Let me pray for us, and then we're going to look at John 1, 1-14 as we enter in on this, I think the 23rd segment that we've done over the last year or so. So let me pray for us. Father, we do thank you for the Scriptures. We thank you that you speak to us clearly, and that you speak to us about your Son, and that you call us to turn from our sins and to turn to Him. and to trust in Him and to rest in Him and to abide in Him. And we pray that you would help us tonight, Father, that you would deepen our understanding of who our Lord Jesus is and what we have in Him. Lord Jesus, we pray that this would not just be truth to fill our minds, but it would be truth that would transform our hearts as well. We thank you that you give us depths, and there are riches here, and we pray that you would please instruct us, and that you would conform us, Father, to the image of your Son. We pray these things in his name. Amen. John 1, beginning in verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all men might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own. His own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, glorious of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And then let me skip down real quick to 16. From His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God the only God or other translations say the only son Who is at the father's side or maybe a better translation in the father's bosom. He has literally exegeted him he has made him known and John's gospel is exceedingly rich. I think it was Augustine, this quote gets bandied about all the time, that sometimes you'll find it about John's gospel, sometimes you'll find it in reference to scripture, but I'm pretty sure Augustine was the first to say it about John's gospel, that it was deep enough for an elephant and it was shallow enough for a baby to wade in. Deep enough for an elephant to swim in, shallow enough for a baby to wade in. And I think the more you get into John's Gospel, the more you realize the depths. And you realize the depths when you know the Old Testament. If you don't know the Old Testament, and I think for a lot of people, one of the reasons they don't benefit more from the Scriptures on the whole is they don't know their Bibles. They know some stories, but they don't know the scriptures. And when you come to John's gospel, you're forced to ask questions. It's interesting, even the way he opens, the word. What does he mean, the word? The light. What does he mean, the light? What about the contrast between light and darkness? And in asking the questions, it ought to lead you to find those answers, and you're going to find those answers really back in Genesis. And so John's Gospel, in one sense, very interesting. There's these sort of parallels with Genesis and Exodus. With John's Gospel, the Bible opens with, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. John's Gospel opens with, in the beginning was the word. And so there's almost a New Testament paralleling that I think is intentional. I think John has the biblical theology of the Old Testament in his mind that the Holy Spirit's using in the construction of his account. Now, one thing you want to keep in mind about John's gospel is John is probably writing this as an old man reflecting back which has given him time to ruminate and think about the things that he experienced and what he learned. And so even when he says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and clearly world there is Jew and Gentile, it's neither only the elect or every person. It's clearly John saying redemptive historically, God has loved not just Jewish people, but Jews and Gentiles. but that John is, in a sense, reflecting at the end of his life, and I think it was Simon Kistemacher who said this, reflecting back at the end of his life, maybe even on Patmos, we don't know when he wrote this exactly, but presumably it was at the end of his life, reflecting back at standing there at the foot of the cross as a young man, because he was a young man when that happened, and being astonished at what it all meant, now that he had had a lifetime to meditate on these things. And I think that's helpful to us because there are depths here, and there are several interpretive biblical theological grids that we have to read John's Gospel through. What I want to do tonight, I think maybe would be most helpful to you. I want to do a couple things. First, I want to just talk about the structure of John's Gospel, and then I want to talk about some of the biblical theological themes in John's Gospel to kind of help us. The structure is very easy. It's divided into two parts. The Book of Signs, the Book of Glory. So John 1 through 11 is the book of signs, and his miracles, his signs culminate in his raising Lazarus from the dead. So his miracles culminate with the resurrection, which is what his life is going to culminate in. And then the Book of Glory, where he's really talking about what it means that he came from glory, that he came to give his disciples glory, that he was going back to glory, and how that happens via the cross and the resurrection. So the Book of Signs, John 1-11. The Book of Glory, John 12-21. And interesting, both sides of the book end with resurrection. Lazarus' resurrection, where Jesus says, I am the resurrection, Jesus' resurrection. So the book is neatly divided. Seven miracles in the Book of Signs, seven being the number of completion, perfection, seven I am sayings in the Gospel of John. I am the light of the world. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the bread that came down from heaven. I am, before Abraham was I am. