John 6:1-21

Read John 6:1-21

Please note the time of year in verse 4. We've jumped another year and are into the third year of Christ's ministry. This is the beginning of the end, I guess you could say, or for us, the beginning of eternity. This is where John spends the majority of his focus.

So, let's pick up with the next Passover. This time, rather than being in Jerusalem, Christ stays in Galilee and ministers to the people there. I believe he did this to prove a point that it's not about where you are to worship so much as your heart. Anyways, this is the big miracle and the only one that all four Gospel writers included in their accounts. This is the feeding of the 5,000. Obviously this is an important miracle if all four writers made the effort to include it. But why? Well, this miracle was performed int he presence of many more people than any of the other miracles that Christ performed. This was a miracle of creation, while all of the other miracles, with the exception of turning the water into wine, were miracles of restoration.. This was also a picture of Christ and foreshadowed Christ as our Bread of Life, who was broken for us.

So, here's a little background. This miracle was just following an exhausting preaching tour of Galilee and took place right before the Passover Feast. It was time to rest.

(Just a quick side lesson that we can take from Christ here. First of all, there's nothing wrong with needing to take a break in ministry. Secondly, even as he was resting, we see Christ was ready to serve the Lord. And lastly, Christ was not only ready, he was willing to stop his rest in order to serve. Just some food for thought) 

Anyways, this miracle, as I mentioned earlier, was taking place near the time of the Passover. John includes the time of the miralce on purpose. John really wasn't too terribly concerned with timing, so when he takes the time to mention is in his account, take note. He records this time in order to mark the timing in Christ's minsitry. In addition, he was probably emphasizing the fact that Christ is the ultimate Passover Lamb.

Moving onto the story. Christ is ministering to these people (5,000 men alone!) and he stops and asks Philip where they could buy enough bread to feed them. Now, Christ already knew what he was going to do, so why did he stop to ask Philip? It was probably to test Philip's faith and trust in Christ. However, we see in verses 7 and 9 that both Philip and Andrew still aren't quite getting it and still thinking of Christ as a regular man. They forgot that they were working with God and focused on their circumstances instead of who they were with.

                    

So, let's look at the Miracle itself. After testing Philip and Andrew, Christ takes the bread and fish and performs this incredible miracle. And in this miracle, Christ reveals His sovereignty. Christ knew what he would do and that he was totally in control despite the circumstances around him.

In addition, we see that this miracle required man's obedience. Look at verse 10, can you imagine what was going through the disciples' minds when Christ said "make them sit"? They must have thought "why? We don't have anything to give them. We're going to have a mob here!"

We also see God's orderliness here. This might seem a simple point but, we see the people being seated into groups. This way, Christ was able to monitor who was being served and still needed food to prevent a riot.

This miracle also reveals Christ's omnipotence and the fact that he took what seemed like a lunch only enough for a boy and used it to accomplish His purposes. This miracle also shows the blessing that comes from serving. The disciples obeyed Christ and served the people and in the end there are left 12 baskets of food left, enought for each disciples.

Lastly, this miracle reveals Christ's sufficiency, but we will talk about this more specifically this week. We will also talk about the other miracle (walking on water) mentioned in this passage.

   

A Sermon on Deity

Read John 5:17-47

So, because of the Jewish Leaders' persecution of Jesus after healing the lame man, Christ stops and gives seven proofs of his right to heal the lame man on the Sabbath and four witnesses of his right, ultimately pointing to the fact that he is God.

Let's look at Christ's Deity shown in His...
                      1. Service
                      2. Will
                      3. Intelligence
                      4. Power
                      5. Honor
                      6. Power to Give Life
                      7. Sovereignty to Send Men to Heaven/Hell

           1. Christ's Deity as shown in His Service (verse 17-18)
 The phrase "my father" that Christ uses here means more than what we mean when we say "God our Father." Christ is literally saying that He is God's Son, and the Jews recognize this. Christ saying "and I work" shows that he does the same thing as his Father. In other words, Christ is saying that he does the same thing that God does.

           2. Christ's Deity as shown in His Will (verse 19)
When Christ says that he can do nothing by himself, he isn't saying that he is helpless. Rather, he is saying that He can do nothing of his own self. Or, you could say that He and the Father are of the same will (verse 30). If we look at other passages of the Bible, we see in Luke 2:49 that Jesus explains that His Father's business is His priority, in John 4:34, Christ says that He is sustained by doing God's will, and Luke 22:42, Jesus explains that His Father's plan is more important than His physical desires. All of this says that Christ and God share the same will.

            3. Christ's deity as shown in His Intelligence (verse 20)
When Christ says that the Father shows him all things, he is meaning that there are no secrets between them because they have equal knowledge. Another thought on this, why would God discuss "all things" with a man? He isn't going to do that! He would only reveal His will completely to Christ.

