Gooding, David: 2 - On the Road with Jesus

When we broke off, we were thinking together about our Lord's, the handling of the woman of Samaria, noticing how the, uh, topic of worship that our Lord raised with that woman balances the topic of worship that occupied the first big story in this section. Now, at this point, uh, I want to, uh, break off for a moment, for I'm told that, uh, some of you would like to do some homework. It isn't, of course, a condition for your coming that to do any homework, but some have suggested to me that you are, some of you very keen and stay up half a night doing homework. So I believe what they say, and, uh, uh, uh, here is one suggestion for some homework i- in the intervening three weeks, if the Lord will. The homework is, uh, planned to be geared into what we were doing this evening, but to get us reading the text again of scripture and acquainting ourselves with the text at this stage, which is a very important thing in all study. You can't get answers out of a computer unless, first of all, you put the facts in, and the Holy Spirit can't show you much in scripture unless first of all you get the facts of scripture into the old computer that is your brain. You'll see. Anyway, uh, uh, I would suggest that in the coming three weeks, if you have time, you hunt up all those stories in the Gospel of John in which women are prominent. There are a series of, there is a series of them. They are either stories about women that none of the other gospel writers has, or if the others have the story, John gives a much fuller account of the story. To set you going, of course, the first one is the story of the wedding in Cana of Galilee, is it not, in chapter two? And women are prominent, though the bride isn't mentioned, curiously enough, but it is said that the mother of Jesus was there. And our Lord said to the dear lady, woman, what have I to do with you? Only John has that story. Uh, in the, the penultimate chapter, John has the story of Mary Magdalene in the garden. Well, of course, other writers tell us, uh, about the women at the sepulcher, but John has this special piece that nobody else has. Our Lord said to Mary, uh, hold, don't hold on to me, don't touch me. I've not yet ascended to my Father, but go and tell my brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. In between, there are some other stories, some of them peculiar to John, uh, where women are likewise prominent. So the homework to search them out, what they are, and then to ask, what is the lesson that they teach? You'll see. Have they anything in common? And if they have, then what are the differences between them? The women, therefore, in the Gospel of John. And now I must proceed at post haste, and I must not be beguiled into preaching mini sermons. But let's come back to where the preacher began at the beginning of our first session, you know, that, that, that rather poor preacher, and come back to the story of the cleansing of the temple. Because we are still interested not only in what the stories contain, but their functional relationship one with the other. Now, the preacher said, if you remember, that our Lord made a scourge, and he drove the animals out of the temple, saying, take these filthy beasts out. Actually, the Lord didn't say anything of the sort. He said, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. What he was objecting to was not at, on this occasion, the filth that the beast would have caused in the temple court itself, or even in the court around the altar, when beasts were brought there, they couldn't always be on their best behavior, could they, not cows, particularly when they were going to get sacrificed. It wasn't that part of the thing that, uh, uh, concerned him. It was that in conjunction with the high priests, who were exceedingly wealthy men, the merchants of the city were turning religion into a way of making money. Of course, when people came to worship, they had to bring a sacrifice of some sort, but they ought to have got the sacrifices downtown. That was a mere commercial thing. Instead of that, the thing had been installed in the temple so that when you came to the temple, you would be told by the priest what to offer, and then there would be the merchantman in ha- hand in glove with the high priest, making a very fat profit out of your spiritual exercises. Religion used as a means of making money. That is what our Lord so thoroughly objected to. Uh, so if I put down here merchandise or merchants, that will do, won't it, just to remind you. He's objecting to religion, people's need for God being turned by unscrupulous men into a way of making money. And if I were going to preach a sermon, but I'm not, but if I were, I would say... There has been a tremendous scandal, hasn't there, in recent years, with television evangelists living in luxury out of the millions of dollars they've made out of people who supposedly have contributed to the work of the Lord in their hands. But then, the whole idea of religion being a means of making money has been general, hasn't it? People being given the impression that they can and must buy salvation. And what's wrong with that? And has that got anything to do with what follows? Is that in any way related? Of course, isn't it? Merchandise. What did, uh, our Lord, or is it John, say in the conversation with Nicodemus or thereafter? God so loved that he gave. No wonder our Lord was irate. There they were making money out of religion when he had come to express the true attitude of God, who is the God of giving, and God so loved that he gave. When our Lord got down to