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. So you have those, I am the living water. You have the, I am the resurrection and the life. You have the seven I am sayings. You've got the seven miracles. John seems to be very intentionally using these theological structures in writing this gospel. But there are these other theological motifs, biblical theological motifs that are running through. And the first one that we're really caught up with, and we could actually go with either of the early ones, perhaps the word, the prophetic idea that he is God's final revelation. I think that takes front seat that the Word was with God. He was the Word. And here again, John's taking us back to creation, that when God said, let there be light, that the Father was speaking through the Son and creating all things were made through Him. He is the effective Word of God, the living Word. that the world is created through him. And John clearly says that. He says, all things were made through him. So it's not just the prophetic word, though that is intimately bound up. It's the creative word, that Christ is the creator, that the one in verse 14, we're going to be told, was made flesh, is the one who made all things. And so he is the very word of God, the living word of God. And yet he is also God's final revelation. And you'll see in this book that there's this contrast between, contrast and comparison between Moses and Jesus, not contrast in making Moses look bad because Moses was not bad. The Jews who perverted Moses made Moses look bad. Moses was a servant in God's house. But you have the Jews always saying, we have Moses, we have Abraham, who are you? Well, he is the word. If Moses was a prophet, He is the prophet. If Moses came bringing the law of God, He came bringing the grace and truth of God. So, comparison, He is greater than Moses. He is greater than the prophets. In a sense, and I love this, and this might be helpful to you guys, there's no book as close to the book of Hebrews in the New Testament as the Gospel of John. Galatians comes close. There's a lot of similarities. But there is a remarkable similarity theologically with John's theological emphasis and what you find in Hebrews. There's a Jesus is greater. He is the greater word. He is the greatest word. He is the final revelation. Think about how Hebrews 1 opens. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets as in these last days spoken to us by his son. That's Hebrews 1, 1 through 1 and 2. John 1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the word came into the world and the word made God known. So he is the great prophet. What's interesting is that there's a lot in the gospel of John about revelation. about scripture, what revelation is, and there's this really intriguing section in John 16, where Jesus tells the disciples, and we could turn over there. John 16, he's speaking about the Holy Spirit coming, and he tells the disciples, you know, I'm going away, going to him who sent me. None of you ask where I'm going. It's to your advantage that I go away. And then notice in verse 12, John 16, 12, he's just told him the Holy Spirit's going to come. And then he says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. Now, I've been in lots of different churches, and it's common in especially more kind of broadly evangelical churches that if you have a prayer meeting, at the prayer meeting for somebody to say, Lord, you promise to give us your spirit and lead us into all truth, and some sweet grandmother praying that. And there's truth to that. That is not what this verse means. This verse is to the apostles who are going to write the rest of the revelation about Jesus. that they cannot bear at this point. And this dovetails on what we talked about last time when we said that while the Gospels were the theological history or historical theology, the epistles that some of these disciples here are going to write under inspiration of the Spirit, they're the interpretation. And what Jesus is saying, the Word, God's final revelation is saying to them, There's more that I want to say to you about me. You're not ready for it, but the Holy Spirit's going to come after I'm glorified, post-Pentecost, and then you're going to take those things. He's going to glorify me, and you're going to make those things known. So there is even biblical theology in the doctrine of revelation in the Gospel of John, telling us there's going to be more revelation about Christ to come through the apostles, but they are just an extension of the Word. So that's the first theme and I think it's helpful you guys could go through if you wanted to and looked at all the Look at all the related themes to that in the Gospel of John that's helpful. But what I wanted to talk about secondly was the biblical theology of light and darkness. I'm actually surprised there's not been more written on this, because that is such a prevalent theme in all of the scriptures, and especially in John's Gospel, First Epistle, and Revelation. God is light and him is no darkness here at the beginning of that's first John here at the beginning of the gospel of John In him was life and the life was the light of men the light shines in the darkness The darkness has not overcome it. Let me read to you a couple places where this manifests itself There in John 1 We're told that Jesus is the light that shines into the darkness. In John 3, this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Everyone who practices evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen that they're done in God, John 3, 19. In chapter 8, Jesus expressly says, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Chapter 