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- Today we'll get a full picture
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00:00:02
of the personality of Jesus.
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00:00:04
It has to do with
wine and whips.
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00:00:06
- We see His
beautiful compassion
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00:00:09
and His frightening intensity.
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00:00:13
It helps us to
understand who Jesus is.
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00:00:14
Don't put Jesus in a box.
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- Hey, I'm John.
Welcome to Crossroads.
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00:00:24
- Be more like John.
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00:00:25
Not a fry cook,
John from the Bible.
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He wrote multiple
books of the Bible.
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- I did?
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- And it says that he
was loved by Jesus.
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Sure He does, kid.
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Be more like John.
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00:00:40
- I wound up here in
America and I just decided
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I'd better pick up
a job, you know?
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A guys just have
something to tithe on.
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- Believe it or not, he
knows a lot about Jesus.
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Today we're going to
hear how John and Jesus,
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they weren't that
different from us,
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except for one small difference:
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Jesus was God and man
at the same exact time.
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- So this one time we were
at this wedding in Cana.
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The couple didn't make it.
No big deal.
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Everybody and their
mom was there, even His.
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The party was
starting to die down
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because everyone ran out of wine
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and Jesus's mom came to Him
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and said, "Hey, do something."
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And Jesus was like, "Mom,
not in front of my friends."
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So what He did end up
doing was He took this water
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and He turned it into
some great top shelf wine.
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And we're not talking Barefoot,
even though we all were.
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And then the party kept
going and we had a blast.
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Right after that we all
went down to the temple
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and there was a different
kind of party going on.
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And this one Jesus
was not about.
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So He actually like made a whip
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and drove those
people out of there
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like they were a herd
of cattle. It was crazy.
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00:02:02
[tone]
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00:02:03
Jesus's best friend,
no big deal. Pretty cool.
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- Hey. Welcome to
Crossroads. My name is Brian.
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We're in a series about Jesus
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through the eyeballs of
His alleged best friend.
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John thought he
was His best friend.
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He was known as the beloved,
so we'll just go with that.
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And we're looking at the
things that he saw out of
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his friend Jesus and what
we can learn from it today.
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00:02:38
We don't really know everything
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there is to know about Jesus.
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00:02:41
There's only like
four books in the Bible
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that contain His teachings.
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And of those four,
they're not even containing
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all of His teachings
and all of His miracles.
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The Book of John
20:30, it says this:
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So there's amazing things
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that weren't even
included in here.
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And yet what is
in here is amazing.
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You know, the best way
to get to know someone
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is through the lens of people
who are closest to them,
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that would include
the Apostle John.
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Lots of people have a
cultural touchpoint for Jesus,
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00:03:29
but few people knew what
He was really, really like.
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00:03:33
You know what someone's
like based on the artwork.
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00:03:36
You know?
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If you've ever had little kids
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who've drawn your picture,
you know that your kids
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think you're really, really ugly
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00:03:43
because every parent's picture
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looks really, really ugly.
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We see a picture of something,
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we have an image
of who that person is.
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00:03:51
And I'll tell you
what's really scary.
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What's really scary
is to see the pictures
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of who Jesus was that have
been depicted over the years.
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Really weird, like,
just here's one.
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Let's call this spooky Jesus.
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When we look at
spooky Jesus here,
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it just freaks you out, man.
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That ought to be
in a haunted house.
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Is that really who Jesus is?
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00:04:11
Or maybe there's a
veterinarian Jesus.
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That's one of my favorite.
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Just sitting there,
just petting lambs.
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There's nothing in
the Bible that says
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He ever picked up a lamb,
let alone petted a lamb,
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but it just makes
us feel good. I like it.
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Or there's manly man Jesus.
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These things -- These things
are really so unrealistic.
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The Old Testament
prophesying about Jesus coming
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says there's nothing
about His form
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that would draw us to Him.
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Just in terms of His
looks was just average.
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He was not ripped.
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If that's too manly for
you, how about this one?
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Girly man Jesus. Poor Jesus.
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00:04:52
I don't know if Jesus
likes these pictures
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of Him or not, but I
think they're kind of funny.
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00:04:55
Or Prozac Jesus.
