09:06 "that all might believe through him. He was not the light, 09:10 but came to bear witness about the light." 09:12 So he's pointing to the light, and Jesus is the light. 09:15 Now, we might wonder, well, why take such a, 09:19 you know, amount of time to emphasize 09:22 the difference between Jesus and John the Baptist? 09:25 Everybody knows that John the Baptist was, 09:27 you know, the forerunner and not the Messiah. 09:30 Well, you know, that's our perspective. 09:33 But back in those days, 09:34 you read between the lines here in the book of John, 09:37 and you'll see that there was a-- 09:40 there was kind of a rivalry between the disciples of Jesus 09:43 and the disciples of John. 09:45 And these-- 09:47 this rivalry could destroy the mission of the Messiah 09:51 or greatly hamper it if John were to be, you know, 09:55 push himself forward. 09:56 So our gospel writer makes it clear 10:00 that John is not the light, 10:02 John is not divine; 10:04 John is just a messenger, point towards the Messiah. 10:08 >>Eric: So we see clear differences 10:10 there between the two of them. 10:12 When we look at the contrasts here in the prologue, 10:16 in the first portion of the book of John, 10:18 what are some of the positive and negative contrasts 10:21 that we see in this prologue? 10:23 >>Tom: You know, we really get these positive 10:25 and negative contrasts when we read verses 9 to 12. 10:29 Let's take a look at those. 10:30 >>Eric: "That was the true Light 10:32 "which gives light to every man coming into the world. 10:35 "He was in the world, 10:36 "and the world was made through Him, 10:38 "and the world did not know Him. 10:40 "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 10:43 "But as many as received Him, 10:45 "to them He gave the right to become children of God, 10:48 to those who believe in His name." 10:51 >>Tom: And verse 13 as well. 10:52 >>Eric: "Who were born, not of blood, 10:54 "nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 10:57 but of God." 10:58 >>Tom: Okay, so here we have a reference 11:02 back to this true Light, 11:03 which lightens every person coming into the world. 11:07 We had back in verse 5, 11:09 "The Light shines in the darkness, 11:11 and the darkness has not overcome it." 11:14 So you have a contrast between light and darkness. 11:18 You also have this contrast: 11:20 He was in the world, the world was made through Him, 11:23 yet the world did not know Him. 11:26 And then you have, "He came to His own [people], 11:29 and His own [people] did not receive Him." 11:31 But those who did receive Him, He gave them the authority 11:36 "to become children of God... who were born, not of blood, 11:40 nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God." 11:42 So there's this contrast between, 11:44 like, good and evil, between light and darkness, 11:47 between the world and Jesus. 11:49 Here's the Creator who comes to His own world, 11:52 and His own world doesn't receive Him. 11:54 He comes to His own people, the chosen people. 11:57 See, this is something that the Christians had to explain. 12:00 Why was it the Messiah came, and God's people didn't accept Him? 12:08 Well, we'll see in the Gospel of John 12:10 the reason they don't accept Him 12:12 is He's a threat to their power, and He's not the kind of Messiah 12:15 that they're expecting. And so, 12:19 they are not going to, you know, go down that path with Him. 12:24 >>Eric: So this prologue is setting the stage 12:26 for where we're going through the book of John. 12:30 We have a companion book to this quarter's lesson 12:34 on the book of John, the themes in the book of John. 12:36 Share with us a little bit about that book. 12:38 >>Tom: So each quarter we have someone write a book 12:41 on the lesson quarterly. 12:44 It's a companion book that goes beyond the lesson, 12:46 beyond the teacher's quarterly. 12:48 It gives you additional information, 12:50 maybe some background information, 12:51 maybe some interesting story information 12:54 or interesting details, 12:55 exegetical details, that go deeper into it, 12:58 and it can be very helpful for both class members 13:02 and particularly for teachers who want to, you know, 13:05 have good answers when people ask questions-- 13:08 "What does this mean?" or "How do I understand this?" 13:10 So we recommend that people get a copy. 13:13 >>Eric: You can pick that copy up at itiswritten.shop. 13:16 Again, itiswritten.shop. 13:18 Just look for the companion book 13:20 to this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson 13:21 on the themes in John. 13:23 We're going to come right back in just a moment 13:25 as we continue taking a look at this prologue, 13:27 the backstory, of the book of John. 13:29 We'll be back in just one moment. 13:30 ♪♪♪ 13:35 >>John Bradshaw: Of the more than 31,000 verses in the Bible, 13:38 it's said that this one is the most loved: 13:41 "For God so loved the world, 13:43 "that He gave His only begotten Son, 13:45 "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 13:49 but have everlasting life." 13:53 But who said those words? 