11, Jesus says to the Jews, are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. He's talking about the redemptive history, that he's the light of the world in the world. He is the son of righteousness. And then he says, walk He says, if one walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. Chapter 12, he likens his time in the world to the rising of the sun. I'll let you read that on your own. I'll just say here, he says, walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. So all through John's gospel, you see this theme kind of rising up, the light-darkness theme. And you have to ask the question, why is Jesus using that symbolism? I mean, he tells us in chapter 3, darkness is evil, it's sin, it's wickedness. Light then, by contrast, is righteousness and holiness and purity, and we get that. But I think in order to get it, you have to get the biblical theology of creation. It's interesting that the first introduction of the light-darkness motif comes right after John says, all things were made through him. So John's gospel begins with the eternal Christ, the Word, who creates all things. And then obviously there's a fall, and then he uses this language of light has come into the world, but men love darkness, but the darkness doesn't overcome the light. And our minds are carried back to creation. There's a really cool... attempt to sort of exposit the light and the darkness in Genesis 1 by a guy named R.A. Finlayson. It's interesting that it's not morning and evening. In Genesis 1, it's evening and morning. Darkness first, then light. Evening first, then morning. Now, some have said, well, that's just the way the Jews delineated time. Well, the Jews delineated time that way because that's the way God did things. And there's a reason to that. There's a theology to that. And this is what R.A. Finlayson says. And you've got to listen carefully. It's very, very, very helpful. Finlayson said, God is at work as of old in a progressive development of light. We remember that in the first creation, light came progressively. It was not the sun in its meridian splendor that shone. Indeed, there's evidence that the sun had come in a much later point than that light. But the light did come. It came to wax and grow. And it is significant that at every period in God's creative work, We read, and the evening and the morning were the first day. The evening and the morning were the second day, and so on. Why should it be evening and morning? Is it not after the manner of man's toil he works from morning to evening? It's not enough to say that this is a Jewish division of time. We have to get behind the Jewish division of time and ask how it came about that the Jew was taught to regard time as moving from evening to morning. Listen to this. It says, it was God's pattern of workmanship. This is the line right here. He is always facing the light. His back is on the evening. His face is toward the waxing light and the rising sun. And what Finlayson is drawing us to think about is that there was a redemptive historical purpose to God even creating darkness first, then light. Knowing that he had ordained the fall, knowing that he would then come into the world in the person of Christ and be the light, and his back is always to the darkness, and his face is always to the light, and what that's saying is that God had a plan where he was moving everything to the coming of the Redeemer, who is the light of the world. I think you have to say that. Now what's interesting is as you go through the Old Testament, you find other redemptive historical manifestations. Let's think of one. I want you guys to think of what's a big one that has to do with Israel near the time of the Exodus about light and darkness. The pillar. Yes, the pillar gave them light by night and made day night for their enemies. It inverted, as it were. It made their enemies not be able to see through the pillar in the day when they should have. And it made Israel be able to see ahead of them to go forward because God is moving forward and carrying his people on to redemption. And so the pillar of fire really is a redemptive historical theophany of Christ who is the light of the world. And you're going to find Puritans galore, you're going to find Reformed people. That is not new at all, that the pillar of fire is a manifestation, a pre-incarnation appearance of Jesus. It is like the Shekinah glory. He comes down with his people. It's God dwelling with his people. It's the light being with them, carrying them forward. And that's what Jesus is. He comes into the world to give us light in our hearts, but he comes to lead us forward. And that's where John's gospel goes next. John's gospel goes to the biblical theology of the tabernacle. Now, There's so much more we could say about the light, biblical theology of light and darkness. You have the plagues of Egypt, the darkness. That was also a covenant curse that fell on the light of the world when he hung on the cross. Darkness, the sun was darkened. You have all these amazing connected redemptive historical events happening in the Bible with the light and the darkness themes. You know, the last prophecy of Jesus in Malachi, one of the last verses in the Old Testament says, for you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness, the S-U-N, Son, will rise with healing in his wings. So, you know, clearly Jesus is likened to the Son. He is the only source of righteousness and light for the world. He came into the world. Now, notice in John 1, what does John move from in verse 1 to verse 14? What does he move from? You'd miss it if you don't look