Participants:
Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS024045S
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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 have chosen to join us today. 00:19 We are taking a look at the great themes 00:21 in the book of John, 00:23 and we're glad that you are here. 00:25 Let's begin with prayer. 00:27 Father, we ask that You'll bless us 00:28 as we continue to look at the great themes 00:30 in the book of John. Help us to learn lessons from Jesus 00:33 that we can apply in our lives today. 00:36 We thank You in Jesus' name, 00:37 amen. >>Thomas Shepherd: Amen. 00:39 >>Eric: Well, this week we are taking a look 00:41 at lesson number 6. 00:42 Lesson number 6 is "More Testimonies About Jesus." 00:45 And to help guide us through this week's lesson, 00:48 we have Dr. Tom Shepherd. 00:49 He's the senior research professor 00:51 of New Testament at the Theological Seminary; 00:53 that is Andrews University. 00:55 Tom, thanks for being with us again this week. 00:57 >>Tom: It's a joy to be here, thank you. 00:58 >>Eric: This week we are delving into, primarily, 01:01 John 6 and John 7. 01:03 In John 6, we read about the feeding of the 5,000. 01:07 Walk us through this. 01:09 >>Tom: Okay, so, we've already looked at this 01:11 in an earlier lesson. 01:12 We looked some about the actual miracle itself 01:16 of feeding the 5,000 and how Jesus interacted 01:19 with His disciples and gave these-- 01:22 fed 5,000 people with just five loaves and two fishes. 01:25 And, now, it's typical of the Gospel of John 01:29 that the miracles of Jesus, 01:32 they take a small portion of the passage 01:35 and then there's this long discussion, 01:37 sometimes a long soliloquy by Jesus, 01:40 and this passage does some of the same. 01:43 So today, we're going to look a bit more 01:46 at some of the discussion that Jesus has. 01:49 Now, He walks on water after the-- 01:53 after He sends away the crowds. 01:55 His disciples go across the boat by boat 01:59 across the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus walks on water, 02:01 He actually comes to them on the water and says to them, 02:05 "It is I; do not be afraid." 02:07 So, it's really an amazing miracle itself. 02:10 The next day, the crowd is looking for Him 02:13 where He had been on the far side 02:14 of the Sea of Galilee and they don't find Him. 02:16 So they go looking for Him, and they find Him at Capernaum, 02:19 they want to know how He got there. 02:21 And He talks about the feeding of the 5,000 02:25 in verse 26 of John 6. 02:27 He says: "Truly, truly, I say to you, 02:29 you are seeking me, not because you saw signs"-- 02:32 we've already talked about signs 02:33 as things that point towards God's power-- 02:37 "but because you ate your fill of the loaves," 02:39 They were [laughs] just looking for more food. 02:42 He's going to have actually a discussion with them 02:44 about some of those kinds of ideas, 02:47 but they just are not really so interested 02:53 in what He has to say. 02:55 Now, I want to have you read for us, then, 02:59 verses 35 through 40. 03:02 >>Eric: "And Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. 03:05 "'He who comes to me shall never hunger, 03:07 "'and he who believes in me shall never thirst. 03:10 "'But I said to you that you have seen me 03:12 "'and yet do not believe. 03:14 "'All that the Father gives me will come to me, 03:17 "'and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. 03:20 "'For I have come down from heaven, 03:22 "'not to do my own will, 03:24 "'but the will of Him who sent me. 03:25 "'This is the will of the Father who sent me, 03:28 "'that of all He has given me I should lose nothing, 03:31 "'but should raise it up at the last day. 03:33 "'And this is the will of Him who sent me, 03:36 "'that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him 03:38 "'may have everlasting life; 03:41 and I will raise him up at the last day.'" 03:43 >>Tom: All right, so this is a very important turning point; 03:46 a very important statement is made here in verse 35. 03:50 Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." 03:52 Now, throughout the Gospel of John, 03:55 there are a series of seven statements 03:57 where He says, I am this, I am that, 04:00 and this is the first one: "I am the bread of life." 04:03 We remember back in chapter 2 04:04 that we studied before, 04:06 that He turned water into wine, what we said was grape juice. 04:10 And we have the two elements of the communion service, 04:13 the Lord's supper, the cup of grape juice and the bread, 04:19 and they represent Jesus' body. 04:21 Now, in the Gospel of John, we said before, 04:24 we don't have any statement of the Lord's supper. 04:27 Well, it's really kind of here in Cana of Galilee 04:31 and here when He fed the 5,000. 