Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists? Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry. We are in the same boat. And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit. Not mine either. And that's probably the last thing on your mind. And that's why we chose to partner with Church Candy Marketing for our church. Plant the garden. We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without your eye having to stress over ads or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads. And it works. It's super effective. I can tell you from firsthand experience. So if you're tired of being your city's best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down and show you how to start seeing new faces at your church this Sunday. I'm in the trenches with you trying to grow the church. And how about we just start a whole campaign? No more empty churches. So let's partner with Church Candy and get our churches full for the glory of Jesus. Let's go, family. Welcome to day 71. We are almost through the entire book of John today. We got, like, I mean, if there's like, thick reading, just like, dense content, dense material, it's today. All right, we've got the farewell discourse, and I'll talk about that in just a second. We got John, chapter 14, 17, day 71. If you haven't done the reading for today, time out. Pause. Get out of here. Go do the reading for today. Come on back. I'm not going nowhere. Pause the recording. Pause the video. Pause the audio. Go do the reading. Read John, chapter 14, 15, 16, and 17. Read those four chapters and come on back. For all of us that have done the reading for today, this is just dense, dense, dense content. Because it's discourse material, we dive right into our context clue. Okay, remember how I said sevens are a Big deal for John's gospel, okay? There are seven signs, there are seven I ams. I may or may not have said this already, but there are seven feasts that Jesus attends. So the feasts are a big, big, big deal in John's Gospel. And there are seven discourses or seven blocks of teaching. And a lot of time, like in Matthew and Mark and Luke, in the synoptic tradition, a lot of these blocks of teaching are happening kind of like via a sermon. So like a sermon on the mo or like a sermon on the plane. For John, a lot of these discourses are actually happening conversationally, right? So there's the born again discourse where he's talking to Nicodemus. John does this really, really good job of not just presenting Jesus as like an order or a public figure, but there are these like one on one moments. So him and Nicodemus have this prolonged one on one interaction. And then the woman at the well, that's a discourse. The block of teaching. It would be like the living water discour. Now obviously there are times where Jesus is communicating to crowds of people. We get seven discourses and remember, John is a new Genesis. Okay? So the miracles of Jesus in John's gospel are doing, are accomplishing the exact same thing that Yahweh accomplished in Genesis chapter one. Bringing order to chaos. That's what the miracles are doing. That is what the person of Jesus is doing, which is why there are seven I AM statements. Cause the person of Jesus, the identity of Jesus is for the purpose of bringing order to chaos, bringing new creation. Okay? And Jesus teaching is gonna do the same thing. The lessons of Jesus, the words of Jesus, the truth of Jesus, the wisdom of Jesus, the lessons that Jesus is going to give in these seven discourses are accomplishing the exact same thing that Yahweh accomplished in the original creation, which is to bring order to chaos. So Jesus in the New Testament is not like up to something new? No, it's the same project that Yahweh started that the enemy thwarted, that Adam and Eve did not participate in. It's that same project that God was on in Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter three has derailed that project. And Jesus is here to get that project back on mission. So we're going to get a massive discourse. This is the farewell discourse. I want us to think about this, this block of teaching as the temple training the next temple. Okay? The disciples are going to be temples of the Holy Spirit. The church is going to become living stones made into a building or made into a temple, okay? So what we see in Acts chapter two is the fire of the Holy Spirit falling on the group of Christians the same way that the fire of God fell on the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament. And so this is the temple. Jesus is the temple. He's a portal that leads to the presence of God. It's why when the veil in the actual temple was when Jesus died, when his flesh was pierced, the veil in the temple was also torn. Because the veil in the temple is simply a type and shadow of the person Jesus. So Jesus is the temple, okay? And he's training Peter and John and Matthew and the rest of the gang on how they are going to operate as temples. So this, if you can think about this whole block of teaching as a farewell discourse, this is Jesus's last block of teaching. We're still in the Passover. We're still at this third and final Passover. And now the temple made flesh is teaching these new temples how to actually be temples. Okay, so there's gonna be a couple of themes that are gonna emerge in this section of John's Gospel. Hopefully I'm giving you some good, like, context clues for like deciphering through like this content. First theme is going to be the person of the Holy Spirit, okay? In John chapter 14, we're gonna get a big teaching on the helper, the paraclete, the comforter, okay? That Jesus is going to promise the Holy Spirit. And I think that sometimes without context, we assume that the pinnacle that the climax of God's dealing with humans is Jesus death in resurrection on the cross. However, if that's all we had, we would still be on tiptoe, like waiting for something else to happen. Because the Old Testament is not just promising a savior. It is, it's promising a Messiah. But the Old Testament also communicates that the reason that God's people have not been able to obey God's law is not cause the law is bad. It's because people don't have the spirit of God to, to empower them, energize them, rejuvenate them, and actually cause them to obey the law. So the Old Testament is actually saying we're supposed to leave the Old Testament longing for a Messiah, longing for a Savior. But we're also supposed to leave the Old Testament longing for the Holy Spirit. And Jesus