at it from about 30,000 feet over those 14 verses. What is John giving us? He's giving us from creation to the incarnation. And then he'll give us the first thing Jesus does, which is goes to a wedding, which is going to be significant because of creation. After creation, the first thing that happens is a wedding. We'll come back to that in a minute. But the tabernacle theme comes in. creation to incarnation, but it's really creation to exodus too at the same time. So, the exodus demands the incarnation. And notice that John says there in verse 14, and the word became flesh and tabernacled. It's the word for tabernacle. He tabernacled among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, what you could do, and I just encourage you guys to do this on your own, if you went through the Gospel of John and you looked at both the the language of what is symbolically taught by Jesus about himself, you'll find that a lot of that stuff is also true of things in the tabernacle. The light is the lampstand. So, you know, there again is another redemptive historical. The lampstand went in the holy place to point the way into the most holy place. So it shone light into the presence of God for the high priest to go in. So it directed, it gave light into the presence of God so that the priest could go in. And so he is the light of the world. He is He is the lampstand. He makes us the light of the world to direct others to God. But you have that. You have the manna theme. In John 6, there's a very clear redemptive historical link. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. I am the true bread. He's the true manna. The manna was about him. The Hebrew word for manna means, what is it? And what did the Jews say about Jesus constantly in the gospels? Who is this? So just like they said, what is this? Who is this? We don't know where he came from or who he is. So he says, I am the true bread that came down from heaven. He comes for nourishment of our souls. And he feeds his people who labor for not perishable, but imperishable food. But remember, the manna also went in the golden pot in the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle and in the temple. So again, you could go through John's gospel and you can find all of these tabernacle, the water, the living water, the Feast of Tabernacles. There's biblical theology there about what they did with water around the sacrifices around the altar and how they poured it out around the altar. And even when he says, you know, whoever's thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Jesus is there saying, essentially, I am fulfilling what the Feast of Tabernacles and its ritual with water was representing around the altar and all of the symbolism. There's one other I want to talk to you about. We're almost done. And I think that's the... Well, actually, let me go on just a little bit more with the Exodus theme. When you come towards the latter part of John's Gospel and what you find, the same with... The same with all the Gospels, and we kind of talked about this after the lesson last time, that there's this huge imbalance in all four Gospels where it's not like a normal biography. If you read a biography about somebody, you would divide up early years, adolescence, first years of marriage, you know, years of 30s and 40s up to middle age. And then what the Gospels do is they tell you about his birth. John's Gospel accepted. They tell you about his birth. They tell you about one event when he was 12. They tell you then about how he starts his ministry at 30. And then they fixate on the last portion of his life, his death specifically. the atonement, his resurrection, and the bulk of them are given to that. John's gospel, maybe even more prominently than the others, most of John's gospel is written about the last year of his ministry, even though it does touch on the beginning. And then it's fixating on the final days. And there is definitely a Passover emphasis. There's definitely a... I mean, it's hard to miss that. Turn to chapter 19 and notice Notice verse 21, saw that he was already dead they did not break his legs but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and at once there came out blood and water he who saw it has borne witness his testimony is true and he knows that he's telling the truth and then notice for these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled not one of his bones will be broken Now I think also the Passover theme begins in John's Gospel in John 1 when John the Baptist stands and says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So from John 1 to really the end of the Gospel, the focus is on the Passover Lamb is here, the one who's going to take the judgment, the one who's going to be for the passing over of God's people so they don't get wrath on the day of judgment. So you're forced to say, okay, so nothing was fulfilled at any celebration of any Passover prior to the death of Jesus. There was no fulfillment. There was just anticipation, constant anticipation. And I think we're meant to say the same thing about the tabernacle. We're meant to see it even about the light darkness theme. Everything is just anticipation, anticipation, anticipation. One final theme I want to touch on tonight is Two more quickly. New creation, which I should have hit on, on the creation theme with the light and darkness. There is this heavy emphasis on new creation in John's gospel. In chapter two, Jesus is at the wedding of Cana at Galilee and he turns water into wine. So you have new wine, which is a symbol of the blessings of the new covenant. And then in chapter three, you have the new birth. must