Samaria, he said to the woman, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaketh to you, you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water. So now we're beginning to build up an idea, aren't we? Uh, these two conversations, you'll see here, have things in common. This one in four had a lot in common with story number one. It is now beginning to have, uh, interesting connections with story number two. When you get similarities like that in scripture, and if you, uh, incidentally, if you do that homework and you find out all about these dear ladies, then it's always a good thing to look not only at the similarities, but the differences, you'll see. What the medics would call by the exalted name of differential diagnosis, and then they charge you a lot for a big word like that. All it means is, you'll say, that if, uh, 3 patients come into the surgery one night and they've all got sore throats, the doctor doesn't say, all, all sore throats, so go home and take some aspirins. No. He looks down the one cavern and says, mm-hmm, yes, you've been to the football match shouting your head off, that the cure for you is to go home and keep quiet for a while. He looks down the second one and says, ah, down in that pit you've got laryngitis, old boy, and he prescribes antibiotics, you'll see. He looks down the third one, and then he looks very grave and says, I want you to go to hospital, we take a, a swab. He fears the man has got cancer of the throat. They all have sore throats. But now it's the difference that becomes important, isn't it? And here's a simple example, we'll say, uh, the gift of God talking to Nicodemus, the gift of God talking to the woman. Is it the same? Well, the same in that they're a gift, but there's a different emphasis, isn't there? The gift of God here in the story of Nicodemus, the gift of God is the Son of God. The gift equals the Son God so loved that he gave his one and only Son. Ah, but talking to the woman, if you know the gift of God, the gift equals the living water, which is, of course, the Holy Spirit, or the gift of life, or whatever you would call it. They're not quite the same, are they? So if you were preaching one night on this, the gift of God here, you wouldn't be saying exactly the same thing as you were saying when you were preaching chapter three, would you? And then you'll have to show, if you're good at it as a preacher, how the gift of God is the Son has got to do with this whole matter of being regenerate, born again, which was what our Lord was talking about to Nicodemus, whereas the gift of the Holy Spirit was relevant to the topic our Lord was discussing with the woman, yes? He could have talked about himself on the cross to that woman. There's no record he did. He talked rather of his ability to impart to her the living water. Why was that? How was that suitable for that woman, whereas the gift of God and of him who died on Calvary was suitable to Nicodemus? Yes, that's the kind of question that we are asking. The whole thing, of course, is a marvelous tapestry of interwoven threads. But now let's go on again. The stories of, uh, the, uh, two conversations are so well known, I needn't now say anything more about them. But let's come in each case to what follows. We come back to chapter three, verse twenty two to the end. I put it down here as John and his disciples. Chapter three, twenty two to the end. Jesus leaves Jerusalem, he comes to Judea. Verse 25, there arose a question on the part of John's disciples with the Jew about purifying, and they came unto John and said to him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou hast borne witness, behold, the same baptizes, and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except it have been given him from heaven. Yourselves bear witness me wit- bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is of the earth, and of the earth he speaketh. He that cometh from heaven is above all. So first of all, we just try to decide then what this particular story is about. What is it saying? What is it in its bare bones? Well, it's a discussion between John and one of his disciples. And at first sight, it's got very little to do with the conversation with Nicodemus. It seems just to be put in there, doesn't it? Well, why not? Doesn't have to have anything in connection with the conversation with Nicodemus. It could stand in its own right. It happened, so perhaps it's just put in there because it happened. But let's listen a moment. Uh, here's one of John's disciples coming to him, rather disturbed, and saying, Rabbi, you know that, uh, young preacher, he was at your mass rally the other day, and you were very generously allowed him to say a few words to the people and introduced him and said he was a very good preacher, you said. Ah, do you say? Well, yes, says John, what about him? Well, they said, you know what? He's gone out and set up in, in, in competition with you, John. He's holding meetings now and big rallies of people and preaching and baptizing, and uh, I mean, they said, this isn't fair, is it? I mean, you gave him a leg up, but I mean, that's all right, but for him to, to set up in having rallies in competition with you, I mean. And I thought John was going to get upset, as sometimes preachers do get upset. In better long and have bigger rallies than other preachers, don't they, Watto? So John had to explain how and why it was that he wasn't upset. And among the things that are said, whether John said them himself or whether the gospel writer John says them, I want just now, in these brief dying moments, to call your attention to