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00:04:59
Jesus looks kind of depressed
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and always down on Himself.
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And of course, today we
have fewer and fewer of us
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who want to acknowledge
Jesus as Lord and Savior,
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00:05:09
so he'd rather have
homeboy Jesus.
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00:05:12
He's just my buddy,
like, hey, hey, hey.
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The truth is there's
elements of truth
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probably in all
of these pictures.
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But we need the whole
Bible to understand all of God,
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and we need the
whole Book of John
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to understand all of God.
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00:05:30
I'm going to give
you today two stories
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that are polar opposite
extremes of seeing Jesus.
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00:05:38
It's like as extreme
as manly man Jesus
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and girly man Jesus.
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00:05:42
You're like, wait a minute,
is this the same guy?
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Oftentimes when we see
the extremes of somebody,
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we understand the
totality of who they are.
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These extremes of
Jesus are back to back
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in the Book of John.
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The first one is not unlike
where I am right now.
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It's a wedding at Cana.
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Jesus is there to support
the bride and the groom,
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and there is an
issue that takes place
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at the wedding reception,
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which would have
been a multi-day affair.
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This issue happens
that's going to be
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a great embarrassment
to a lot of people.
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So His mother, Mary, goes
to Jesus and asks for help.
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Let's just read what happens
in John 2:1 and following.
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One of the more
humorous things of Jesus
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talks to His mother, Mother Mary
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just says, "Woman, woman."
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Now some translations
take off the edge
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and they'll say, "Dear woman."
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There's no dear in there.
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He just refers to His
mom like, "Woman.
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Well, what are you
trying to do to me?"
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He's not being
disrespectful of Mary,
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but He's definitely
trying to exert
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a bit of His authority
in telling Mary
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that she's
overstepping her bounds
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and she's trying
to call in a favor
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that is kind of pushing His hand
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in a way in which He
does want to push His hand.
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00:07:23
Now, Mary has been with
Jesus for about 30 years.
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She's seen amazing
things that Jesus has done.
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We don't know what
miracles, but probably
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there's been some
miracles of taking place.
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And Mary's basically
asking Jesus
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to do something right
now, asking Jesus
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maybe not to make a Kroger run,
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but asking Him to
make some wine.
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And Jesus gives her
a bit of a harsh rebuke.
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"Woman, this is this is
just not the time for Me."
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Now, Mary's heart
is in the right place.
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Jesus and all the
disciples are in a place
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where people are
getting embarrassed.
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This is a matter of honor.
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This is a matter
of shame for them.
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To run out of wine
at your wedding
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would have been
really embarrassing.
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It would have been embarrassing
to the bride and the groom.
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It would have been embarrassing
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to the keeper of the ceremonies,
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the master of the ceremonies,
or the wine steward,
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because he didn't
plan well enough.
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It would have been
embarrassing to the people
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who were showing
up for the wedding,
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because now they're not
sure, should they drink?
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Should they not drink?
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All of this is happening
in the background.
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And Mary is asking
Jesus to intercede
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and take away the shame.
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The cultural
obligations are such that
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when you have a wedding,
you have enough wine.
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And there's not enough wine.
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Jesus does a carefully
considered and calculated move.
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Actually, this story
and the next one
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I'm going to share
with you, there's two
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carefully considered and
calculated moves that He makes.
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This time He's going
to alleviate the shame
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for everyone and
he's going to try
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to increase joy for everyone.
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You know, here at
Crossroads we want
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to increase joy for
everyone as well,
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especially during this
season for all of our educators.
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That's why we have
our Thank Our Educators
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initiative right now.
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Educators have just
been through a grinder
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the last several
years with masks
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00:09:31
and teaching kids with masks
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00:09:33
and not having the
support they need
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00:09:35
and having to buy their own
supplies inside of classes
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00:09:38
and feeling alone and
having parents, by the way,
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not happy with you and
not happy with the school,
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00:09:44
not happy with the principal.
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00:09:45
I don't know if you
recognize or not,
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00:09:47
but just about everybody in
America has been unhappy
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00:09:49
and people who have
the position of leadership
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are bearing the brunt of
that unhappiness all the time.
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00:09:55
- Over the past two
years of the pandemic,
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00:09:58
more than half of all educators
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00:10:00
have considered
quitting their jobs.