be born again. And then in chapter four you have the new water. Actually in chapter two you have the new temple too. Jesus says destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. So you have new wine, new temple, new birth, new water. You have all this new covenant imagery that Jesus is going to come to recreate, that he's bringing the new creation. And I think it's interesting that this book starts with the creation theme and the light and the darkness because then that fits together that what did Jesus come to do? He came to bring the new creation. He came to make his people part of the new creation. He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He is the new creation. He is the first fruit. And through His death and resurrection, He brings about that. So you definitely have new creation theme. And then you have this really amazing focus on the bride-bridegroom theme in John's gospel, in redemptive history. And that doesn't start in the New Testament. That starts in the garden. with the first act that God does after creation is a wedding. It's actually very, I don't know if you guys have ever thought about this, that the Bible opens with a wedding and closes with a wedding. No sooner does God create everything that they have a wedding, no sooner does God consummate everything that there's a wedding. It's the wedding of the Lamb. The Bible opens and closes with a wedding. Interestingly, also opens and closes with light without a sun. Genesis, there's light but no sun. Revelation, there's no sun. The Lamb is its light. So the book ends, Genesis and Revelation. You have this wedding, and then right in between, you have the Redeemer coming to a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And the first thing John tells you he does is that he makes his presence known at a wedding. And John then tells us he is the bridegroom. It's interesting, every wedding that I've ever been to, all eyes are on usually the bride, but the bride and the groom. But we don't know whose wedding it was. All eyes are on Jesus, as it were, or all eyes should be on Jesus at this wedding. And you know, A.W. Pink actually pulls out, this is really amazing, A.W. Pink pulls out this really amazing little detail. By the way, his commentary on John's gospel is probably one of the best things he's ever written. I don't think people understand how good that is. There's some things in it that are fanciful, but there's a lot of really rich stuff. And one thing he does is he says, John is the only gospel that doesn't delineate things by days and weeks. If you read the other synoptic gospels, it's very time. They're not all chronologically ordered. Luke is probably a little bit out. Chronologically, things are more theologically positioned, but they still, they'll say eight days later. And after the eighth day, he did this, and the next day. And John's gospel doesn't do that except for the opening chapters, opening two chapters. And John stops doing that at the wedding. And if you tally up, and what Pink's argument is, is if you tally up how many days from that first day when Jesus is there with John the Baptist in John's gospel till the wedding, the wedding's on the seventh day. And he's saying, just like creation culminates with the wedding. And I don't know that that's allegorical. I think there's an intentional, that the very fact that the days are listed three days later, he called his disciples, and three days later, and then there's a wedding. and the chapter opens with creation and then counts down to the wedding and then John very intentionally in chapter 3 says that he's the friend of the bridegroom and the bridegrooms come and the bridegroom has the bride and what he wants us to see is that the God who told Israel he loved them as a husband should love his wife in Hosea and what's intimated in the Song of Solomon and he's called the beloved in Isaiah 5, a song about my beloved. John is saying the beloved has come, the bridegroom has come. He has brought with him the joy and the gladness of redemption for his people. And then you see what that means in Revelation, right? Then when we go to Revelation, we really see the heavenly fruit of that. We see this is what the bridegroom has purchased for his people in glory. I'm gonna stop because that's a lot that I gave you But I wanted to hit on those kind of four major themes the biblical theology of the word in Revelation the biblical theology of light and darkness and then there with that should have been new creation the biblical theology of the tabernacle the dwelling of God with men in redemption and then the biblical theology of sort of the bridegroom and the love of God for the souls of his people, wedding his people to himself. Questions or thoughts you guys have? That whole wedding thing, when you said that, how you made the comparison, you know, like nowadays everything is like centered around, you know, the bride and how everything, I was reading through it, how everything is like, there was no mention of who was getting married, Well, and they don't know. They don't know who Jesus is at the wedding. But we look at this wedding, and we don't even know whose marriage it is. It's about Jesus. He's the bridegroom, which is... Other thoughts? I thought it was good when you consider John 16, dealing with how often we hear people talk about the spirit of God, and we know the job of the spirit of God is to make Christ known. And how I kind of highlighted those things which were to come, which was the full revelation of the canon. God again prophetically allowed the disciples that luxury to complete the canon or the interpretations of that