one thing, which we'll come back to it on our next occasion, God willing. Look at verse thirty one. He who comes from above is above all. The Greek word, excuse my, um, uh, talking, uh, uh, a little Greek, it won't harm your, uh, your thing. The Greek word from above is anothen, anothen. It means from above. You say, well, what about that then? Anothen equals from above. But of course, that at once triggers an old memory, doesn't it, in the memory box? For that is the word that our Lord used talking with Nicodemus. Ainos then, from above. You say, where does it say that? Well, here I tell you a little bit more about Greek. Won't cost you any more. Uh, chapter three, you'll see, uh, verse three. verily, verily, says our Lord, I say unto thee, except a man be born, and here comes the word anothen. And the Greek word anothen can mean two things, of course. It can mean over again, over again. So it has commonly been translated like that, except a man be born again, all over again, a second time, if you like. And of course it is true. If you hold in mind that our first birth is physical, then we have to be born again in a spiritual birth. That is exceedingly important, of course, and basic to the gospel. You will hear some people say that all people on earth, being God's creatures, are children of God. And we know what they mean, but it isn't technically true. God a- acts in a fatherly way to all his creatures, but in the sense which our Lord uses it in the New Testament, not all people are children of God. They're creatures of God. And the first great fundamental necessity of salvation, our Lord himself says it, that if you would see and enter the kingdom of God, you must be born again. Yes? A second time. And the terms are these, to as many as received him, he gave the power to become children of God. You can't become what you already are. No, it's not enough to be born physically. We have to be born a second time again if we would enter the kingdom of God. We must become children of God by the new birth. That is so. But then the Greek word anothen can also mean from above. And as we follow what our Lord says in the rest of his conversation, it becomes evident that he himself is using the term, especially with that second meaning prominently. When Nicodemus says, how can these things, uh, come to be, our Lord says, you see, I, if I told you earthly things and you believed not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of Man. Nicodemus has suggested that he thinks that Jesus is a teacher come from God. He meant to be complimentary. It was woefully inadequate. You must realize not merely what I'm telling you, says our Lord, that you must be born again. You must realize who I am that's telling it to you. I'm not just a man come from God. John the Baptist was that. I'm the very Lord himself come down from heaven. And if you would know of heavenly things, then you'll know them from learning them from me, or you'll learn- know them from nobody. Because nobody has ascended up to heaven to see, save now he who comes down from heaven to tell you. Our Lord Jesus is not just a prophet with a few bright ideas. It is very fundamental to our gospel that he is none other than the Son of God, come down from heaven, incarnate. Come down from that spiritual realm, therefore, and able to tell us its laws and its principles, and his basic, uh, requirement is this, except someone be born, not merely again. Well, if it were merely again, it could be simply another physical birth, couldn't it? It's not that. It's being born again with a different kind of birth. It is being born from above, receiving life from that altogether different and higher level. You can cultivate a cabbage, putting on all the chemical manure so advertised in the garden shops and so expensive. It will say, uh, and what you'll get in the end is a beautiful cabbage. It will not presently turn into a dog. And you can teach your beloved Fido all kinds of tricks, begging for its meal, wagging its tail and barking its thanks, and at the end it'll be a clever dog. It will never turn into a human being. A mere religion that merely religionizes people is useless. Our Lord was utterly radical. Our being born again is to be born, uh, from a higher level, to be born of the Holy Spirit. So the prominence of this word amosen here, as you'll see, that is exceeding. Why does it turn up, uh, with John? Oh yeah, I'm sorry, I got it in the wrong place. Trust me to get it wrong. It shouldn't be there. Should be here, shouldn't it? Why is it here? From above. Well, here is John talking as a servant of God in his relation to the Lord Jesus. And when John, one of John's disciples is getting upset because our Lord has outclassed John, John says that, look here, don't get upset, my dear boy, you're talking nonsense. I am of the earth at best. No one can receive anything unless it be given him of God. I am of the earth. But he that is Anothen, he who is from above, is above all. Now then, how are the things connected? We shall have to come back to this next week, on next occasion it is so. Just let me make the suggestion to you. If we, as servants of God, preach a gospel that says you must be born from above, and you are being told this by our blessed Lord Jesus, who comes from above. Then if we preach that as our gospel, when it comes to us as servants, we must adopt an attitude towards the Lord Jesus that is consistent with his person. He is from above. I tremble sometimes when I read the works of some theologians who talk about our Lord Jesus as though he were simply a creature of his day who held all sorts of mistoken, mistaken notions in his head, and the implication is that the theologian knows better on certain points than Jesus Christ himself. That is serious, isn't it? Our service and our attitude to the Lord Jesus must be consistent with the gospel that... We shall come back to that on, on, on, on our second occasion, of course. Let me finally notice that, uh, here in the conversation with the Samaritan is followed by discussion which our Lord had with his apostles. And what was that about? Well, once more, four thirty one, in the meanwhile the disciples prayed him saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that you know not of. The disciples therefore said one to another, hath any man brought him aught to eat? Jesus saith unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to accomplish his work. Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest. He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal. He that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For herein is the saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon you have not labored. Others have labored, and you are entered into their labor. And what's that about? Well, it's our Lord discussing with his disciples his principles of service. And of course, that was what John was talking about, wasn't it, to his disciples. He that hath a bride is the bridegroom, says John. I'm not the bridegroom. Yes, my service is governed by my relation to the Lord Jesus. Now here is our Lord talking to his disciples about principles of service. And what this time? Well, he's talking to them about the satisfaction of service. I have a food to eat, says he, that you don't know anything about. Nice of you to have bought some bread and s- and some meat, but uh, I have a food. They said, what food? He said, my food is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. Oh, gentlemen, he says, leading this soul to Christ here is, is meat and drink to me. I live on it, not on the wages I get for doing it, but doing it itself. Spreading the gospel, meeting the needs of people, bringing a lonely woman like this to God. Oh, I live on it, he says. It's my, it's my, my, my meat and drink. I find it tremendously satisfying and rewarding. Marvelous, isn't it? Just imagine it. The very Lord of heaven taking his dusty journey to the well of Sychar to bring one rather loose living woman home to the father. And he's excited about it. It, it's fed him for the day. He lives on it. Some of us, you know, go about the Lord's work because we have to. It's a kind of a bore and a duty. Oh well, there's nobody else to do it. I suppose I shall have to. Dear, dear. You say, well, what's that got to do with this? Well, you will remember what our Lord talked to the woman about as he preached her the gospel. He preached her the gospel in the terms not of you must be born again. He preached the gospel to her in terms of the living, satisfying water. A gift that could satisfy her thirst, so she needed never to come and drink again. Whoso drinks of this little water shall thirst again. Whoso drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. It shall be in him a well, a spring of water springing up unto eternal life. Oh, magnificent gospel. The gospel in chapter three of new life. The gospel here of satisfaction. Marvelous, isn't it? But wait a minute. If you preach to the unconverted, the gospel that can satisfy, on what principles will you conduct your own service? Oh, you should hear us on Sunday night. No, none but Christ can satisfy. None other name from me, just Christ, and you'll never be thirsty again. He's marvelously satisfying. And Monday somebody says, will you come and take a Sunday school class? But why should I? Oh. You don't find that satisfying? You know, our very integrity is at stake, isn't it? How do you expect the world to believe you when you say that Christ satisfies him through the gospel, if he sees that you find working for Christ such a bore that you'd get out of it if you could? Be practical, my elders say. Well, I'm doing my best. What I was trying to do is to show you that four and five therefore, are functionally linked, just as two and three ah are functionally linked. Yes? And you say, is it likely that our Lord will, uh, uh, or John will have introduced such discussions of principles of service here? Yes, of course it is. For you remember what our Lord was doing when he went up to Jerusalem. He was going up to examine the worship and the service of his people. And tomorrow particularly, when we meet in our churches, sing our praises, and go about our service, they will draw near him with the robe of perfect white down to the feet, who walks amidst the candlesticks of his churches, examining our worship and examining our. Now I leave you with a final question. I set one little bit of homework. Here is another little piece in case you didn't have enough to do in the next three weeks. One final little piece of homework pertains to this final story of the nobleman's son. What is the point of making a list like this, writing a table of contents for a particular section of the gospel? How does that help? Well, one of the things it will do, when you find how the other stories in that section are interrelated, it'll start raising uncomfortable questions. Right? If one message of the temple, our Lord's comment on the worship of the Orthodox, is, uh, linked with our Lord's comment on the worship of the unorthodox. If If... the principles of service in John's case have a lot to do with, and they're related functionally with the conversation with Nicodemus and what that conversation