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00:10:03
Yet they've responded
to these challenging times
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in many courageous ways.
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00:10:07
And despite uncertainty,
exhaustion and discouragement,
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they've continued
to provide safe
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00:10:13
and encouraging
learning environments
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for their students,
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00:10:15
impacting the lives of thousands
in the next generation.
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We see you. We applaud you.
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00:10:22
We are grateful for you.
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00:10:30
Join us this spring
when for one week
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00:10:32
we'll pack ourselves a
brown bag lunch every day
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00:10:35
and give the money we
save from not eating out
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00:10:38
straight to
hard-working educators.
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00:10:43
That same week,
we'll be using an app
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00:10:45
designed to guide us
on an epic adventure
-
00:10:47
to encourage all the
hard-working people
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00:10:49
continuing to serve
in our schools.
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00:10:52
Along with packing our lunches,
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00:10:54
we'll be doing other fun
and practical activities
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00:10:57
to surprise and
delight our educators.
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00:11:00
Go to Crossroads.net/educators
for more info.
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00:11:04
- It's for you.
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00:11:07
- And teachers aren't paid
enough to bear the brunt
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of unhappy parents and
unhappy community members.
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But we care about them,
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00:11:15
and I know everybody
cares about educators,
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even who gives them a hard time.
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That's why we want
to bless them through
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Thank Our Educators.
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I'll be packing a
lunch for a whole week
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and looking forward
to blessing educators
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who I know in my community.
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I hope you are as well.
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This part comes from Jesus.
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He wants to bless people
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and He sees this
wedding going awry
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and He wants to make it right.
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00:11:40
His mother, I think
she wants Him
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to showcase his
miraculous power,
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00:11:45
bring Jesus, if you will,
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00:11:46
out of His Savior closet
so people see Him.
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00:11:50
I think Jesus just wants
to alleviate the pain,
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the stress, the
shame that are there.
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Mary assumes that
He's going to go along
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with this plan and do something.
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00:12:01
So the story
continues in verse five.
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Jesus looks around,
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He works with whatever
He's got at hand.
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00:12:37
And what He's got are
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these huge ceremonial
vats of water.
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Ceremonial vats of water
would have been meant
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for religious cleansing,
religious purifying.
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We cleanse ourselves
physically before a meal.
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The Jews would do
that as well, but they also
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believed in cleansing
themselves spiritually.
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If they had animal
product on them
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00:12:59
or if they had touched things
they shouldn't have touched
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00:13:02
or done things they
shouldn't have done,
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they'd have to ritually
clean themselves
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00:13:05
with the water that
are in these pots
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had to go over them
and symbolically,
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00:13:09
my unclean-ness,
spiritually, is leaving me.
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Jesus takes something that
is meant for holy purposes
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00:13:19
to bless and enable the
party to keep going on.
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He takes the water.
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00:13:27
He takes the water
and He fills the water.
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00:13:32
He takes the water and He
hands it to the wine steward,
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00:13:36
the masters of the
ceremony and says,
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00:13:42
"Just take it to the table."
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00:13:46
They're thinking, "Ummmm, okay."
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00:13:49
They take it to the table
and watch what happens.
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00:14:29
Now, I got to
tell you right now,
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00:14:31
the Penelope pure hearts,
The Dudley Do rights,
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00:14:36
the hyper religious among us
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00:14:38
really don't like
this story at all.
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00:14:41
They would prefer a dry wedding,
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00:14:44
nothing stronger than Diet Coke.
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00:14:47
So when I went to
seminary, I learned things like,
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00:14:51
"Well, this wasn't
actually real wine.
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00:14:56
This was a great mash that
hadn't yet been fermented."
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00:15:01
That's exactly what
someone has to say
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00:15:03
who's against fun receptions.
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00:15:06
That's exactly what
someone has to say
-
00:15:08
who can't believe that
Jesus would do a miracle
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00:15:12
to keep the party going.
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00:15:15
It's exactly what He does.
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00:15:17
How do I know this
is alcoholic wine?
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00:15:19
Because you can
taste the difference
-
00:15:21
between alcoholic wine
and nonalcoholic wine.