13:55 And to whom did he say them? 13:57 Don't miss "Great Chapters of the Bible: John [Chapter] 3," 14:02 where we investigate that nighttime interview 14:05 between Jesus and an important visitor. 14:09 Jesus in John, chapter 3 said that we must be "born again" 14:13 if we want to enter into the kingdom of heaven. 14:15 And later in John, chapter 3, 14:17 the final words recorded in Scripture of John the Baptist. 14:22 Don't miss "Great Chapters of the Bible: John [Chapter] 3" 14:27 on It Is Written TV. 14:35 >>John: You know that at It Is Written 14:37 we are serious about studying the Word of God, 14:40 and we encourage you to be serious as well. 14:42 Well, here's what you do 14:43 if you want to dig deeper into God's Word. 14:45 Go to itiswritten.study 14:48 for the It Is Written Bible Study Guides online, 14:50 25 in-depth Bible studies that will take you 14:53 through the major teachings of the Bible. 14:55 You'll be blessed, and it's something 14:57 you'll want to tell others about as well: 14:59 itiswritten.study. 15:01 Go further: itiswritten.study. 15:06 ♪♪♪ 15:09 >>Eric: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 15:11 brought to you by It Is Written. 15:13 We are taking a journey through the book of John 15:15 and looking at "The Backstory: The Prologue" right now. 15:20 Tom, I want to jump to, well, 15:22 several different areas with the next question. 15:26 The theme of belief and unbelief, 15:28 or the themes of belief and unbelief, 15:30 appear many times in the book of John. 15:33 What are the lessons that he wants us to learn 15:36 from this idea of belief and unbelief? 15:39 >>Tom: Okay, so the Gospel of John 15:42 focuses a lot-- it never uses the word "faith," 15:47 but it uses the verb "believe" a lot. 15:49 And so, you have a big emphasis on believing. 15:53 Remember we said at the beginning 15:54 that this book is "written that you may believe 15:57 "that Jesus is the [Messiah]..., and that believing 16:01 you...have life [through] His name." 16:03 So the sad fact is that He came, 16:07 and His own people had trouble believing in Him. 16:11 Now, some did, of course, 16:13 and it's the same, true today that still people do. 16:17 Some do and some don't believe. 16:18 We see in the very prologue, the very beginning, 16:21 as we've just read in the first part 16:22 of our time together here in this lesson, 16:25 that the true Light was shining, and He came into the world. 16:29 The world did not know Him. He came to His own people, 16:32 and His own people did not receive Him. 16:34 And then John contrasts that with people 16:36 who do receive Him and do believe in Him. 16:38 Now, when we turn over to chapter 3, 16:42 we get this same kind of picture coming back again. 16:46 Jesus is talking with Nicodemus, 16:51 John 3, verses 16 through 21. 16:55 >>Eric: "For God so loved the world that He gave 16:57 "His only begotten Son, 16:59 "that whoever believes in Him should not perish 17:01 "but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son 17:05 "into the world to condemn the world, 17:07 "but that the world through Him might be saved. 17:10 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; 17:13 "but he who does not believe is condemned already, 17:15 "because he has not believed 17:17 "in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 17:20 "And this is [that] condemnation, 17:21 "that the light has come into the world, 17:24 "and men loved darkness rather than light, 17:26 "because their deeds were evil. 17:28 "For everyone practicing evil 17:30 "hates the light and does not come to the light, 17:32 "lest his deeds should be exposed. 17:35 "But he who does the truth comes to the light, 17:37 "that his deeds may be clearly seen, 17:40 that they have been done in God." 17:42 >>Tom: Right, so here we see this emphasis again on belief. 17:46 "God so loved" the most famous verse in the Bible-- 17:48 "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, 17:51 "that whoever believes in Him 17:52 should not perish but have eternal life." 17:54 It's a beautiful, beautiful text. 17:58 And verse 17 goes right along with it: 18:00 "For God did not send His Son 18:01 "into the world to condemn the world, 18:03 but in order that the world might be saved through Him." 18:06 I mean, that's the message to each one of us. 18:08 God loves you. God sent His Son to save you. 18:11 He sent Him to save me. And if you'll believe in Him, 18:14 you'll find eternal life and have eternal life. 18:17 It's a great message. 18:18 So when you get to verse 18, 18:20 "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned"--you know, 18:23 you've passed from judgment into life-- 18:25 "but whoever does not believe is condemned already, 18:29 "because he has not believed 18:30 in the name of the only Son of God." 18:32 Look at this emphasis on believe, not believe, 18:35 condemn, not condemn. 