04:34 And He says, "I am the bread of life. 04:36 "Whoever comes to me shall never hunger, 04:39 and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." 04:42 The woman at the well that we just talked about 04:44 in another episode last week, 04:47 she received that water of life and wasn't thirsty anymore. 04:52 And so, here we have the, you know, 04:55 combining of these ideas that Jesus says. 04:57 Now, He says, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, 05:01 and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." 05:04 Some people get the idea that Jesus, you know-- 05:07 that some are in and some are out. 05:10 And if you're in, that's good for you. 05:12 If you're out, too bad for you. 05:14 But I want to remind our listeners 05:16 to read John 3:16. 05:18 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 05:21 "that whoever believes in Him should not perish 05:23 but have everlasting life." 05:25 It's not that God wants to keep you out, 05:28 He wants to get you in, 05:29 and you have to make that choice to follow Jesus, see? 05:32 So this is a-- the choice is ours 05:35 whether we'll accept the invitation that He offers to us. 05:40 And then He says, "I'll raise him up at the last day." 05:43 If you read chapter 5 of John, you'll find that he talks about 05:47 raising people up; He's talking about 05:48 the resurrection of the last day. 05:50 So, eating the bread of life, being connected with Jesus now, 05:54 assures us of eternal life in the future. 05:58 >>Eric: So He makes these statements about Himself 06:00 being the bread of life. 06:01 He does that a couple of times here. 06:04 But then He makes a very interesting statement 06:07 that doesn't sit well with the audience; in fact, 06:11 it upsets them significantly. 06:14 >>Tom: Mm-hmm, yeah. 06:15 So, He starts to get into this in verse 41. 06:19 It says, "So the Jews grumbled about Him, because He said, 06:23 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.'" 06:26 You know, He had made a contrast between Him and the manna, 06:30 and so, "They said, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, 06:35 "whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 06:38 'I have come down from heaven'?" 06:40 So they're already taking offense at Him. 06:42 And we know that this "son of Joseph" 06:46 is an insufficient title for Jesus. 06:49 We are reminded of Nathaniel, back in chapter 1: 06:52 "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" 06:54 And He's the son of Joseph; 06:56 it's an insufficient terminology to refer to Jesus. 07:00 And so, now He's going to make it even starker. 07:03 So, let's read verses 40-- let's see--48 to 54. 07:11 >>Eric: "'I am the bread of life. 07:13 "'Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 07:16 "'This is the bread which comes down from heaven, 07:18 "'that one may eat of it and not die. 07:20 "'I am the living bread which came down from heaven. 07:23 "'If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; 07:26 "'and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, 07:29 "which I shall give for the life of the world.' 07:31 "The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, 07:33 "saying, 'How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?' 07:36 "Then Jesus said to them, 07:38 "'Most assuredly, I say to you, 07:39 "'unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man 07:42 "'and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 07:44 "'Whoever eats my flesh 07:46 "'and drinks my blood has eternal life, 07:48 and I will raise him up at the last day.'" 07:50 >>Tom: Whoa, now those are very stark words, you know. 07:55 I mean, just saying you're the bread of-- 07:57 come down from heaven, that's one thing, 07:59 but then to say that the bread 08:01 you're going to give people to eat is your flesh! 08:04 And then you go even further and you're going to drink His blood. 08:08 You're like, ew! How can that be right? 08:11 So they grumble. "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" 08:15 was the phrase they said. 08:17 And He makes it even starker by, 08:20 you know, adding on the thing about His blood. 08:22 Well, the body and blood of Christ is 08:26 what we talk about the Lord's supper, you know. 08:29 It's the bread and it's the cup that we take. 08:33 We say this--Jesus said, 08:35 "This is my body. This is my blood." 08:37 So there's very clear kind of depiction language 08:42 of the Lord's supper being referred to here, 08:46 and it doesn't go over too well with these people 08:50 as they hear what He has to say. 08:52 So what happens? 08:54 Let's read now verse 60 and see what their response was. 09:00 >>Eric: "Therefore many of His disciples, 09:02 "when they heard this, said, 09:03 'This is a hard saying; who can understand it?'" 09:05 >>Tom: Yeah, so, you wonder sometimes, you know, 09:08 why did Jesus give these hard sayings? 