-
00:15:23
By the way, just a public
service announcement,
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00:15:26
you can have a good
time without alcohol.
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00:15:27
It really can happen, you can.
-
00:15:29
And, public service
announcement,
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00:15:30
there's a lot of people
who follow their conviction
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00:15:32
and don't have wine at weddings,
-
00:15:34
and God is very
happy about that. Okay?
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00:15:36
But let's just look what
happened to this wedding.
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00:15:39
When Jesus goes into
the water, He pulls out wine.
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00:15:52
That's some high quality H2O.
-
00:15:54
- That's what I call
high quality H2O. Oh!
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00:16:02
- He pours out wine.
-
00:16:07
How do we know it's wine
and not nonalcoholic wine?
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00:16:13
We know by what
the wine steward says.
-
00:16:16
The wine steward, the
master of the ceremonies,
-
00:16:18
who knows what
wine is, he tastes it
-
00:16:22
and he knows the
difference between
-
00:16:23
non alcoholic wine
and alcoholic wine.
-
00:16:25
So do you. Oh,
everyone knows that.
-
00:16:26
And that's even today
when non alcoholic wine
-
00:16:28
has gotten much,
much better than it was.
-
00:16:31
And he says, "Wow,
this is amazing.
-
00:16:35
Normally when
people are a bit looped,
-
00:16:37
they bring out the cheap stuff
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00:16:39
and they can't tell whether
or not it's Riunite Red.
-
00:16:43
Some of you don't
know what Riunite Red is.
-
00:16:44
That's like the old
school cheap wine.
-
00:16:47
I took it to my
high school prom.
-
00:16:49
And by the way, my
parents busted me
-
00:16:50
and I got kicked out of my prom.
-
00:16:52
That's another
story for another day.
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00:16:53
This isn't like the
the Riunite Red.
-
00:16:56
This isn't the the
two buck chuck
-
00:16:58
for the next generation.
-
00:17:00
This isn't the Barefoot wine
-
00:17:02
for the most recent generation.
-
00:17:04
This is high
quality, great wine.
-
00:17:07
If Jesus is going to make wine,
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00:17:09
it's going to be great wine.
-
00:17:10
And the wine steward
verifies, this is amazing.
-
00:17:15
Jesus enabled
this party to happen
-
00:17:18
because he had feelings.
-
00:17:21
You ever thought about that?
-
00:17:22
Jesus felt, He empathized
for these people
-
00:17:25
and He wanted to help them
-
00:17:28
from being publicly embarrassed.
-
00:17:29
Not only that, He might
have also had feelings
-
00:17:33
that made Him want to
have more wine Himself.
-
00:17:37
He had the feelings
of maybe wanting
-
00:17:38
to have a better
time for Himself.
-
00:17:40
Again, mind blowing
for many of us
-
00:17:43
if all we know is Prozac Jesus.
-
00:17:46
But He had legitimate feelings
-
00:17:47
across the entire spectrum.
-
00:17:50
And before you categorize
Him as just a party animal
-
00:17:55
who tries to keep
people from feeling bad
-
00:17:59
and keep the good times going,
-
00:18:01
wedged right up against
that is another story
-
00:18:05
that's on the other side
of the emotional spectrum.
-
00:18:10
- Hey. Where you been?
-
00:18:11
- Oh, hey. Sorry,
I got off work.
-
00:18:14
- Why did you get a job?
-
00:18:15
- Oh, I just, I needed
something to tithe on, you know?
-
00:18:17
- Oh, great. You want
to talk to us about giving?
-
00:18:19
- Oh, that's a great --
-
00:18:21
- Just like the theology
behind it, maybe.
-
00:18:23
- Oh, great question.
- Quick.
-
00:18:24
- Yeah. Yeah. So
in the beginning,
-
00:18:26
when God created the
heavens and the earth,
-
00:18:28
He created all that
was in and of the earth.
-
00:18:31
And that substance,
that is what we draw from.
-
00:18:33
- Six and a half hours later.
-
00:18:36
- And that is the
reason that I like to give.
-
00:18:39
- Okay. Well, good.
-
00:18:41
Just wanted to
say that only around
-
00:18:43
10% of people watching
this give to Crossroads.
