Personality | Jesus According to His Alleged Best Friend Week 2 | Anywhere Service

Jesus wasn’t a bump on a log, he was the life of the party. And if he was on the earth today, you’d want to be his friend too. What was his personality really like? Watch to find out.

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    - Today we'll get a full picture
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    of the personality of Jesus.
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    It has to do with wine and whips.
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    - We see His beautiful compassion
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    and His frightening intensity.
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    It helps us to understand who Jesus is.
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    Don't put Jesus in a box.
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    - Hey, I'm John. Welcome to Crossroads.
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    - Be more like John.
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    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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    - 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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    [tone]
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    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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    We don't really know everything
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    there is to know about Jesus.
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    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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    but few people knew what He was really, really like.
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    You know what someone's like based on the artwork.
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    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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    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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    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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    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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    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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    Or Prozac Jesus.
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    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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    so he'd rather have homeboy Jesus.
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    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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    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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    It's like as extreme as manly man Jesus
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    and girly man Jesus.
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    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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    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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    and teaching kids with masks
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    and not having the support they need
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    and having to buy their own supplies inside of classes
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    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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    not happy with the principal.
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    I don't know if you recognize or not,
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    but just about everybody in America has been unhappy
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    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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    - Over the past two years of the pandemic,
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    more than half of all educators
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    have considered quitting their jobs.
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    Yet they've responded to these challenging times
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    in many courageous ways.
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    And despite uncertainty, exhaustion and discouragement,
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    they've continued to provide safe
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    and encouraging learning environments
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    for their students,
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    impacting the lives of thousands in the next generation.
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    We see you. We applaud you.
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    We are grateful for you.
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    Join us this spring when for one week
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    we'll pack ourselves a brown bag lunch every day
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    and give the money we save from not eating out
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    straight to hard-working educators.
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    That same week, we'll be using an app
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    designed to guide us on an epic adventure
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    to encourage all the hard-working people
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    continuing to serve in our schools.
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    Along with packing our lunches,
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    we'll be doing other fun and practical activities
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    to surprise and delight our educators.
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    Go to Crossroads.net/educators for more info.
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    - It's for you.
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    - 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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    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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    His mother, I think she wants Him
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    to showcase his miraculous power,
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    bring Jesus, if you will,
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    out of His Savior closet so people see Him.
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    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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    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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    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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    or if they had touched things they shouldn't have touched
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    or done things they shouldn't have done,
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    they'd have to ritually clean themselves
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    with the water that are in these pots
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    had to go over them and symbolically,
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    my unclean-ness, spiritually, is leaving me.
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    Jesus takes something that is meant for holy purposes
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    to bless and enable the party to keep going on.
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    He takes the water.
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    He takes the water and He fills the water.
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    He takes the water and He hands it to the wine steward,
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    the masters of the ceremony and says,
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    "Just take it to the table."
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    They're thinking, "Ummmm, okay."
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    They take it to the table and watch what happens.
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    Now, I got to tell you right now,
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    the Penelope pure hearts, The Dudley Do rights,
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    the hyper religious among us
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    really don't like this story at all.
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    They would prefer a dry wedding,
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    nothing stronger than Diet Coke.
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    So when I went to seminary, I learned things like,
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    "Well, this wasn't actually real wine.
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    This was a great mash that hadn't yet been fermented."
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    That's exactly what someone has to say
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    who's against fun receptions.
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    That's exactly what someone has to say
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    who can't believe that Jesus would do a miracle
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    to keep the party going.
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    It's exactly what He does.
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    How do I know this is alcoholic wine?
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    Because you can taste the difference
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    between alcoholic wine and nonalcoholic wine.
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    By the way, just a public service announcement,
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    you can have a good time without alcohol.
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    It really can happen, you can.
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    And, public service announcement,
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    there's a lot of people who follow their conviction
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    and don't have wine at weddings,
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    and God is very happy about that. Okay?
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    But let's just look what happened to this wedding.
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    When Jesus goes into the water, He pulls out wine.
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    That's some high quality H2O.
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    - That's what I call high quality H2O. Oh!
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    - He pours out wine.
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    How do we know it's wine and not nonalcoholic wine?
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    We know by what the wine steward says.
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    The wine steward, the master of the ceremonies,
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    who knows what wine is, he tastes it
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    and he knows the difference between
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    non alcoholic wine and alcoholic wine.
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    So do you. Oh, everyone knows that.
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    And that's even today when non alcoholic wine
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    has gotten much, much better than it was.
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    And he says, "Wow, this is amazing.
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    Normally when people are a bit looped,
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    they bring out the cheap stuff
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    and they can't tell whether or not it's Riunite Red.
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    Some of you don't know what Riunite Red is.
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    That's like the old school cheap wine.
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    I took it to my high school prom.
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    And by the way, my parents busted me
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    and I got kicked out of my prom.
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    That's another story for another day.
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    This isn't like the the Riunite Red.
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    This isn't the the two buck chuck
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    for the next generation.
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    This isn't the Barefoot wine
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    for the most recent generation.
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    This is high quality, great wine.
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    If Jesus is going to make wine,
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    it's going to be great wine.
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    And the wine steward verifies, this is amazing.
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    Jesus enabled this party to happen
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    because he had feelings.
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    You ever thought about that?
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    Jesus felt, He empathized for these people
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    and He wanted to help them
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    from being publicly embarrassed.
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    Not only that, He might have also had feelings
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    that made Him want to have more wine Himself.
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    He had the feelings of maybe wanting
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    to have a better time for Himself.
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    Again, mind blowing for many of us
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    if all we know is Prozac Jesus.
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    But He had legitimate feelings
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    across the entire spectrum.
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    And before you categorize Him as just a party animal
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    who tries to keep people from feeling bad
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    and keep the good times going,
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    wedged right up against that is another story
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    that's on the other side of the emotional spectrum.
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    - 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 --
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    - Just like the theology behind it, maybe.
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    - Oh, great question. - Quick.
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    - Yeah. Yeah. So in the beginning,
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    when God created the heavens and the earth,
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    He created all that was in and of the earth.
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    And that substance, that is what we draw from.
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    - Six and a half hours later.
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    - And that is the reason that I like to give.
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    - 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
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    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,
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    all you've got to do is click the give button,
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    right, right there. It's super, super easy.
  • 00:19:15
    - I love that. - Yeah.
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    - 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]

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s the best party you’ve ever been to? What made it so great (if your answer is good wine, I think Jesus would approve)?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. Read John 2:3-4 and John 2:14-15. What surprises you about Jesus’ reactions to both of these stories? What can we learn from his emotions?

  4. When have you seen or experienced the joy that Jesus brings?

  5. Now, what about His challenge? When has something about Jesus challenged the way you live?

  6. What’s scary about letting Jesus have access to change your heart? What gives you hope about transformation that could come?

  7. Jesus is like the ultimate Mr. Clean. What has his cleansing looked like in your life? What is an area in your life that could use a bit of Jesus now?

  8. What’s one way you can invite him into that area of your life this week?

  9. Let’s end praying for each person. I’ll start, and then that person will pray for the next. You can say something like, “Father, thank you for sending us your Son, not only to save us but to show us what a good life looks like. We pray for more of that good life for _____. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • Anger is a powerful emotion, and righteous anger is rare. Where in your life do you feel your anger is misplaced? Where is it justified?
  • Do you tend to challenge yourself more, constantly feeling the need to perform, or do you tend to stay cozy and comfortable? Why do you lean that way?

If you liked what you experienced here, check out our more interactive version of the Weekend Follow-Up in the “Guides” section of our app!

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Apr 11, 2022 36 mins 5 sec

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