18:37 All these contrasts back and forth, back and forth 18:40 show us this kind of picture that runs through the book. 18:45 So why is it? Why don't people believe? 18:48 And He explains right here. 18:50 Jesus says, "The light has come into the world." 18:54 He says, "This is the judgment: 18:56 "the light has come into the world, 18:57 "and people loved the darkness 19:01 rather than the light because their works were evil." 19:05 So that's the real basis 19:07 of the hatred of that which is good, 19:09 is the loving of that which is evil. 19:12 "For everyone who does wicked things hates the light... 19:16 "does not come to the light, 19:17 lest his works should be exposed." 19:18 There's a reason why thieves go about 19:21 in the night, [chuckles[ 19:23 because they don't want to be exposed. 19:24 You know, it's interesting, you'll see sometimes people 19:26 brought to justice, and sometimes as they go into 19:29 the courtroom, they shield their eyes; they shield their face. 19:34 They don't want their face to be seen. 19:37 It's very interesting, this concept of shame. 19:40 Now, this shows up a little bit again 19:42 in the words of John the Baptist 19:46 at the end of the same chapter, 19:48 verses 31 to 36. Maybe you could read those. 19:51 >>Eric: "He who comes from above is above all; 19:54 "he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. 19:57 "He who comes from heaven is above all. 20:00 "And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; 20:03 "and no one receives His testimony. 20:05 "He who has received His testimony 20:07 "has certified that God is true. 20:09 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, 20:13 "for God does not give the Spirit by measure. 20:15 "The Father loves the Son, 20:17 "and has given all things into His hand. 20:19 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; 20:23 "and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, 20:26 but the wrath of God abides on him." 20:28 >>Tom: So, I mean, we could lay out back and forth, 20:31 back and forth these contrasts that show up in this passage. 20:34 These are the words of John the Baptist 20:36 echoing the words of Jesus: And He comes from heaven, 20:41 He bears witness of what He's heard, 20:43 no one receives that testimony, 20:46 but the one who receives His testimony, 20:48 sets his seal that God is true. 20:49 So there's the unbeliever and the believer. 20:52 "He whom God has sent utters the words of God," and then, 20:55 "The Father loves the Son 20:56 "and has given all things into His hand. 20:58 "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; 21:01 whoever does not obey the Son"-- 21:03 notice the difference, the link between belief and obey-- 21:07 "shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." 21:10 So it's not eternal life for those people, 21:12 but the wrath of God. 21:14 For Jesus said back in the earlier verses 21:17 in this passage about condemnation. 21:19 So we have this contrast, belief and unbelief, showing up. 21:23 Now, the culmination of this picture of belief 21:27 and unbelief shows up in chapter 12 21:30 in a most striking conclusion to "the book of signs." 21:36 It's John, chapter 12, 21:40 starting in verse 36 and going through verse 43. 21:48 >>Eric: "'While you have the light, believe in the light, 21:50 "that you may become sons of light.' 21:53 "These things Jesus spoke, and departed, 21:55 "and was hidden from them. 21:56 "But although He had done so many signs before them, 22:00 "they did not believe in Him, 22:01 "that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, 22:04 "which he spoke: 'Lord, who has believed our report? 22:08 "And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' 22:10 "Therefore they could not believe, 22:12 "because Isaiah said again: 22:14 "'He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, 22:17 "'lest they should see with their eyes, 22:19 "'lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, 22:22 "so that I should heal them.' 22:23 "These things Isaiah said 22:25 "when he saw His glory and spoke of Him. 22:28 "Nevertheless even among the rulers 22:30 "many believed in Him, 22:32 "but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, 22:35 "lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 22:38 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." 22:42 >>Tom: Yeah, so it's not that God has predestined people 22:44 to be lost, but it's a question 22:48 of what will you do with the light that God gives you? 22:51 God gives you light-- 22:52 now what are you going to do with the light? 22:55 We're going to see this again as we look at different stories 22:57 in John about what people do with the light. 23:01 Do you turn towards the light, 23:02 or do you turn away from the light? 23:04 And this conclusion to "the book of signs" 23:08 really illustrates how the question 23:11 is not what the light is and the bringing of the light, 23:17 but rather with what people do 23:19 with the light that God gives them. 23:20 We remember back in chapter 1, 23:22 it said that the true light lightens every person 23:25 coming into the world. 