-
00:18:46
- What?! A tenth?
A tithe of people?
-
00:18:49
- It's okay. It's not
meant to upset you.
-
00:18:50
It's not meant to upset
anybody watching.
-
00:18:52
I just want you to know that
Crossroads is donor funded,
-
00:18:54
and everything
you give it helps.
-
00:18:56
It helps spread this
message to even more people.
-
00:18:59
That's all.
- OK, I like that. I like that.
-
00:19:01
And I just learned this,
that that thing on your phone
-
00:19:04
you can actually
give from there.
-
00:19:06
Like, how do you shekels
even get in there? It's crazy.
-
00:19:09
- I'll explain it later.
-
00:19:10
But if you're watching
on your phone,
-
00:19:11
all you've got to do
is click the give button,
-
00:19:13
right, right there. It's
super, super easy.
-
00:19:15
- I love that.
- Yeah.
-
00:19:16
- Next week, there's actually
this thing called Easter,
-
00:19:18
which is not what
they called it in my day.
-
00:19:20
- What did they call it?
-
00:19:21
- Just like the day my Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ
-
00:19:23
rose from the grave
and came back.
-
00:19:24
It's a lot of words.
-
00:19:25
You can actually read
all about it in my book.
-
00:19:27
- Or you can watch the movie.
-
00:19:28
We actually made a
whole thing about it.
-
00:19:30
It's going to be
amazing. It's next week.
-
00:19:32
Yeah. Just check this out.
-
00:19:33
- Wow. Just like Harry Potter.
-
00:19:35
- Easter is a love story.
-
00:19:38
Love has come to save us all.
-
00:19:50
Join us for Easter
with Crossroads.
-
00:19:52
Find service times at
Crossroads.net/Easter.
-
00:20:02
- Jesus isn't just party
guy, He's also rebuke guy.
-
00:20:07
In fact, there's a
bit of a whiplash
-
00:20:10
going from the table
where the reception was
-
00:20:14
to the next table that
we're going to look at.
-
00:20:17
It was the table that
was at the temple
-
00:20:21
where Jesus went to in
Jerusalem to connect with God.
-
00:20:25
He actually ends
up whipping people.
-
00:20:28
Yeah, that's why
I said whiplash.
-
00:20:30
Wait, wine, whips?
What is going on here?
-
00:20:34
Well, let's read the story
to find out, John 2:13:
-
00:21:16
He goes to the
temple in Jerusalem.
-
00:21:19
He's been there before.
He knows what to see.
-
00:21:21
He's not surprised by
much, except the temple
-
00:21:25
started here in terms
of moneymaking,
-
00:21:28
and they went like to here.
-
00:21:31
There was always
a table that was in
-
00:21:33
what's known as the
Court of the Gentiles
-
00:21:35
outside of the proper
part of the temple itself.
-
00:21:38
And this table was meant
to serve people in worship.
-
00:21:43
Some people would come
from long, long distances away
-
00:21:46
and they'd be driving
cattle or bringing pigeons
-
00:21:49
or some such thing to offer
as sacrifices in the temple.
-
00:21:52
And it was just a pain.
-
00:21:53
So some of them would actually
-
00:21:55
buy something
that was right there.
-
00:21:56
Or you came from a foreign land
-
00:21:58
where there was
a foreign currency
-
00:22:00
and you wanted to
trade your currency,
-
00:22:02
change your money into
the currency of the Jews,
-
00:22:05
this was so you could
bring your currency
-
00:22:09
from where you were, trade
it in for the Jews' currency
-
00:22:12
and make an offering
inside of worship
-
00:22:14
like you would like to do.
-
00:22:16
But it's gone to a
whole new level.
-
00:22:18
It's not just there to
enable people to worship,
-
00:22:22
people are now making
this a capitalistic endeavor.
-
00:22:25
It's okay to be a capitalist,
but being a capitalist
-
00:22:29
by selling spirituality
to ingratiate yourself
-
00:22:33
with the almighty dollar is
an entirely different thing.
-
00:22:38
Says that Jesus
takes a bunch of chords
-
00:22:42
and fashions a whip about them.
-
00:22:45
This is really important to see.
-
00:22:47
This isn't like Indiana Jones
-
00:22:50
taking a leather whip
and whipping people.
