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The Literary Structure of John · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

• 0:00
  Well, amen and good morning. Please take your copy of God's Word and join me in John chapter 12.
• 0:09
  Whenever I preach, I'm always very reticent to draw any attention to myself, which is, I know, a little ironic because I'm standing up here and you're listening to me.
• 0:19
  But I don't want you to pay a whole lot of attention to me. I want to draw your attention to the text that we're in.
• 0:25
  And so that's why I wear the same jacket every Sunday. It's not because I don't want to own multiple jackets.
• 0:32
  It's because I see no need to, and I just want to be kind of boring for God's glory.
• 0:36
  I just want to get up and preach and have you hear God's Word preached.
• 0:41
  So sometimes when there's something about me that might be distracting, I don't know if I should draw attention to it or not draw attention to it.
• 0:48
  And so this morning I'm going to draw attention to something that perhaps is distracting, and maybe not.
• 0:53
  Thank you for those of you who have asked. Maybe you haven't noticed.
• 0:57
  But I have a pretty decent gash on my cheek this morning. I don't know if you can see or not on my cheek here.
• 1:02
  Because this week I got into a fight with a rather obtuse pry bar that cared nothing about the opinion I was sharing with it.
• 1:13
  And to my shame, it drew first blood, and I don't think I hurt it at all.
• 1:19
  So that's what's happening with my cheek. Again, thank you for those of you who asked. All is well with me.
• 1:27
  We have been working our way through John's gospel account.
• 1:31
  Last week we concluded chapter 11.
• 1:34
  But before preaching verse by verse, the beginning of chapter 12, I want to take a unique break.
• 1:42
  I've been planning on doing this for some months now.
• 1:46
  For our time together, you're going to need two things. Your Bible. You already turned to chapter 12, I hope.
• 1:52
  And we're going to spend a bit of time there eventually.
• 1:57
  And number two, you're going to need that bulletin that was handed to you on your way in.
• 2:03
  I don't always, in fact, I rarely include any notes within the notes section of your bulletin.
• 2:09
  But in this case, I have, and they will be very helpful for you to follow what I am saying.
• 2:17
  I think you might be entirely lost if you don't have that opened up in front of you.
• 2:23
  I want us to take a unique break to consider broadly the literary structure of John.
• 2:30
  If you've been with us in our study, this concept will not be new to you.
• 2:33
  So, why, you might ask, take a step back from the book to consider it as a whole.
• 2:41
  We've been talking about chiastic literary structure almost every week that we've been in John.
• 2:49
  So, why look at it as a whole is the question that's in front of us.
• 2:54
  I hope doing this is going to elicit three responses for you.
• 2:59
  So, here's my answer to that question.
• 3:01
  Number one, I hope it'll elicit in you humility.
• 3:07
  This book is brilliantly constructed.
• 3:13
  And while we believe in the inspiration of the Bible,
• 3:16
  that is, in this case, the Holy Spirit worked through the pen of John,
• 3:21
  we believe that it was breathed out by God through the pen of John,
• 3:25
  we do not believe this happens apart from the author's experience,
• 3:30
  cultural background, education, intellect, etc.
• 3:35
  That inspiration uses the personality of the individual.
• 3:41
  So, John the Apostle, formerly John the Fisherman,
• 3:46
  was a brilliant man,
• 3:49
  which I find should humble us.
• 3:52
  We are not the smartest people to ever live.
• 3:58
  I think that John would have run circles around every single one of us intellectually.
• 4:05
  Further, grasping the complexity of a book like John
• 4:09
  should show us that none of us know our Bibles quite as much
• 4:14
  as we might think that we do.
• 4:17
  We've got a lifetime ahead of us, right?
• 4:20
  As long as the Lord tarries and He leaves us here,
• 4:23
  that we can study this Word and understand it more and more and more.
• 4:29
  So, I hope to work humility in us this morning.
• 4:35
  Secondly, I want to elicit a response of wonder.
• 4:39
  John wasn't alone, as I mentioned in writing of this Gospel.
• 4:45
  The Bible is God-breathed, and it is magnificent.
• 4:52
  We can spend the entirety of our lives studying this book,
• 4:56
  and we will not unpack all of its beauty.
• 4:58
  Now, it is true that the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture states
• 5:03
  that all that is necessary for life and godliness is clear in the Bible.
• 5:10
  We, yes and amen, that reality.
• 5:15
  But that's where a lot of people stop.
• 5:18
  They stop understanding it and mining its depths at that level.