was about, and if here our Lord's principles of service that he discussed with the disciples are related to the message of satisfaction that he preached to the woman. If there are these interrelationships, it raises a very big question, doesn't it? What's this story doing here? Of course, it may not have anything to do with it. Maybe just a story, and John didn't have anywhere else to put it, so he put it there. And if it turns out to be that, well, all well and good, you've no grounds of complaint. So there's a good story in itself. But there's just a possibility, isn't there, that that story might be related to some of these. And seeing these two, two and three are a pair, aren't they? And four and five are a pair. It might be thought that number six had something to do, at least, with number one. But then who knows? It would be worth examining, wouldn't it, you see? Because if we're going to be confident when you next get up to preach that final story, number six, and you weren't, uh, sure whether it had anything to do with what it went before or not, well, you could still preach it, couldn't you? It would just leave a kind of a niggling in your mind that you hadn't altogether seen the point of it, if you left your preaching, left it as the odd man out in the series. And that's why concern with structure and functional relationship can be a very important tool in controlling the way we expound individual stories. So we've made a first step of it, haven't we? Thank you for coming tonight. Uh, I've worked you very hard. I can't promise to work you less hard on any other occasion. Uh, be pleased to see you if you can turn up next time. We shall have to finish off here, and we shall deal, God willing, with the homework that I've set about those stories of women, and then if we get time, we shall move on. Anybody got a question that they want specially to ask of, about what we've been doing that is puzzling them? The question is, on what basis did I link the living water that our Lord offered to the Samaritan woman with the Holy Spirit? That is a very good question. I was following the idea that, um, in, say, chapter seven of that same gospel, our Lord says, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, and out of his inward parts shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit. If the water there represents, and is explicitly said to represent the Spirit, then it is conceivably possible that in chapter four it does likewise. Having said that, I'm aware, as I'm sure you are, sir, that, uh, water is referred to in the Gospel of John many times, you'll see. And, uh, in chapter one, I baptize you with water, says John, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. Chapter two, our Lord turns wa- turns water into wine. Chapter three, you have to be born of water and the Spirit. Chapter four, he offers the woman living water. Chapter five, there is the pool of Bethesda. Do you see? Chapter six, he walks on the water of the sea. Chapter seven, you see, he offers out of his inward part shall flow rivers of living water. Chapter nine, he sends the blind man to be, uh, bathed in the pool of Siloam, yes? In chapter thirteen, he fills the basin with water and washes his disciples' feet. In chapter nineteen, when our Lord is finally pierced with the speared, with the spear out of his, uh, body, there comes blood and water. Now, that being so, you'll see, uh, I must be careful, and I'm prepared to to be adjusted, so to speak. Is it so that on each occasion the water represents the Holy Spirit? Some will say no. Uh, look at chapter three, except to be born again of water and the Spirit. And how should that be translated? Water and the Spirit or water even the Spirit? Or is it that sometimes in John's gospel, the water is an emblem rather of the word of God? Do you see? Uh, so that, uh, the matter is not quite so straightforward as I made it appear, do you see? I was cutting corners with my eye on the clock, do you see. So, now I count on you the next scripture. It is good just to take one verse or one story, but then from time to time it's good to try to take the overall view of a thing so that you can see the drift of it, then the interrelationship o- of the various parts, isn't it? And to do what I earlier talked about as differential diagnosis. That stream of dear ladies that you're about to study, you'll see, they don't all teach exactly the same lesson, do they? Is there any connection between them? You'll see. One day we shall have to do a similar thing for the signs in John's gospel. Uh, they don't all teach the same, do they? Did you say I don't have to finish till half past past nine? Yes, ma'am. Oof! Just let me illustrate to you now, if I may, just to set your minds again, you'll see. So I, I mustn't let you out till... till half past That's you'll see. There are these, uh, uh, uh, stories about women, but there are signs, aren't there? There's a sign of water to wine. There's the sign of the noble man's son. There's the sign of the paralyzed man, pool of Bethesda. Four. there is the, uh, let me see where we are, Six, walking on the water, uh, oh, the bread and fishes. Bread and fishes. Five, walking on the sea. Six, blind man. Seven, Lazarus. And the purists will say there are but seven, and people like me say there are eight. The catch of fish. There's a series then of signs, just as there's a series of stories about women, just as there is a series about water. And the, uh, point of collecting them sometimes and looking at them as a series is, one, it's getting you used to the landscape of the country, you'll see. Uh, secondly, it