by way of the epistles. Yeah, I meant to mention there's a chapter in a book, it's chapter 3 in a book called The Progress of Doctrine by a guy named T.D. Bernard and it's on Google Books. You can find it on Google Books. And he has a chapter on that. It's a pretty lengthy chapter where he talks about really how amazing it is about this progression of Revelation in the New Testament. Because we often think about in the old, like, OK, yeah, here's more. He's not here yet. He's not here. And now he's here. And yet, God didn't go, OK, boom, there's everything. It still unfolds progressively. And even the Gospel of John, right? Because that was written after. So I mean, they already had the other three. Yeah, they had the epistles even before this. Yeah, the riches of it are, it's amazing. And that's why I think that's why the cessation of the canon is so important in Revelation when John says, I mean, the Bible closes with whoever adds to the words. I mean, cessation is huge because there's not any more revelation that the full revelation of Jesus has been given. That's not something, you know, a bunch of dry scholastics made up. That's something the Bible very clearly, that there is a stopping point where, and you know Jesus even intimates it in John's Gospel. He says, a little while longer and I'm not going to speak to you anymore. I think that verse is actually foreshadowing The full revelation will come. It's in John's gospel. I don't know. Somewhere here in 14 through 16, he says, a little while longer and I will not speak to you. And he's not talking about his earthly ministry. He means the Spirit's going to come. He's going to lead you in all truth. You're going to write this truth. And then I'm not going to speak to you anymore. Personal, you know, any more fuller revelation, you'll have the full mystery Paul talks about. Right. Okay, that's a great question. That's a great question. So we do not believe The books that we have are God's Word because the church has recognized them to be. We believe them because, and Paul actually, 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul says, he praised the Thessalonians for receiving the word that we wrote you, not as the words of men, but as it is in truth, the words of God. So the second it rolled off the apostles' pen, or their amanuensis, And it was given to the church. The church was to receive the self-revelation of God and hear the voice of God. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and know me. And that's why we receive. The church recognizing when we look and say, what did Jerome recognize and what did Origen recognize? That just helps us to say, OK, they too recognize these 22 books. And they didn't recognize any of the apocryphal books. And so that just is like an added benefit. But the authority comes from God's No, I agree. But clearly, John, the same John that wrote this, wrote Revelation, whoever adds to the words of the prophecy of this book, to him God will add the plagues, and whoever takes away, you know, his right to the tree of life will be taken away. There are a couple of things that you were talking about that have stood out with me for a while, over the past year or something. The whole, what you touched on with the, in the beginning, you know, what a profound, important, to a book that that was to a Jewish audience, maybe. And I, in my own mind, have thought, like, what are some of the phrases that we would hear in English that would resonate like that? Because I don't think in the beginning necessarily resonates with us, maybe that same way, but Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. Yahweh and yet here we are and he's saying Jesus is Yahweh first verse changing it all saying yeah, who's the word? Yeah, and then the other thing that's good. It's just the whole wedding What turned me on to John Edwards a little bit was that quote that he has about And I'll just read it here cuz I mean it says the creation of the world seems to be especially for the sin that the eternal son of God might obtain a spouse toward whom he might fully exercise and the infinite benevolence of its nature, and to whom he might, as it were, open and pour forth all that immense fountain of condescension, love, and grace that was in his heart, and that in this way God might be glorified." That's a great quote. That's the whole reason the world exists. the son gets a bride. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And as you said, you have to sometimes pull yourself back from the exegetical study yeah to get the big picture and look at like look at john 1 1 through 14 you know what's he saying here yeah what's he saying in the book what's he saying in the entire book yeah yeah it really is i think pretty uh pretty pretty neat with You know, we don't make enough of the bridegroom. We don't think of, you know, you think about, of all the apostles, who would I want to be most like? Personally, I'd want to be most like John because John understood the love of Jesus in a way that, and you know, Paul certainly, the love of Christ compels us. Paul, but John is the apostle of love. He gets the heart of God for his redeemed. And that's where that bridegroom, you know, even when John speaks about anybody, he says, Mary and Martha and Lazarus, whom Jesus loved. He calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. He emphasizes Jesus is dealing with Peter. Do you love me, Peter? You know, I love you. It's all about the love relationship between the Redeemer and his people. And I don't I don't think about it. I did in the early days of my conversion. But I need that to really get in to my heart more.