• 5:24
  But this book is just amazing.
• 5:28
  It's amazing.
• 5:30
  Written by various authors across time.
• 5:33
  It contains such singular focus.
• 5:36
  It's just layered, layered, layered with awe.
• 5:42
  We truly worship an incredible God,
• 5:45
  and our study of His written Word is but a drop in the ocean of Himself.
• 5:50
  I am convinced that we will spend eternity enthralled by discovery of the person of God,
• 5:57
  and we get to begin with this book.
• 6:01
  We should just be amazed by it.
• 6:03
  When structure like this exists,
• 6:06
  when the connections are apparent to us,
• 6:08
  we just ought to stand in awe of it.
• 6:11
  So I hope to promote wonder in us this morning.
• 6:14
  And third, I hope to elicit attention.
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  I want to draw your attention to what I believe,
• 6:24
  and I'm not alone in this,
• 6:26
  is the central phrase of the whole of John's Gospel.
• 6:32
  A central phrase.
• 6:34
  I believe he means for us to notice this central phrase
• 6:37
  and have it inform our reading and study of the rest of the book.
• 6:42
  And so I hope to grab your attention this morning.
• 6:48
  Now, I've mentioned taking a unique break to consider literary structure.
• 6:52
  I've mentioned a central phrase.
• 6:55
  If you've been with us, you know exactly what we're referring to.
• 6:59
  If you haven't been, I want to introduce you to a literary structure we called chiasms.
• 7:07
  Much of the Bible is chiastic.
• 7:11
  They're all over the place.
• 7:12
  They're not everywhere, but they are all over the place.
• 7:17
  It is a broadly employed mnemonic device
• 7:20
  used to help in the memorization of long texts.
• 7:24
  Often used by ancient peoples,
• 7:27
  this kind of structure to help people memorize things
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  because they didn't have paper and pen readily available the way that we do.
• 7:34
  But it also served to drive particular points,
• 7:38
  to grant interpretive lenses to a text.
• 7:42
  So in your bulletin, I included a simple definition by a man named Jim Hamilton.
• 7:47
  And he is, I have called him the contemporary king of chiasms,
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  which is chiastic and it alliterates.
• 7:56
  That's free for you today.
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  But he says this,
• 8:00
  the word chiasm derives from the Greek letter chi,
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  which looks like an X.
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  The idea is that the first and last points match,
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  as do the second and second to last,
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  with as many in between as the author desires,
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  hinging at a central turning point.
• 8:19
  Okay, so it's just that simple.
• 8:20
  And you'll be able to see what that looks like
• 8:22
  as I've included some notes for you in your bulletin as well.
• 8:28
  Before we proceed, let me lead us in a prayer.
• 8:32
  Father, we do ask that you would bless the preaching of your word this morning,
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  even as we look at it in a broader sense.
• 8:40
  I pray that you would work in us humility and wonder,
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  and that you would draw our attention to the saving work of Christ,
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  that we would perhaps for the first time today,
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  receive him as Savior and Lord.
• 8:55
  And if we already have, that we would relish him all the more.
• 9:00
  We humbly recognize that we cannot do this without your help.
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  We need your spirit to work in us.
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  And so we pray that you'll do this very thing.
• 9:07
  Amen.
• 9:09
  Okay, so firstly, I wanted to look at John chapter 1, verses 1 through 18.
• 9:13
  You read this as a responsive reading earlier.
• 9:17
  And I want to do this because this is an undeniable chiasm.
• 9:21
  Even people who don't like the work of looking at chiastic structures in the Bible agree.
• 9:26
  All the scholars go, yep, we see it there.
• 9:30
  So you read it earlier.
• 9:31
  I'm not going to read it in its entirety to you.
• 9:34
  But you may have noted that it's a little bit odd in its structure.
• 9:40
  You get this mention of John, and then a departure from John,
• 9:45
  and then a return back to John once again.
• 9:50
  It's always read strange to me.
• 9:51
  I've always thought, man, the first chapter of John is a strange chapter.
• 9:56
  It's like he's forgetting things he wanted to say,
• 9:59
  and going back and filling in some details,
• 10:02
  and then going back to the thing.
• 10:03
  Like, whoopsie-daisy, I went off to John the Baptist.
• 10:05
  I better circle back around and say some things about Jesus,
• 10:08
  and then go back to John the Baptist.
• 10:10
  Like, he didn't have an eraser, and he just had no choice but to do that.
• 10:15
  I didn't really think any of that.