09:13 Well, He's, shall we say, winnowing the wheat. 09:18 People who really got to know Him, 09:20 people who traveled with Him, people who listened to Him 09:24 and came to see that, yeah, this is truly the Son of God, 09:29 He wanted to separate them from those 09:31 who were just sort of-- what should we say? 09:35 --kind of fair-weather disciples. 09:38 Because the fair-weather disciples 09:40 would ruin the true disciples when the great crisis came 09:44 at the cross. 09:46 And so, Jesus separates them 09:49 with these strong sayings early on, 09:52 or sometime before the big crisis comes, 09:55 so that only the true disciples are facing the big crisis. 09:59 It's a rather interesting kind of an expression to consider. 10:05 Now, if we look at the end of this chapter, 10:09 we read verses 66 through 71. 10:12 >>Eric: "From that time many of His disciples went back 10:15 "and walked with Him no more. 10:17 "Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?' 10:21 "But Simon Peter answered Him, 10:22 "'Lord, to whom shall we go? 10:24 "'You have the words of eternal life. 10:26 "'Also we have come to believe 10:28 "'and know that You are the Christ, 10:29 "the Son of the living God.' 10:31 "Jesus answered them, 10:33 "'Did I not choose you, the twelve, 10:34 "and one of you is a devil?' 10:36 "He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, 10:39 "for it was he who would betray Him, 10:40 being one of the twelve." 10:42 >>Tom: All right, so we see here the effect of Jesus' statements 10:47 to the people who were fair-weather 10:50 or just surface disciples was to completely turn them away. 10:54 And they don't walk with Jesus anymore, 10:56 they leave, and they're not coming back. 10:59 Now, if you were a pastor of this group, 11:03 or if you were one of the 12 disciples, 11:06 you might be sort of discouraged that the crowds are leaving, 11:10 right? Because we like lots of people to come 11:12 to our evangelistic meetings; 11:13 we like to see many people baptized. 11:16 But Jesus saw that there were some people who, 11:19 you know--they weren't really serious about faith in Him. 11:23 So it says, "Many of His disciples 11:24 turned back and no longer walked with Him." 11:28 And there's this kind of this pathetic question 11:31 that He asked the twelve: "Do you want to go away, too?" 11:35 And this-- here are the true disciples. 11:37 Peter answers for them: "Lord, to whom shall we go? 11:40 "You have the words of eternal life. 11:43 "And we have believed and have come to know 11:45 "that You are the Holy One of God." 11:48 So, the true ones stuck with Him, but among the true, 11:52 there was one--well, He said there was one devil, [chuckles] 11:56 Judas Iscariot, who would betray Him. 11:59 And that one doesn't come out until the end. 12:01 So, it's very interesting. 12:03 This tells us about the testimony about Jesus, 12:07 about this--we start to see these "I Am" statements 12:09 that are so important and the great lessons 12:11 that come from this. 12:12 >>Eric: So, a significant turning point here 12:14 that we're looking at. >>Tom: Yeah. Mm-hmm. 12:16 >>Eric: Tom, tell us a little bit more about 12:18 this companion book, that if somebody is wanting 12:20 to dig more deeply into the book of John, our studies in it, 12:23 what's in the companion book? 12:26 >>Tom: Okay, so, the companion book 12:27 is published by Pacific Press each quarter. 12:29 And it has the same title as the lesson quarterly. 12:33 And you can buy it at the ABC, 12:34 or you can get it here at It Is Written. 12:36 And it shares extra information; it gives you more details, 12:41 goes further than the "Sabbath School" lesson itself 12:44 or the teacher's quarterly and can be very helpful for, 12:47 you know, adding on extra flavor to your Sabbath school lesson. 12:51 >>Eric: So, if you'd like to pick that up, 12:52 you can do it very easily; 12:53 itiswritten.shop is where you want to go; 12:56 itiswritten.shop, pick it up, you'll find it there 12:59 as the companion book 13:01 to this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson, 13:02 or, as Tom mentioned, you can pick it up 13:03 at the ABC as well, 13:05 whatever's more convenient for you. 13:06 But we trust that it will be 13:08 a blessing to you as you dig 13:09 more deeply into the great themes 13:11 of the book of John, 13:13 which is what we are delving into this quarter. 13:15 And we're going to continue our in-depth study here 13:19 in just a moment here on "Sabbath School," 13:21 brought to you by It Is Written. 13:23 ♪♪♪ 13:27 >>Eric: One of the most powerful evidences that the Bible is true 13:30 are the prophecies that you will find in its pages. 