helps us to understand the series themselves, to compare and contrast. Sure. Look at this, um, paralyzed man here. He'd been there thirty eight years by the pool at the pit, and when our Lord came along and said, wilt thou be made whole, he said, but sir, I've no man to put me into the pool. And our Lord said, pool? I don't want any pool. No, of course not. And bade him rise, and he rose without having to get into the pool. Ask the preachers, and they'll tell you what to make out of that. Now, come down to number six. This is the blind man. There he was sitting at his door one day, and the Lord went to cure his blindness. And instead of doing what our Lord did on other occasions, just touching him or saying, uh, receive your sight. He spat on the ground, made clay, put it on the man's eyes, and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. Pool? Yes. Hard, isn't it? What would you do if you were preaching a whole series? Be a nice series, wouldn't it? Eight Sunday nights on the signs of John's gospel, and you come down to this one, and you really hammer the desk. You say to your unconverted audience, you see, now you you've been thinking, trying all kinds of methods, trying to get into the pool, so to speak, inching your way in, trying, but always coming short and finding nothing works, you'll see. Learn this tonight, my friend. Christ can save you. He doesn't need any pools and never will use a pool. What, what, now what would you say when you come down? Hope they've forgotten that. Or conveniently leave it out of the sermon. Interesting, isn't it? But if we're going to get the point of those two stories, we shall have to come to terms in our thinking, why on the one occasion did our Lord refuse to use a pool, and on another occasion use the pool? Send us back to the context of the story, isn't it? To say, now, was there something about that blind man's condition that he needed to be sent to a pool? And that is driving us always back to the details. And then when that happens very often, we suddenly see that details that we thought were not important become very important. Yes, that's one other. I will see. Let's, uh, come to this one, the nobleman's son. When our Lord came out of Galilee, the nobleman came to him, you'll see, and said, sir, come down and heal my boy. And the Lord said, trouble with you people around here is that except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. And the man said, look, don't stand there talking theology. My boy is desperately ill. He'll fail. Come down at once and heal him, then we can talk theology. The Lord said, but my good man, you don't understand. I don't need to come down. I have healed him. Who said the man, you've done what? Healed him. Well, you asked me to, didn't you? Well, I have done it. I've healed him. He's well. Oh. That presented the good man with a problem, didn't it? Well, the man couldn't see the boy was well. Yes, says our Lord, that's what I was saying, you see. I've healed your boy. He is well. Trouble is, there are you people around here, except you see signs and wonders, you're not prepared to believe. And if that is so, my good man, you're going through a very difficult twenty four hours from now onward until you get home. For in the nature of things, you can't have any evidence. You can't see it. And it's no good my doing another miracle for you now. All that would prove is that I can do miracles. Yes. So you better believe without any evidence or signs, just because I say so. And then when you get home, you'll find evidence enough, you'll find it is true. Your boy is well. So our Lord, now we've learned, like good scholars, we've learned the lesson here to say our Lord heals, he can heal at a distance. Because he's Lord of space and time, he didn't have to go to the firm. He could heal at the distance. Marvelous to learn that, isn't it? Be careful how you preach it, because if you preach that on the second night, pray remember that you'll come one night, the seventh night, to another story. And you start off with gusto. Our Lord can heal at the distance. You remember that, don't you, ladies and gentlemen? Well, now he was at a distance once when his friend Lazarus took sick, and Lazarus's sister sent to him saying, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he stayed in the same place. Oh, he said, nothing in that. He can heal at a distance, you see. Two or three days later, he told the apostles, Lazarus is dead, and I'm glad for your sakes I wasn't there. What is he talking about? What does it make any difference whether he was there or wasn't there? He could heal at a distance. When at length he came to Bethany, the sisters come, how poignant the situation is. Martha comes first, and she said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother hadn't died. Doesn't that trouble you? He could have healed at a distance. And Mary said the same thing, Lord, if you had the power to heal at a distance, like he did with the nobleman's son, didn't he heal Lazarus at a distance? Or when he died, raise him from the dead at a distance? We'll have to find out the answer to that one, won't we? If you're going to preach both these stories. Take them as two little examples of the way that taking the overall view of a book and the series that you'll find in it that are so similar, this is a series of signs, uh, forces you to consider them not in isolation, but in, uh, uh, in functional relationship one to the other, and therefore forces you back on- onto the test to understand why those differ. Let's leave it there then tonight, and thank you for your great patience.