• 10:16
  But it just always read odd to me.
• 10:18
  Well, the reason it reads a bit odd is because it's a chiasm.
• 10:23
  So if you look, there, I put that in the bulletin for you.
• 10:26
  You'll notice I've demarcated things by A and A prime.
• 10:30
  So those two correspond with one another.
• 10:34
  So those beginning four verses, you see Jesus presented as light.
• 10:39
  He's coming from God, a representative of God.
• 10:42
  And then in that last portion, verse 16 through 18,
• 10:46
  no one has ever seen God, God the only Son who is at the Father's side.
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  He has made him known.
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  So you see him presented as light and then as glory come from God.
• 11:00
  Then very obviously, the B and the B prime.
• 11:04
  You have a man sent from God whose name was John.
• 11:09
  And then picking up in verse 15, John bore witness about him and cried out.
• 11:14
  There's that piece, John there, and then John picking back up again in verse 15.
• 11:22
  Then you have C and then C prime.
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  Once again, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
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  Verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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  Again, light and glory.
• 11:39
  So the central piece of that is verses 10 through 13.
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  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
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  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
• 11:54
  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
• 12:01
  who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
• 12:07
  There's the central turning point of this text.
• 12:10
  And what John is doing is he's setting up a theme that he's going to carry all throughout the book of receiving Jesus and rejecting Jesus.
• 12:19
  We see this over and over again, back to back to back.
• 12:22
  Chiastic structures again and again and again.
• 12:23
  Receiving Jesus, rejecting Jesus, receiving, rejecting.
• 12:26
  And he explains on what basis this happens.
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  Why is it that some reject and some receive?
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  Some are not born of God.
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  God is building this case right at the beginning, right here.
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  How is it that they come to faith in Christ?
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  It's that they're born of God.
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  God quickens them, makes them alive, births faith in them.
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  And he's going to continue to argue this out all throughout the book.
• 12:58
  You can see it, I hope, right?
• 13:00
  So I gave you like a little, little tiny hint at a chiasm that I made up about Jim Hamilton.
• 13:05
  And now you're seeing it here in John in these first 18 verses.
• 13:10
  And can you see that X structure the way that it lays out before you?
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  Right.
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  I hope that you can.
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  I hope you're with me.
• 13:18
  Now, let's take some time to look at the book as a whole.
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  And I'm working you toward a point, right?
• 13:24
  So I'm flying through some things, but I'm working you toward a point.
• 13:28
  And that is that I want to draw your attention to the central phrase of the text.
• 13:32
  So if you look, I think you have to flip your page.
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  I can hear pages flipping.
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  I've enumerated the chapters.
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  It starts broad and gets smaller.
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  I did not AA prime demarcate at this time for the sake of space.
• 13:50
  But you'll notice, again, corresponding chapters in the entirety of the book.
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  So chapter 1 corresponding to chapters 20 through 21.
• 13:58
  I would really encourage you to take some time to read these chapters.
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  Read chapter 1, then read chapter 20 and 21, and notice the things that are happening in these places.
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  Chapters 2 through 4 correspond with chapters 18 through 20.
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  So you see from Cana to Cana, from garden to garden.
• 14:16
  This is where, in those chapters where Jesus talks about destroying the temple and raising it up in three days.
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  And then in chapters 18 through 20, the temple, Jesus is crucified.
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  And then he is raised on the third day.
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  Chapters 5 through 11, you see Jesus' public ministry.
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  He's among crowds.
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  He's at feasts.
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  Summary things.
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  Chapters 12 through 17, he's in private.
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  He's with his disciples.
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  He's at a particular feast, the Passover feast.
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  Chapter 11, narrowing the scope, verses 45 through 53.
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  Caiaphas, the high priest that year, unknowingly prophesied
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  that it's better that one man would die for the nation.
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  And John explains to us what's meant by that.
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  That he would die for the people of Israel who believe in him.
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  And not only them, but for the nations.
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  And then what do we see as a correspondence to that?
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  Chapter 12, verses 12 through 19.
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  The triumphal entry.
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  Where he is proclaimed to be the Christ.
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  The one who is going to deliver his people.
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  Chapter 11, verse 54 through 57.
• 15:29
  Right there at the end of the chapter, this question is being asked.
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  Will he come?
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  Is Jesus going to show up to the Passover feast?
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  And you see the Sanhedrin has put out an order.
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  They're seeking to arrest.
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  They want to know if he shows up.
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  They want to arrest him.