13:33 If you've been wondering about what's happening 13:35 in the world today, especially in the United States, 13:38 socially, militarily, politically, and economically, 13:42 the "Which Way, America?" seminar will answer 13:44 those questions for you in a powerful way. 13:47 I'm Eric Flickinger, and I want to invite you 13:49 to the "Which Way, America?" seminar, 13:51 brought to you by It Is Written. 13:53 >>male announcer: Watch "Which Way, America?" 13:54 on YouTube and It Is Written TV. 13:58 >>John Bradshaw: More and more people are watching 13:59 It Is Written TV. 14:01 They're watching their favorite "It Is Written" programs, 14:05 listening to inspiring sermon series, and much more. 14:09 They're watching them here, here, and even here. 14:13 See for yourself why people are turning to It Is Written TV 14:17 to watch their favorite Christian programs live 14:19 and on demand. 14:21 Watch It Is Written TV for free anytime on Roku, 14:24 Apple TV, and at itiswritten.tv. 14:28 ♪♪♪ 14:31 >>Eric: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 14:33 brought to you by It Is Written. 14:35 We're taking a look at lesson number 6, 14:37 "More Testimonies About Jesus," this week. 14:40 We're looking specifically at John 6 and John 7. 14:44 And Tom, lead us into John 7. What's going on in this chapter? 14:48 >>Tom: Okay, in John, chapter 7, 14:50 we see that Jesus goes to the Feast of Booths. 14:55 This was a feast that was held in the fall of the year, 14:59 and they made booths, where they would camp out. 15:03 And it was a great time to go to Jerusalem. 15:06 And it commemorated the time of their travels 15:11 in leaving Egypt and coming to the promised land. 15:15 And Jesus, at first it seems, 15:19 is not going to go to the Feast of Booths. 15:23 His brothers say, "Well, come on, you know, 15:24 "You want to be seen by everybody, 15:26 come to the Feast of Booths down in Jerusalem." 15:28 He says, "You go, I'm not going yet," 15:30 but then He goes secretly. 15:31 And He then starts to teach in the middle of the feast, 15:37 and the Jews all marvel-- this is, like ,verse 15--saying, 15:41 "How is it that this Man has learning 15:43 when He has never studied?" 15:44 He didn't go to the school of the rabbis. 15:47 And so He says, "My teaching is not my own, 15:50 but of the One who sent me." 15:52 Now, when we get down to verse 25, 15:57 the people in Jerusalem say, 15:59 "Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, 16:02 'Is not this the Man whom they seek to kill?'" 16:06 And so, it's already people are voicing around 16:08 that they want to get rid of this guy. 16:11 He's some kind of dangerous fellow. 16:14 Verse 26: "And here He is, speaking openly, 16:17 "and they say nothing to Him! 16:19 "Can it be that the authorities really know 16:22 that this is the Christ?" 16:25 But then there's even a back-and-forth among them: 16:28 "But we know where this Man comes from, 16:29 "and when the Christ appears, 16:31 no one will know where He comes from." 16:32 That's what their belief was. 16:35 "So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple, 16:37 "'You know me, and you know where I come from. 16:40 "'But I have not come of my own accord. 16:42 "'He who sent me is true, and Him you do not know. 16:45 I know Him, for I come from Him, and He sent me.'" 16:48 Again and again, Jesus refers to the Father. 16:51 You know, "I've come from heaven," 16:52 "He sent me," "I'm doing my Father's will," 16:54 "It's to finish His work"-- all these things. 16:56 Now, in verse 32, 17:00 we should read what's going to happen here. 17:04 Why don't you read for us verse 32? 17:08 >>Eric: "The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring 17:09 "these things concerning Him, 17:11 "and the Pharisees and the chief priests 17:13 sent officers to take Him." 17:15 >>Tom: All right, so they want to arrest Him, 17:17 all right, but that doesn't happen quite yet. 17:21 You know, you--that's sort of left in suspension, 17:23 that these people are going about to get Him. 17:29 But Jesus "on the last day of the feast," in verse 37, 17:33 "the great day" of the feast-- there was a great ceremony 17:36 "the great day" of the feast. He says-- 17:38 He stands up, and He cries out, 17:40 "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 17:43 "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 17:45 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" 17:49 So it says, "Now this He said about the Spirit, 17:52 "whom those who believed in Him were to receive, 17:55 "for as yet the Spirit had not been given, 17:57 because Jesus was not yet glorified." 18:00 This is the narrator telling us where the story is headed. 