-
00:22:53
This is a very intentional
thought out decision
-
00:22:57
to think through
what He's going to do.
-
00:23:02
I can just see Jesus
praying while He does this,
-
00:23:04
"Lord, help me to
do the right thing."
-
00:23:08
Telling himself,
"Don't overreact.
-
00:23:10
Let's get this one right."
-
00:23:12
And He's -- once he's
-- it would take a while
-
00:23:15
to braid a whip out of cords.
-
00:23:20
Once He does do this,
-
00:23:23
we find that He
instigates conflict.
-
00:23:26
He not just keeps
the party going,
-
00:23:29
but Jesus instigates
the conflict.
-
00:23:34
And He takes His
whip and He just --
-
00:23:39
He starts flailing it
around, just flailing around.
-
00:23:42
Is He hitting
people? I don't know.
-
00:23:44
If he is hitting
people, it doesn't hurt
-
00:23:46
because He's fashioned it.
-
00:23:47
It's not a leather whip like
people are getting welts.
-
00:23:50
But He's flailing it around,
-
00:23:52
exhibiting massive
levels of anger.
-
00:23:55
I don't think they
had necessarily
-
00:23:57
an abacus and jewelry,
but they've got stuff there
-
00:24:00
where they're making money
-
00:24:02
and they're making
money to make money.
-
00:24:04
They're not just making money
-
00:24:06
while they serve
people in their worship.
-
00:24:07
Their point, these religious
leaders, is to make money.
-
00:24:14
Jesus comes up in a
willful, calculated move
-
00:24:18
and He just storms in and He --
-
00:24:25
And people scatter.
-
00:24:28
I mean, what is going on?
-
00:24:30
I don't know if He's
still doing this or not,
-
00:24:32
but He is clearly upset because
-
00:24:36
He's willing to stand
up to corruption.
-
00:24:39
He's confrontational
when He needs to be.
-
00:24:42
He's comforting
when He needs to be.
-
00:24:44
And He's confrontational
when He needs to be.
-
00:24:48
By the way, this is
one of the reasons why
-
00:24:52
if you ever can get to
a Crossroads building,
-
00:24:54
you'll find that we
never have a bookstore
-
00:24:56
or a resource center
inside any of our buildings,
-
00:25:01
at least not on Sunday morning,
-
00:25:03
because we don't want to
get close to ticking Jesus off.
-
00:25:07
And He gets ticked off when
people are trying to make
-
00:25:09
money off of people who
are coming there to worship.
-
00:25:13
That's why we
downplay money a lot,
-
00:25:15
it's because we don't want
anyone to get confused
-
00:25:18
that we're not here
to make money.
-
00:25:20
We're here to help
you connect with God.
-
00:25:23
The temple was a spot
-
00:25:25
where heaven and
earth came together
-
00:25:28
and it should have
been a holy place.
-
00:25:30
And instead it was a
place of profiteering.
-
00:25:35
If you want to make Jesus
mad, start using His name
-
00:25:40
to make money for yourself.
-
00:25:43
And so, yes,
Jesus is very mad at
-
00:25:47
certain pockets of religiosity
-
00:25:49
that are in our country
and in our world.
-
00:25:52
He's not opposed
to the Temple Sellers
-
00:25:55
offering a service.
-
00:25:56
He's opposed to their
economic motivations
-
00:25:59
and them fleecing the flock
-
00:26:02
and padding their own pockets.
-
00:26:06
One moment, He's
turning water into wine.
-
00:26:09
The next moment
He's taking whips
-
00:26:12
and overturning tables.
-
00:26:14
One moment there's
a table at a reception
-
00:26:16
where there's festive laughs,
-
00:26:17
and the next moment
there's a table on the ground
-
00:26:20
with doves and
birds and squawking,
-
00:26:22
people running
all over the place.
-
00:26:27
He wasn't just
doing the right thing,
-
00:26:29
He was also fulfilling
prophecies in the Old Testament
-
00:26:33
that John knew about
and pointed people to
-
00:26:35
that He would have
a zeal for His house.
-
00:26:37
How about you?