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  And we know that they've already decided that they're going to kill him at this point.
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  And then the corresponding text is chapter 12, verse 9 through 11.
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  Where he does in fact come.
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  Right?
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  He shows up.
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  And there's a mention there of them seeking to kill Lazarus.
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  Am I making sense?
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  How it builds into a central point.
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  The central text is chapter 12, verse 1 through 8.
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  Where we see reject.
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  This theme emerges of receiving Jesus as the Christ.
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  And rejecting Jesus as the Christ.
• 16:23
  On one side of that, you have Mary.
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  On the other side of that, you have...
• 16:29
  My brain just went totally blank.
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  He has a name.
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  Judith.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Somebody whispered it.
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  I appreciate you.
• 16:39
  Okay.
• 16:40
  So that's where we're going to spend our time looking at this.
• 16:42
  Now we are, next week, Lord willing, we're going to look at this text more broadly.
• 16:45
  So some of the details.
• 16:46
  But here we're just, we're working the chiastic structure down to the central phrase.
• 16:52
  Okay.
• 16:52
  Now, we've spent some time.
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  You've seen it on paper.
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  And now you guys are chiastic professionals.
• 17:01
  So I did not include verses 1 through 8 because I want you to look at it yourself.
• 17:06
  So now you've got your Bibles open to John chapter 12.
• 17:09
  We're going to look at verses 1 through 8.
• 17:12
  I'm going to walk you through this and bring you to the central text.
• 17:16
  And then we'll talk a bit at length about that.
• 17:20
  Okay.
• 17:21
  So let me read it in its entirety.
• 17:22
  And then I'll go back and point things out.
• 17:24
  All right.
• 17:24
  So beginning in verse 1, chapter 12.
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  Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
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  So they gave a dinner for him there.
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  Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.
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  Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.
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  The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
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  But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said,
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  Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?
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  He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.
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  And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
• 18:11
  Jesus said, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.
• 18:17
  For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me.
• 18:22
  All right.
• 18:23
  So beginning with verse 1, right?
• 18:27
  Jesus comes to Bethany.
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  It's a suburb, essentially.
• 18:29
  It's a couple miles outside of Jerusalem.
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  This is just before the triumphal entry that we'll read about soon.
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  to the house of Lazarus, who he's just raised from the dead at the end of chapter 11.
• 18:44
  And his presence is there.
• 18:46
  He's there, right?
• 18:47
  He physically goes to this place.
• 18:50
  And then in verse 7, right, what does he say?
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  The poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me.
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  So you see Jesus' presence being mentioned in both places.
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  He's there physically, absolutely, but literarily he's being mentioned.
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  He comes to that place.
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  You do not always have me.
• 19:12
  Verse 2.
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  So now we're going to step in in our chiastic structure.
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  So this would be B, if you're demarcating it.
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  So they gave a dinner for him there.
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  Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.
• 19:29
  And I suggest to you the corresponding verse would be verse 6,
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  which is explaining what Judas said.
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  He said this not because he cared about the poor,
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  but because he was a thief,
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  and having charge of the money bag,
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  he used to help himself to what was put into it.
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  So you have this dichotomy being set up between the two of them.
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  You have Martha serving.
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  She's serving others.
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  And here you have Judas serving himself.
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  So service of others corresponding to service of self.
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  Then our next step in in our structure,
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  verse 3, or C if you'd like to mark it out.
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  Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment
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  made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus
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  and wiped his feet with her hair.
• 20:28
  So there's a mention of the expense of this ointment.
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  I'm sure you can now see the correspondence to that.
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  Judas gets upset.
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  Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii?
• 20:45
  Very expensive this sacrifice was and given to the poor.
• 20:51
  So the expense of the ointment mentioned in both of these places.
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  Which brings me to the central phrase.
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  And you may have noted that I did not read the end of verse 3.
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  And here it is.
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  I believe this is a central phrase to this piece of text
• 21:09
  and to the entirety of the book of John.
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  The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
• 21:21
  The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
• 21:26
  We are so quick to read past details like this.
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  Why in the world did John,
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  the inspired by God himself,
• 21:38
  John, record this detail?
• 21:43
  It's striking to me that there was mention in chapter 11
• 21:46
  about the potential smell of Lazarus coming out of the tomb,
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  but no explanation of that whatsoever.
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  Never, right?
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  Never a mention he might smell.
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  Never does John give us any detail about that at all.
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  And yet here he mentions
• 22:01
  the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
• 22:08
  Here is how the literary structure serves us.