18:03 And he's going to tell us-- 18:04 he's telling us about the Holy Spirit 18:06 coming on people, but that's only going to happen 18:09 after Jesus is glorified. 18:10 When is Jesus glorified? 18:12 At the cross, that's when He is-- 18:14 that's His hour of glory. 18:17 So, let's read verses 40 to 44 18:20 and see what the people thought about all this. 18:23 >>Eric: "Therefore many from the crowd, 18:24 "when they heard this saying, said, 18:26 "'Truly this is the Prophet.' 18:28 "Others said, 'This is the Christ.' 18:29 "But some said, 'Will the Christ come out of Galilee? 18:32 "'Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes 18:35 "'from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, 18:38 "where David was?' 18:39 "So there was a division among the people because of Him. 18:42 "Now some of them wanted to take Him, 18:44 but no one laid hands on Him." 18:46 >>Tom: Okay, so, because His hour had not yet come. 18:49 You know, it's not--we keep hearing those terminologies 18:51 coming up. So, people are divided about who Jesus is. 18:56 So, obviously Jesus was a very impressive preacher, 19:00 a very impressive prophet, and people were really struck 19:04 by hearing Him, but they were uncertain about Him. 19:09 So, it's interesting here-- 19:11 "Is the Christ to come from Galilee?" 19:14 You know, He was known as Jesus of Nazareth, 19:17 but we know from the birth narrative of-- 19:20 both in Luke and in Matthew, 19:23 that He actually was born in Bethlehem, 19:26 though that's not where His living place was. 19:29 His parents and everything were really more up in Galilee. 19:34 So, He had fulfilled that, 19:36 but maybe they just didn't ask, "Where were you born?" 19:40 You know, and so they're divided about Him. 19:44 Now we read verses--very interesting verses--45 to 52. 19:50 >>Eric: "Then the officers came to the chief priests 19:52 "and Pharisees, who said to them, 19:54 "'Why have you not brought Him?' 19:56 "The officers answered, 'No man ever spoke like this Man!' 20:00 "Then the Pharisees answered them, 20:02 "'Are you also deceived? 20:03 "'Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 20:06 "'But this crowd that does not know the law 20:09 "is accursed.' 20:10 "Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, 20:12 "being one of them) said to them, 20:14 "'Does our law judge a man before it hears him 20:17 "and knows what he is doing?' 20:19 "They answered and said to him, 'Are you also from Galilee? 20:22 Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.'" 20:26 >>Tom: Well, this is quite the story. [chuckles] 20:29 It's very interesting. 20:31 So, the officers come back empty-handed, [laughs] 20:35 and the leaders say, "Why didn't you arrest Him? 20:39 Why didn't you bring Him?" 20:41 And their answer was, "No one's ever spoken like this man." 20:47 Now, that's an amazing testimony by these officers of the court: 20:53 Nobody's ever spoken like that before. 20:56 His words were arresting, and they--it's almost as though 21:02 they forgot their errand that they were sent for, you know. 21:06 I don't know if you've had that kind of experience; 21:07 you went to do something, and there was something 21:09 that happened that was so amazing that you forgot, 21:14 you know, what it was that you were planning to do, 21:16 you know, on your journey or your mission. 21:20 And so, that's--these officers are taken by Jesus. 21:24 Now, [laughing] it frustrates the leaders. 21:28 It's kind of funny, you know. 21:30 They said, "Have you also been deceived?" [laughs] 21:32 They're kind of pulling their hair out. 21:34 "What's wrong with you guys?" 21:36 And then they ask a question in verse 48, which is, 21:38 you know, really telling: 21:40 "Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in Him?" 21:46 And of course, their answer is, 21:49 no, none of them have. 21:52 "But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." 21:57 That's verse 49. 21:59 Boy, what a condemnation of the common people 22:04 these men had, you know. 22:07 "This crowd that does not know the law is accursed." 22:11 I hope there's no pastors that think of their congregation 22:18 in that light. 22:21 We think differently about people, 22:23 and the reason we do is because of Jesus and what He was like. 22:28 So now this interesting thing comes up: Nicodemus. 22:35 The last time we saw him was in chapter 3. 22:38 And he came to Jesus, he buttered Him up, 22:41 but Jesus would have none of it and spoke to him very directly 22:45 about being born from above, and being born, 22:49 being baptized, being born of the Spirit. 22:52 And the further Jesus talks in John, chapter 3, 22:56 the less and less Nicodemus has to say, 22:58 until it's just Jesus; it's a monologue. 23:03 But something happened to Nicodemus; you know, 23:06 that experience with Jesus that evening 23:12 changed the way he looked at things. 