23:27 And so, everybody gets some light. 23:30 Now, what will you do with that light that God gives you? 23:33 It's a question that comes to each one of us today. 23:36 What will you do with the light gives you? 23:38 If you follow the light, you'll get more light. 23:42 If you turn from the light, 23:43 well, it's not like God is going to say, 23:45 "Well, we gave them the light once; 23:48 that's all they get, just once." No, God's not like that. 23:51 He's going to come to you again and again and again 23:54 giving you light, but it's very important 23:57 that you take seriously the light that comes 24:01 and not turn away from it. 24:04 All right, so that shows us some of the themes 24:08 of the idea of light 24:13 and how it relates to the questions of belief. 24:18 >>Eric: So we've looked at light. What about glory? 24:21 John talks about glory. Help us understand that concept. 24:24 >>Tom: Yeah, we've already seen some of this before. 24:26 "Glory" is a word that shows-- 24:29 we typically see this when God appears. 24:33 We've talked about this idea of a theophany 24:35 or an epiphany where God or an angel appears, 24:39 and there's glory, and there's human fear, 24:42 and then there's some kind of revelation. 24:44 So we've already seen that this type of thing has taken place. 24:49 If we go back to John, chapter 1 24:51 and we read the beautiful words, John 1, verses 14 through 18, 24:56 we'll see some of this reference to glory. 25:00 >>Eric: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, 25:03 "and we beheld His glory, 25:05 "the glory as of the only begotten 25:07 "of the Father, full of grace and truth. 25:10 "John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, 25:13 "'This was He of whom I said, 25:15 "'"He who comes after me is preferred before me, 25:18 "for He was before me."' 25:20 "And of His fullness we have all received, 25:22 "and grace for grace. 25:24 "For the law was given through Moses, 25:26 "but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 25:29 "No one has seen God at any time. 25:32 "The only begotten Son, 25:33 "who is in the bosom of the Father, 25:35 He has declared Him." 25:36 >>Tom: Okay, so here's a reference that says, 25:40 "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." 25:42 Now, the Word "dwelt among us"-- 25:44 the word "dwelt" is, means "to pitch a tent." 25:49 And it's typical of the Old Testament sanctuary, actually. 25:53 The Israelites lived in tents. God was invisible. 25:56 "No man has ever seen God at any time," says John. 26:00 And God wanted them to know of His presence being with them. 26:05 And so He said, "Let them make me a sanctuary 26:07 that I may dwell among them." 26:09 I'll pitch my tent in the middle of the camp. 26:11 I'll be with my people. 26:13 His glory appeared there in the tent. 26:16 And above the tent there was the cloud 26:18 that was a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. 26:21 So God's presence, His glory, was there. 26:23 This glory came to dwell in Jesus Himself. 26:27 He became the embodiment of the glory of God. 26:30 And John says, "We saw His glory," 26:33 glory "as of the only begotten," of "the only Son of the Father, 26:36 full of grace and truth." 26:39 So where does this glory appear? 26:41 Well, it appears in the life of Jesus and the way 26:44 that He relates to other people, the way He cares for them, 26:47 and the way He reaches out to them. 26:50 We don't have much time, but maybe we can just 26:53 flip over to the book of John, chapter 17:1-5. 26:58 "When Jesus had spoken these words, 27:00 "He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, 27:02 "'Father, the hour has come; 27:04 "'glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, 27:07 "'since You have given Him authority over all flesh, 27:09 "'to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. 27:12 "'And this is eternal life, that they [may] know You, 27:15 "'the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 27:18 "'I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work 27:21 "'that You gave me to do. 27:23 "'And now, Father, glorify me in Your own presence 27:25 "'with the glory that I had with You 27:27 before the world existed.'" 27:29 What this is really going to point toward is 27:31 that His hour of glory is the cross. 27:35 That's His high point of His glory 27:36 as He becomes our Savior. 27:39 >>Eric: So a beautiful picture that we have 27:40 of some of the things going on at the very beginning 27:42 of the book of John that are foreshadowing 27:45 what is to come. 27:46 And you don't want to miss what is to come. 27:49 We're going to continue our study of the themes 27:51 in the book of John next week, 27:53 and we hope that you will be able to join us 27:56 and share what you learn with others. 27:57 This has been "Sabbath School," 27:59 brought to you by It Is Written. 28:01 ♪♪♪ 28:23 ♪♪♪ 28:26 [Captions provided by Aberdeen Captioning www.abercap.com] |
Revised 2024-10-09