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  Between two corresponding responses,
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  one, Mary kneels at the feet of Jesus.
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  She has received him as the Christ.
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  The other, Judas,
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  misunderstanding everything going on
• 22:27
  and only concerned about his personal temporal gain.
• 22:32
  Again, we'll look at more next week.
• 22:35
  We have this phrase.
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  There's these two different characters.
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  One receiving, one rejecting.
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  The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
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  Now, I did not discover the significance
• 22:51
  of what John is doing here on my own.
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  Oh, how I wish I did.
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  How I wish my mind was so saturated with the scripture
• 23:01
  that this detail left off the page at me.
• 23:05
  It did not.
• 23:06
  I have read past this little detail
• 23:08
  as if it was insignificant all the years.
• 23:13
  But at the same time,
• 23:14
  I'm thankful for the help I received from others
• 23:17
  and continue to,
• 23:18
  and in this case,
• 23:20
  Jim Hamilton pointing out this structure
• 23:23
  in this book.
• 23:27
  What are we to make of this?
• 23:30
  Just moments ago,
• 23:31
  Jake led in the reading
• 23:33
  of an Old Testament text
• 23:35
  that is printed in your bulletin
• 23:37
  this morning.
• 23:38
  It's like I do things sometimes by design.
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  Leviticus chapter 16.
• 23:47
  Look at that for me.
• 23:52
  Jordan mentioned it when he got up
• 23:53
  to lead the next song.
• 23:56
  It is argued that the entire Pentateuch,
• 23:59
  the first five books of the Bible,
• 24:00
  are chiasc,
• 24:01
  the whole thing,
• 24:02
  and that it centers
• 24:03
  on this text
• 24:05
  in Leviticus.
• 24:07
  The Day of Atonement.
• 24:09
  The entirety of those five books
• 24:11
  of the Bible
• 24:11
  have this central point
• 24:14
  in the middle
• 24:15
  of it all.
• 24:16
  I think that John knows this.
• 24:18
  I think that he's assuming
• 24:20
  his readers are going to know it.
• 24:21
  I think that if we really knew
• 24:23
  our Bibles,
• 24:24
  these connections would fire off
• 24:25
  and be made
• 24:26
  in our minds.
• 24:28
  What's happening here
• 24:31
  is just a blip.
• 24:32
  There's a lot of instruction
• 24:33
  about the Day of Atonement.
• 24:35
  But here it is
• 24:36
  giving instruction
• 24:37
  for the Levitical high priest,
• 24:39
  the first of whom
• 24:40
  was Aaron,
• 24:42
  and how he was to make sacrifice
• 24:44
  for the people of Israel
• 24:45
  on this particular day.
• 24:48
  So let's look at that text
• 24:49
  again together.
• 24:50
  I'm going to read it for us quickly
• 24:51
  and draw your attention
• 24:53
  to a few things.
• 24:54
  So Leviticus 16,
• 24:55
  starting in verse 11.
• 24:56
  Aaron shall present the bull
• 24:59
  as a sin offering for himself
• 25:00
  and shall make atonement
• 25:02
  for himself
• 25:02
  and for his house.
• 25:04
  He shall kill the bull
• 25:05
  as a sin offering
• 25:06
  for himself.
• 25:07
  And he shall take
• 25:08
  a censer full of coals of fire
• 25:10
  from the altar
• 25:10
  before the Lord
• 25:11
  and two handfuls
• 25:13
  of sweet incense
• 25:14
  beaten small
• 25:15
  and he shall bring it
• 25:16
  inside the veil
• 25:17
  and put the incense
• 25:19
  on the fire
• 25:20
  before the Lord
• 25:21
  that the cloud
• 25:22
  of the incense
• 25:23
  may cover the mercy seat
• 25:25
  that is over
• 25:25
  the testimony
• 25:26
  so that he does not die.
• 25:28
  Are you making the connection?
• 25:29
  Your brain
• 25:30
  making the connection?
• 25:32
  You're not awake
• 25:33
  if you're not.
• 25:34
  Verse 14.
• 25:35
  And he shall take
• 25:35
  some of the blood
• 25:36
  of the bull
• 25:36
  and sprinkle it
• 25:37
  with his finger
• 25:37
  on the front
• 25:38
  of the mercy seat
• 25:38
  on the east side
• 25:40
  in front of the mercy seat
• 25:41
  he shall sprinkle
• 25:42
  some of the blood
• 25:42
  with his finger
• 25:43
  seven times.