and the Holy Spirit become the right and left hand of God. The reason that Jesus goes to the cross for the remission of our sins, the reason that the blood of the Lamb has to be applied to my Life, so that I'm no longer guilty before God, but innocent is because this temple has to get cleansed by the blood so that it can get filled with the spirit. Cleansed by the blood so that it can get filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The temple cross serves a purpose. The cross is a means to an end. And that end is intimacy with God. Now we are living in a kingdom that is already, but not yet. And so in the kingdom, I have experienced intimacy with God because the Holy Spirit dwells on the inside of me. But I'm also longing for it to be completed in the future, that it's happening already. But there's also a not yet part. And that portion of the promise that is not yet is that one day, oh, we will really be with him. We'll see the Lord face to face. And so this deposit, this down payment that we have called the Holy Spirit is promising that one day we'll experience physical resurrection. We'll be in the new heaven, we'll be in the new earth, and we'll experience the glory and the presence of the kingdom of God. Not as a spiritual reality that we can discern, but as a reality reality that we won't just live based on our five senses, but we'll have some more senses, some additional senses where we are able to actually tap in to things that are happening spiritually at a completely different level. So massive theme on the Holy Spirit. Okay, Holy Spirit. That there's a promise that Jesus is making to his followers that they are going to receive the Holy Spirit, that this is a big deal, not like an after. This is not the credits on the movie. This is a big deal that the cross is accomplishing for the believer in ability to access the cleansing power of the blood of God. For what purpose? So that we can be cleansed. The Holy Spirit couldn't dwell within believers prior to Jesus going to the cross because we were not fit temples to house the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Bible nerds, I have an announcement. My brand new book Crushing Chaos releases May of 2025 and pre orders are officially open. When I began to learn Genesis in its proper context, I learned that the creation account is not primarily about God creating something out of nothing, but rather God bringing divine order to the chaos of the cosmos. That one nugget was a game changer for me because I've been preaching to all the kids in my youth group that peace was a solution for their anxiety. But really God's solution to chaos is never peace, but rather Order peace isn't something that you stumble into. It's something that you intentionally step into. And that starts with aligning your life with God's order. I think that this book is a game changer. It's nerdy, it's practical, it provides a very contextual understanding of the book of Genesis. And if you grab a copy, you'll learn why there's a huge dragon on the COVID Head to the link in the show notes to pre order or head to crushing chaos.com to see the really dope trailer that we made for this book. I think it's time for you to crush the chaos in your life. And that starts with grabbing a copy of this book. Now back to the podcast. Chapter 13, verse 34. Jesus is going to give a command. Okay, this is a nerdy nugget. And he's going to say a new command. I give you love. Okay, I'll actually read it to you. Chapter 13, verse 34, it says this, a new command I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. And also you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Okay? So new command, I give you guys. Love one another. Here's a nerdy nugget. In the ancient world, love is not an emotion. Okay, I know we understand love today in our current culture as a feeling, as an emotion. Oh, man, I feel affection towards you. I feel love towards you. That is not Jesus's worldview. He does not care if, you know, if Andrew and James personalities mesh. He does not care if they click or if they have chemistry. He does not care. He doesn't care about their feelings. This is not about their feelings. That for Jesus, love is a decision of the will. Love is not up to whether I'm in a good mood. Love is a decision of my will. And the reality is that not only do you need that kind of love in order to walk in Christian community, but you need that kind of love for marriage. I don't always feel romantically like in love. Sometimes I'm just like, no, love is a decision of my wills. I'm going to make a decision to love my wife. And that love is found in service, that love is found in provision, that love is found in all types of things, whether I feel it or not. And we have a lot of people who are walking in a marriage for their happiness, and they really need to choose to be married for their holiness. That what love of the will does is it Actually sanctifies you, makes you more like God. God loves you regardless of how you treat him or what you do to him. Because for the Lord, love is not a feeling. Love is a decision of the will. I love my son. Do I have so many warm and awesome feelings towards my son? Of course I do. But I also just have a love of the will. I don't like changing this man's diapers. His poop smells bad. He's turning three now, and he's got, like, his attitude's a little weird. And we're learned. We're, you know, we've been potty training him and he makes mistakes and he pees on the floor. And I mean, like, if it was just about my feelings, there are times where I feel like when he throws a temperature on top, I feel like just leaving him home by himself. Like. But I don't do what I feel like doing. I've made a decision. I've made a decision of my will. And love is a decision of the will. This is. Now we're gonna transition into our timeless truth. Jesus has a prayer in chapter 17, verse 20. We can actually go there and I'll read it to you. And if we're not careful when it comes to our definitions of love, we'll essentially create churches with people we like, right? So your whole Christian community will just be people that you have shared interests with, shared political opinions with. You'll just essentially choose a church or pick a church with people that you feel like you fit in with. And at the end of the day, that's just not Christian community, okay? That's not discipleship for Jesus original followers. There's a tax collector in the crew and a zealot in the crew. These two people are diametrically opposed to each other. All right? A zealot is like a black panther, and a tax collector is like an Uncle Tom. And Jesus is like, yeah, but you both are going to follow me and you're going to love each other the same way I've loved you. I don't care if you don't agree. I don't care if you don't like each other. I don't care if you get along. Doesn't really matter to me. You're going to make a decision of your will to act in love towards one another. Because love is not a feeling. Love is a decision of the will that is evidenced by action behavior. Okay, 17, verse 20. Okay? It says, this is our timeless truth for the day. Chapter 17, verse 20. I do not ask so this is a long prayer by Jesus. Like, all of chapter 17 is essentially like a really, really long prayer that Jesus prays. He says this. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will. Future tense. Who will believe in me through their word. So this is Jesus praying for us. It's pretty dope that Jesus is praying for future believers, okay. While he's at the Last Supper, teaching his disciples how to be the temple, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. So this is twice now where there's something that the disciples or the future church supposed to do. The first is love one another. And then this one is be one. Walk in unity. And what's the purpose? So that it would reflect well on the person of Jesus. Isn't that wild? I want you to act in love so the world may know that you're my disciples. I want you to be one so the world may see when they look at you. I want the world to actually see me and my Father. I want the world to see a picture of the unity that exists in the Godhead. That is actually the weight of this prayer. That I'd want you to do this not because you, like your brother, again, has nothing to do with, like, your personal feelings. And here's where we're going to go back to this prayer for the Holy Spirit. I think there's a lot of us who speak in tongues, but we speak in English. Really mean. And what happened at the day of Pentecost? The tongues of fire come down and people are able to hear the Gospel in their language because it's a reversal of Babel. Babel was the moment where God dispersed the languages and created confusion. Acts chapter two is a moment where there's supernatural unity. The Holy Spirit is not just supposed to give us the ability to speak in tongues and prophesy and work miracles and have signs and wonders. But really the biggest miracle is that the Holy Spirit would bind us together with cords of love that can't be broken, that we become one, that we become united. Because anyone who's ever walked on a team or on a staff knows that unity is difficult. Is difficult. Everybody has their own agenda. Everybody has their own ideas. Everybody has their own plan and to all mesh together in unity. Not uniformity, but unity. True diversity. That's united. That's unity. Okay? Not uniformity. Not that we all become clones. Not that we all become mindless Drones just submitting to whatever the leader says. We're not a cult, we're a church. And the church highlights the diversity of everyone. But also everyone says we're here for a common vision, we're here under a common mandate. And when we want to be God's tangible presence of the kingdom of God. And so we want kingdom culture to really define who we are as a people. And so we rally together around that. Okay, so our timeless truth for the day is that Jesus was praying for us. And so we need to take Jesus prayer to heart and we need to start praying for unity, for supernatural unity. That the Holy Spirit would bind us together with cords of love that can't be broken, that we will be people who model supernatural unity. And so I want you to begin to think, how can I do that in a small way? And then how can I expand that unity? So can I be one with my spouse? Can I create unity just in my family? Can I create unity with like my closest friends? And then bigger and bigger and bigger? Hey, can I create unity on my staff? Hey, can I create unity on the teams that I oversee? Everything that you have a hand in influencing? I want you to think, man, am I adding to the unity or taking away? Am I adding to the unity or taking it away? Is my individualism hindering the cohesion of the group? Nothing wrong with me having individual gifts. But you know what, man, there's some things it's better to die to my individual rights because I want the group to move forward. I want to be a group oriented thinker. I want to be a group oriented leader. My friend Brian Bullock was telling me about being on staff at Union Church and he was saying, man, Pastor Ste. There are things that Pastor Steven doesn't really need to do, but he still does it because people who are following him need to do it right? So there's a system for how to emcee and you write everything out. Like if you're doing the offering or if you're doing announcements, you, you literally write it out, you gotta submit it. And then you, you do a run through and you practice. And like Patrick, Steven doesn't need to do that. I mean, he's a world class communicator, but he knows that if he doesn't submit his individual gift to the culture of the team, than he's giving some young 25 year old who doesn't have that same level of gift. It's giving him an excuse to cut corners. And so I will abide by the rule. I won't live by the exception. It's the same reason why I went back to school to get my doctorate. It's why I got into a master's program. Yes, it adds value to me, but I was successful without it. But I feel like I'm setting a precedent for everyone coming after me, for young people who look up to me. So you have to, as a gifted person, as a leader, submit the things you'd be able to get away with. You have to submit that to the confines of the discipline. That's necessary not just for you, but for the people who are modeling their behavior after you. And that is really, really significant. And that's my Thomas truth for the day. Hey, tomorrow we got the end of John's gospel. We got a lot. Obviously, we got the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in these final chapters. I'll see you Tomorrow on day 72 of our journey through the Bible. This year, we're gonna start in John chapter 18. We're gonna end in John, chapter 21. I'm so proud of you. If you have a streak going, don't break that streak. I'm so, so proud of you. I'll see you right here tomorrow. I love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses at the Bible Depart. We'll see you back here tomorrow.