-
00:26:38
Do you have a zeal
for the house of God,
-
00:26:40
or do you just kind of come
around the house of God
-
00:26:42
whenever everything is
convenient in your schedule?
-
00:26:44
Do you have a
zeal for the church,
-
00:26:46
for the local church,
-
00:26:48
or do you have a
zeal for your boat?
-
00:26:51
Does the zeal for your
boat or for your new house,
-
00:26:54
does it come anywhere
close to your zeal
-
00:26:57
for the church, for
the local church.
-
00:27:02
Jesus got very upset with people
-
00:27:04
who wanted the
trappings of capitalism
-
00:27:06
more than they
want to be trapped
-
00:27:08
by the heart of God in worship.
-
00:27:11
That's why this is known as
the cleansing of the temple.
-
00:27:15
He cleaned it to get people
-
00:27:17
to have a clean
heart before God.
-
00:27:20
Now, what do both of these
stories tell us about Jesus
-
00:27:23
and what does they tell
us about what He was like?
-
00:27:26
It tells us that at a wedding
-
00:27:29
He can change the
molecules from water to wine
-
00:27:34
and in the temple Jesus
can do the same thing
-
00:27:39
in cleansing the temple
because He can cleanse our life.
-
00:27:43
First He changes hearts,
and then He begins to help us
-
00:27:46
to change the things
that are outside of our life.
-
00:27:50
We consume the wine
that goes inside of us,
-
00:27:53
but then there's things
on the outside of us
-
00:27:56
that we need to also change.
-
00:27:58
We have to also
be real clearly here.
-
00:28:01
Just because Jesus
got kind of ticked off
-
00:28:03
doesn't mean you got
to get to be ticked off
-
00:28:04
while you're driving.
-
00:28:06
This is a very rare mode
of righteous anger for Jesus.
-
00:28:11
It's not the kind of
rage that we know,
-
00:28:13
we're always angry, seemingly.
-
00:28:16
We're angry when we drive.
-
00:28:17
Shoot., I saw a
video of somebody
-
00:28:19
just several weeks
ago was actually
-
00:28:20
firing a gun out of
their car because
-
00:28:22
somebody threw a water
bottle against their car.
-
00:28:25
Road rage of people
punching people
-
00:28:27
because they cut in line
or line rage it might be.
-
00:28:31
Or the rage that we
see on social media
-
00:28:34
of just shaming
people on social media.
-
00:28:36
Where Jesus alleviates
shame into the wedding feast,
-
00:28:39
we pile on shame.
-
00:28:41
We want to shame people
to have the values we want
-
00:28:44
and to be inside of our
own little political bubble.
-
00:28:48
What Jesus had is nothing like
-
00:28:49
the out-of-control
emotionalism that we have today.
-
00:28:54
Every once in a while,
-
00:28:56
and I do mean
every once in a while,
-
00:28:58
like, this for
Jesus, this is like
-
00:28:59
a one time it's recorded thing.
-
00:29:01
Every once in a while
there's an issue of justice
-
00:29:04
that has to take place.
-
00:29:06
By the way, if you're
really into justice
-
00:29:08
and social justice, if
you're perpetually mad,
-
00:29:10
you've got a major problem
-
00:29:11
because Jesus was
not perpetually mad.
-
00:29:13
He would get angry. He
was not perpetually mad.
-
00:29:16
This is a calculated
move to make a statement.
-
00:29:20
And He lives in an unafraid way,
-
00:29:23
confident that His
Father loves Him,
-
00:29:26
confident that He needs to
do and say the right thing.
-
00:29:29
Whether that's
filling up the wine
-
00:29:31
and filling people up with joy
-
00:29:34
or overturning the tables
-
00:29:35
and filling people
up with conviction
-
00:29:38
over the negative
ways they're pretending
-
00:29:41
like they're following God.
-
00:29:44
What's Jesus doing for you?
-
00:29:46
He's setting a table
for you right now.
-
00:29:49
He's setting a table for you
-
00:29:51
and He's putting
a cup in your life
-
00:29:52
and He wants your cup
and your life to overflow
-
00:29:56
with goodness and
joy, just like it happened
-
00:29:59
with the cups at
the wedding feast.
-
00:30:01
And He's also calling you
and I to overturn the things
-
00:30:06
in our life that are out
of alignment with His will.