• 25:45
  Then he shall kill
• 25:45
  the goat
• 25:46
  of the sin offering
• 25:46
  that is for the people
• 25:47
  and bring its blood
• 25:49
  inside the veil
• 25:50
  and do with its blood
• 25:51
  as he did
• 25:51
  with the blood
• 25:52
  of the bull
• 25:52
  sprinkling it
• 25:53
  over the mercy seat
• 25:54
  and in front
• 25:54
  of the mercy seat.
• 25:56
  Thus he shall make
• 25:57
  atonement for the holy place
• 25:58
  because of the uncleanliness
• 26:00
  of the people of Israel
• 26:01
  and because of their transgressions
• 26:02
  all their sins.
• 26:04
  And so he shall do
• 26:06
  for the tent of meeting
• 26:06
  which dwells with them
• 26:08
  in the midst
• 26:09
  of their uncleanliness.
• 26:11
  No one may be
• 26:12
  in the tent of meeting
• 26:13
  from the time he enters
• 26:14
  to make atonement
• 26:15
  in the holy place
• 26:16
  until he comes out
• 26:17
  and has made atonement
• 26:18
  for himself
• 26:19
  and for his house
• 26:20
  and for all
• 26:21
  the assembly
• 26:22
  of Israel.
• 26:25
  So Aaron
• 26:26
  and then
• 26:27
  his progeny
• 26:28
  beyond him
• 26:29
  those who served
• 26:30
  as high priests
• 26:30
  would go
• 26:31
  one time of year
• 26:32
  into an inner place
• 26:35
  first in the tabernacle
• 26:36
  that's where the instructions
• 26:37
  are given here
• 26:37
  and then into the temple
• 26:39
  a place that was
• 26:40
  the most holy
• 26:42
  of places.
• 26:43
  One time of year
• 26:44
  this one man
• 26:45
  could go in
• 26:46
  and he had to follow
• 26:47
  very strict instructions
• 26:48
  or else he would be
• 26:50
  struck dead.
• 26:53
  One of the things
• 26:54
  that he had to do
• 26:55
  was bring in
• 26:57
  incense
• 26:58
  and burn it
• 27:00
  to fill
• 27:02
  the space
• 27:03
  to cover
• 27:05
  the mercy seat
• 27:06
  so that
• 27:07
  he does not
• 27:09
  die.
• 27:10
  He made an aromatic
• 27:11
  sacrifice
• 27:12
  in that moment
• 27:13
  and God withheld
• 27:15
  his wrath
• 27:16
  for all their
• 27:17
  uncleanliness
• 27:17
  as he goes
• 27:18
  about this process
• 27:19
  of making
• 27:20
  all of this
• 27:21
  sacrifice
• 27:21
  of blood.
• 27:24
  The incense
• 27:25
  the first thing
• 27:26
  I want to draw
• 27:27
  your attention to
• 27:28
  right?
• 27:29
  That other
• 27:29
  I really want you
• 27:31
  to see
• 27:31
  is the solitude
• 27:32
  of it.
• 27:34
  It's Aaron
• 27:34
  by himself
• 27:35
  going into
• 27:36
  this place
• 27:37
  and burning
• 27:39
  this incense
• 27:39
  filling this
• 27:40
  room
• 27:41
  with this
• 27:42
  fragrance.
• 27:43
  fragrance.
• 27:45
  So,
• 27:46
  back in
• 27:47
  John chapter
• 27:48
  12
• 27:49
  and verse
• 27:50
  3,
• 27:52
  as Mary
• 27:52
  kneels at
• 27:53
  the Lord's
• 27:53
  feet,
• 27:55
  receives him
• 27:56
  as the Christ,
• 27:57
  makes this
• 27:58
  lavish sacrifice
• 27:59
  of service
• 28:01
  to him.
• 28:02
  And on the
• 28:03
  other side
• 28:03
  of that
• 28:04
  you see
• 28:04
  Judas
• 28:07
  rejecting
• 28:08
  Jesus,
• 28:10
  wanting what
• 28:10
  he could get
• 28:11
  from Jesus'
• 28:12
  ministry,
• 28:14
  you see this
• 28:14
  phrase,
• 28:15
  the house
• 28:15
  was filled
• 28:16
  with the
• 28:17
  fragrance
• 28:18
  of the
• 28:19
  perfume.