23:14 So he says, "Does our law judge a man without first giving him 23:19 a hearing and learning what he does?" 23:23 Now, scholars argue over whether Nicodemus 23:27 ever became a believer. 23:28 And quite a few of them are like, 23:32 "No, he's an ambiguous character," he's--you know, 23:36 he never comes out, "I believe," you know. 23:39 He's not like Peter, you know: 23:41 "We know that You have the words of eternal life. 23:42 We know that You're the Holy One of God." 23:46 He doesn't say that. 23:48 But you see, there's a-- 23:49 there's this understated way that things are said 23:54 in the Gospel of John. 23:56 When we remember in chapter 2 23:58 when Mary speaks to Jesus at the wedding in Cana, 24:03 she says they don't-- they've run out of wine. 24:06 She--you know, it's kind of understated. 24:09 "Could You please do something about it?" 24:10 She doesn't say that: 24:11 "Could You please do something about it?" 24:12 She just says, "They have no wine." 24:14 And her expectation is that He will do something. 24:19 It's the same thing here. 24:22 "Does our law judge a man 24:24 "without first giving him a hearing 24:25 and learning what he does?" 24:27 He's obviously implying, 24:29 we should give this man a hearing. We shouldn't just, 24:32 you know, write Him off and say He's from Galilee, 24:35 there's nothing there, and, you know, He's no good. 24:37 We should give Him a hearing." 24:40 And so, notice what's happened. 24:43 The religious leaders sent the guys to arrest Him. 24:47 They come back, they haven't arrested Him, 24:49 they were taken by his words, and they're like, 24:52 "Agh! What's wrong with you people?" You know, 24:55 "Are you like the rest of these folk here? 24:57 "This crowd is just--you know, 24:58 none of the Pharisees have believed in Him." 25:01 And then Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, 25:03 pipes up, and he says, "Does our law judge a man 25:07 "without first giving him a hearing 25:08 and learning what he does?" 25:10 Nicodemus, obviously, has at least an interest in Jesus. 25:16 We could maybe say there's more than an interest there. 25:19 And, you know, if they've been stymied 25:24 by the officers not arresting Him 25:26 because they were taken by His words-- 25:28 then they've said the authorities 25:30 and the Pharisees haven't believed in Him-- 25:32 oh, but wait a minute, [laughs] one of the Pharisees has; 25:36 he, too, was taken by the words of Jesus. 25:38 That just increases their anger, and they say, 25:41 "Are you from Galilee, too?" 25:44 [laughing] It's like a slap in the face, you know. 25:47 "Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee." 25:51 Now, here's a warning to you and me: 25:54 Be careful-- 25:55 be careful about your interpretation of Scripture. 25:58 They were basing their decision against Jesus 26:02 based on their understanding of the prophecies. 26:06 Be careful. God may have something more 26:09 for you and for me from the prophecies. 26:12 Don't be closed-minded; have an open mind. 26:15 Let God lead; let the Spirit of God guide you. 26:18 Well, it's a great story. 26:20 >>Eric: It's a fantastic story and some new insights 26:23 that have come out of that. 26:25 We trust and hope that you have found 26:27 a few new insights as well 26:29 as we've gone through this week's lesson. 26:31 Remember, this is only one of 13 lessons 26:35 on the great themes in the book of John. 26:37 If you happen to be joining us partway through 26:40 and want to catch up, you can find archived episodes 26:43 at itiswritten.tv 26:45 and on the It Is Written YouTube channel. 26:47 We are going to be back again 26:50 next week with a brand new episode, 26:53 and we hope and trust 26:54 that you're going to join us for that. 26:56 In fact, invite others. 26:58 If you want to dig more deeply into the book of John, 27:00 if you want to share some of the great themes 27:03 in the book of John with others, 27:05 let others know about this study. 27:08 Invite them to join it. You can share on social media. 27:11 You can send messages to your friends and family. 27:14 Let them know what you're learning about 27:16 in the book of John so that they can join us 27:19 on this journey as well. 27:21 So again, watch archived episodes, 27:23 make sure that you tune in each week 27:25 for a brand new episode. 27:27 And each week we're going to be unpacking more and more 27:30 in the book of John, more and more insights 27:33 into the life of Jesus. 27:35 We'll look forward to seeing you again 27:37 as we continue this journey next week 27:40 here on "Sabbath School," 27:42 brought to you by It Is Written. 27:45 ♪♪♪ 28:23 ♪♪♪ 28:26 [Captions provided by Aberdeen Captioning www.abercap.com] |
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