-
00:30:09
And we see His
beautiful compassion
-
00:30:13
and His frightening intensity.
-
00:30:17
It helps us to
understand who Jesus is.
-
00:30:19
Don't put Jesus in a box.
-
00:30:21
Don't make Him your party guy.
-
00:30:22
Don't make Him your anger guy.
-
00:30:24
These extreme aspects
of His personality
-
00:30:27
come together to form the
full bandwidth of who He is.
-
00:30:31
He is great and He wants
you to give Him your life.
-
00:30:35
Let me pray for you right now.
-
00:30:36
God, I'm thankful for a God
-
00:30:39
that is beyond my imagination
-
00:30:43
and beyond what
anything I could create
-
00:30:45
in and of my own
creative abilities.
-
00:30:49
Your stories, Your word
stoopefies me. It stuns me.
-
00:30:53
It makes me fall
in love with God,
-
00:30:55
fall in love with Jesus in
new and abounding ways.
-
00:30:58
Many of us, God,
for the first time
-
00:31:00
we want to receive You.
-
00:31:01
We want to receive
the Lord of the whip
-
00:31:03
and the Lord of the wine.
-
00:31:05
We want both of those.
We want You in our life.
-
00:31:07
Jesus, would you come
into my life right now?
-
00:31:10
Forgive me, overturn my tables,
-
00:31:13
and I choose the follow
You the rest of my life. Amen.
-
00:31:20
Hey, I hope your heart's right.
-
00:31:22
This would be a
great opportunity
-
00:31:24
for us to worship
God inside the temple
-
00:31:25
of wherever you are right now.
-
00:31:28
Let's sing this together to Him.
-
00:34:22
- If you liked that song,
-
00:34:23
there's actually a lot
more music just like it.
-
00:34:25
Just go to Spotify, Apple Music
-
00:34:26
and search for Crossroads music.
-
00:34:28
- You can listen to
music on an apple?
-
00:34:29
- Not exactly.
-
00:34:30
Also, though,
we're doing a thing
-
00:34:32
called the Bible Challenge,
reading your book
-
00:34:33
as a community, this
whole entire series,
-
00:34:36
The Book of John.
-
00:34:37
And we put this
together for you.
-
00:34:38
It's a free guidebook
that tells you
-
00:34:40
some of the history,
-
00:34:41
some of the context
around what you're reading.
-
00:34:43
It's free. Go to
Crossroads.net/BibleChallenge.
-
00:34:45
We'll mail one to your house.
-
00:34:46
- Yeah. I don't know
why you need that.
-
00:34:48
I thought I did pretty good.
-
00:34:49
But I know we've been
talking a lot about how,
-
00:34:51
like, Jesus was my friend,
because He's my best friend.
-
00:34:55
And we actually had like
12 friends, more like 11.
-
00:34:59
But here at Crossroads,
-
00:35:00
we actually have
a lot of friends.
-
00:35:02
- We do. We have
a lot of friends
-
00:35:03
and they are changing the world.
-
00:35:06
Like our friend Jack in
Japan. Check out his story.
-
00:35:09
- Hey, I'm Jack from
Kagoshima, Japan.
-
00:35:11
I want to thank all of
our givers at Crossroads
-
00:35:14
for supporting the
work that we do here.
-
00:35:16
Because of you, we are
able to stay connected
-
00:35:20
in community while
growing our home church
-
00:35:23
here in a nation with less
than 1% Christ followers..
-
00:35:27
Crossroads' tools, resources,
and most importantly,
-
00:35:30
you enable us to
lead our home church,
-
00:35:33
to run after our friends,
-
00:35:34
and to serve our city Kagoshima.
-
00:35:37
[speaking Japanese]
-
00:35:44
- You didn't see
that coming, did you?
-
00:35:46
You ever been in a bar fight?
-
00:35:48
Me neither.
-
00:35:49
And in fact, this isn't
even about bar fights,
-
00:35:51
this is even about bars.
-
00:35:53
This is about Jesus showing up
-
00:35:55
in the most unexpected places.
-
00:36:00
- Cut.
[indiscernible off camera]
-
00:36:03
- Did that look good?
[tone]