• 28:21
  John means
• 28:22
  for us to
• 28:23
  see
• 28:23
  Mary
• 28:25
  worshiping
• 28:26
  in the
• 28:26
  very
• 28:27
  presence
• 28:28
  of God
• 28:28
  himself.
• 28:30
  Isn't that
• 28:31
  cool?
• 28:32
  That's the
• 28:32
  moment that's
• 28:33
  being recorded
• 28:34
  here.
• 28:35
  Mary has
• 28:35
  gone in
• 28:36
  behind
• 28:37
  the veil
• 28:38
  and she
• 28:39
  has made
• 28:40
  sacrifice
• 28:41
  and Jesus
• 28:42
  has welcomed
• 28:43
  her.
• 28:45
  The whole
• 28:46
  book
• 28:47
  is turning
• 28:48
  on this
• 28:49
  phrase,
• 28:51
  the house
• 28:51
  was filled
• 28:53
  with the
• 28:53
  fragrance
• 28:54
  of the
• 28:55
  perfume.
• 28:57
  Now,
• 28:58
  why does that
• 28:59
  matter,
• 28:59
  right?
• 28:59
  You could
• 29:00
  preach through
• 29:00
  the book
• 29:00
  of John
• 29:00
  and I
• 29:01
  think you
• 29:01
  could preach
• 29:01
  it faithfully
• 29:02
  and miss
• 29:02
  this.
• 29:03
  I'm sure
• 29:04
  without Jim
• 29:04
  Hamilton's help
• 29:05
  I would have
• 29:06
  definitely done
• 29:06
  that going
• 29:07
  through the
• 29:08
  gospel of
• 29:10
  John.
• 29:10
  But I
• 29:11
  think he's
• 29:11
  doing something
• 29:12
  particularly
• 29:12
  helpful for
• 29:13
  us.
• 29:15
  So,
• 29:15
  he says
• 29:16
  in John
• 29:16
  chapter 20
• 29:17
  verse 30
• 29:18
  and 31,
• 29:19
  I've read
• 29:19
  this to you
• 29:19
  many times
• 29:20
  in our
• 29:20
  study so
• 29:21
  far,
• 29:21
  now Jesus
• 29:22
  did many
• 29:22
  other signs
• 29:23
  in the
• 29:23
  presence of
• 29:23
  the disciples
• 29:24
  which are
• 29:24
  not written
• 29:25
  in this
• 29:25
  book,
• 29:26
  but these
• 29:27
  are written
• 29:27
  so that you
• 29:28
  may believe
• 29:29
  that Jesus
• 29:29
  is the
• 29:30
  Christ,
• 29:31
  the Son
• 29:31
  of God,
• 29:32
  and that by
• 29:32
  believing
• 29:33
  you may
• 29:34
  have life
• 29:34
  in his
• 29:35
  name.
• 29:36
  You're
• 29:36
  probably
• 29:36
  very familiar
• 29:37
  with this,
• 29:37
  if you're
• 29:38
  at all
• 29:38
  familiar
• 29:38
  with
• 29:39
  John's
• 29:39
  gospel.
• 29:40
  He wrote
• 29:41
  these things
• 29:41
  down so
• 29:42
  that we
• 29:42
  can believe
• 29:43
  Jesus is
• 29:43
  the Christ
• 29:44
  and have
• 29:44
  life.
• 29:46
  And what
• 29:46
  we do
• 29:46
  so often
• 29:47
  when we
• 29:47
  think about
• 29:48
  life,
• 29:48
  we think
• 29:48
  about
• 29:48
  eternal
• 29:49
  life,
• 29:50
  as we
• 29:50
  put that
• 29:50
  in
• 29:51
  juxtaposition
• 29:51
  to
• 29:52
  eternal
• 29:52
  death.
• 29:53
  And there's
• 29:53
  some
• 29:53
  rightness
• 29:54
  in doing
• 29:54
  that,
• 29:55
  but we
• 29:55
  see it
• 29:56
  as an
• 29:56
  escape
• 29:57
  from
• 29:57
  punishment
• 29:57
  and
• 29:58
  nothing
• 29:58
  more.
• 30:01
  Nothing
• 30:01
  more.
• 30:04
  Justification.
• 30:05
  What an
• 30:06
  important
• 30:06
  doctrine.
• 30:07
  We want
• 30:08
  to stand
• 30:10
  on a hill
• 30:10
  and die
• 30:11
  for the
• 30:11
  doctrine of
• 30:12
  justification
• 30:12
  by grace
• 30:13
  alone,
• 30:13
  through faith
• 30:14
  alone,
• 30:14
  in Christ
• 30:15
  alone.
• 30:15
  How can you
• 30:16
  stand before
• 30:16
  God?
• 30:17
  How can you
• 30:18
  have the
• 30:19
  penalty of your
• 30:20
  debt expunged
• 30:21
  from you?
• 30:22
  How can you be
• 30:22
  given the
• 30:22
  righteousness of
• 30:23
  Christ so that
• 30:24
  you can stand
• 30:25
  before God
• 30:25
  and not be
• 30:26
  destroyed?
• 30:27
  That's the
• 30:28
  doctrine of
• 30:28
  justification.
• 30:29
  By grace,
• 30:30
  through faith,
• 30:30
  in Christ.
• 30:31
  It's an
• 30:31
  incredibly
• 30:32
  important
• 30:33
  doctrine.
• 30:34
  But I
• 30:34
  think our
• 30:34
  minds stop
• 30:35
  there.
• 30:37
  I think if
• 30:37
  we're not
• 30:38
  careful,
• 30:38
  it always
• 30:39
  ends
• 30:40
  there.
• 30:43
  But John,
• 30:44
  in saying
• 30:45
  that we're
• 30:45
  going to
• 30:45
  have life
• 30:46
  in Jesus'
• 30:46
  name,
• 30:47
  has already
• 30:48
  defined what
• 30:49
  life is
• 30:51
  a few
• 30:51
  chapters
• 30:52
  earlier.
• 30:53
  In chapter
• 30:54
  17,
• 30:55
  verse 3,
• 30:55
  he says,
• 30:56
  and this
• 30:56
  is
• 30:57
  eternal
• 30:58
  life.
• 30:59
  that they
• 31:01
  know you,
• 31:02
  the only
• 31:03
  true God,
• 31:05
  and Jesus
• 31:05
  Christ,
• 31:07
  whom you
• 31:07
  have sent.
• 31:09
  Beloved,
• 31:10
  we are
• 31:10
  justified
• 31:11
  in order
• 31:12
  to be
• 31:13
  adopted,
• 31:15
  to be
• 31:16
  welcomed
• 31:16
  back into
• 31:18
  God's
• 31:18
  family,
• 31:20
  for to be
• 31:20
  back like
• 31:21
  in the
• 31:21
  garden before
• 31:22
  the fall
• 31:22
  when God
• 31:23
  walked with
• 31:24
  Adam in
• 31:24
  the cool
• 31:25
  of the
• 31:25
  day,
• 31:26
  to get
• 31:27
  to have
• 31:28
  him as
• 31:28
  our God
• 31:28
  and we
• 31:29
  be his
• 31:29
  people,
• 31:31
  to dwell
• 31:31
  with
• 31:32
  him.
• 31:34
  He's the
• 31:34
  end point,
• 31:35
  right?
• 31:35
  That restored
• 31:36
  relationship,
• 31:37
  to be
• 31:37
  reconciled
• 31:38
  back to
• 31:39
  God
• 31:39
  in
• 31:40
  Jesus
• 31:40
  Christ.
• 31:42
  And I
• 31:43
  think our
• 31:43
  minds stop
• 31:44
  too low.
• 31:46
  Justification,
• 31:47
  yes,
• 31:48
  teach it,
• 31:49
  defend it,
• 31:50
  stand firm
• 31:51
  on it,
• 31:52
  but so
• 31:52
  that
• 31:53
  we're
• 31:54
  adopted,
• 31:54
  so that
• 31:56
  we can
• 31:56
  be welcomed
• 31:57
  into the
• 31:58
  presence
• 31:59
  of God
• 32:00
  forever.
• 32:02
  The house
• 32:04
  was filled
• 32:05
  with the
• 32:06
  fragrance
• 32:07
  of the
• 32:08
  perfume.
• 32:09
  I think
• 32:09
  that John
• 32:10
  wants us
• 32:10
  to have
• 32:11
  this in
• 32:12
  our mind,
• 32:13
  right?
• 32:14
  The Lord
• 32:15
  of the
• 32:15
  universe,
• 32:16
  the word
• 32:17
  made flesh,
• 32:19
  dwelling with
• 32:20
  man,
• 32:20
  welcoming
• 32:21
  a woman
• 32:22
  who's willing
• 32:23
  to give
• 32:23
  everything
• 32:24
  that she
• 32:24
  might sit
• 32:25
  in his
• 32:26
  presence.
• 32:27
  Let's pray
• 32:28
  together.