            4. Christ's deity as shown in His Power (verse 21)
 Christ is basically laying out here the fact that he has the same power and right to heal and raise whom He will. He has all of the same rights and privileges of the Father. They key phrase that is used here is "to whom he will." In other words, we might have the ability to harm someone, but we don't have the right to do that. Only Christ as the power to do as he pleases.

            5. Christ's deity as shown in His Honor (verse 22 and 24)
Because Christ is the judge of all men, he deserves the same honor and glory as the Father does. In other words, he is equal with God.

           6. Christ's Deity as shown in His Power to Give Life (verses 24-26)
Christ demonstrates here that he is equal with God in His power to save the lost and to provide eternal life.

          7. Christ's deity as shown in His Sovereignty to Send Men to Heaven and to Hell (verse 27-29)
Verse 27 seems to echo verse 22 here and we see that because God has given the Son the ability to judge, that all should honor Christ. In addition, the Father has committed all judgement to the Son because is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. In other words, because he walked on earth as a man and lived a perfect life, he is the only one who has the right to judge all.

So, not only does Christ give these seven proofs of His deity and equality with God,, but he also stops and just to really back himself up, provides four witnesses of His deity as well. (In standard Jewish court, two witnesses were all that were required, so Christ was in overdrive here.)

Witness #1: John the Baptist (verses 32-35)
John was a witness and testified that Christ was the true Messiah.

Witness #2: Christ's Own Works (verse 36)
His miracles, specifically the seven John records, that demonstrate different aspects of Christ's deity.

Witness #3: The Father (verses 37-38)
God showed Himself and His "endorsement" of Christ at Christ's Baptism.

Witness #4: The Word of God (verses 39-47)
When Christ says "you search the Scriptures," he's basically pointing out the obvious and saying, "come on, you should know this!" They were searching the Scriptures for doctrinal and practical truth, but missed the real deal. People do this today. They can know the Bible, and yet never really know Christ.

    

The Pool of Bethesda

         
          The past blogs have been about Christ's first year of ministry. However, John obviously left out a lot of Christ's life. For example, we just ended in John 4 with Christ ministering in Galilee a few months after the Passover in Jerusalem. Now, we're in John 5 and Christ is back in Jerusalem for the next passover. So, before we go onto John 5, let's reference the other gospels to know what was going on in between. So far, we know that Christ performed his first miracle at the Cana Wedding in A.D. 29, he has cleaned out the temple in A.D. 30, he has met with Nicodemus and the woman at the well and has performed his second miracle by healing the nobleman's son.

          So, here is what else was going on after all of the above. (Side note, remember, the phrase "after this" represents a gap of time) Christ went from Cana to Nazareth where he was rejected in His own town. He then moved onto Capernaum where he officially called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be His disciples. He healed Peter's mother-in-law, he led the four disciples on a preaching tour of Galilee, he healed a leper, a man who was sick from palsy (the guy lowered through the roof), he called Matthew to be His disciples, and "after this," Jesus comes to Jerusalem, beginning his second year of ministry.

So, now read John 5:1-18. At this feast, Christ makes the effort to reveal his deity to his followers. This is the third miracle that Christ performs. This is near the sheep gate of Jerusalem. There were twelve gates that led into the city of Jerusalem and the sheep gate was one of them. This was the one that the sheep were led through to the city to be slaughtered for sacrifices. There was/is a pool close to this gate called Bethesda. This word means "house of mercy." This pool had a sort of awning type structure built over to protect the lame and the sick who came to the pool to be cured of their problems. This pool was cut from a solid rock, is about 55 feet long and 12 feet wide with a flight of steps that go down into the water. It was common tradition that when the water in the pool stirred, it was an angel stirring the water and the first person to get into the water would be healed. This is why the sick and lame would gather around the pool and wait there.

           Christ is at the pool and while there, he speaks with a lame man, who tells Christ his problem. Notice that Christ doesn't rebuke him for his spiritual ignorance here. Instead, he shows his own power, his compassion, and ultimately, his deity. Because this miracle takes place on the Sabbath, this miracle shows Christ's power over time here, proving to the Jewish leaders that he is all-powerful and not held to the time constraints of man.

            We can also learn about salvation here. If you look at the man and have him represent the condition of the world, it creates a beautiful picture of salvation. First of all, the man was physically weak and couldn't even save himself if he wanted to, just like we can't save ourselves either. Secondly, he was lame and couldn't go anywhere for salvation, and we can't go anywhere but to Christ for our salvation. The man couldn't even use his hands to pull himself down to the pool and we can't use our works to save ourselves. The man was waiting at the pool, hoping for a miracle, and many in the world are still waiting for a Messiah. Following along the same lines, the man did not recognize Christ for who he was and many in the world have not recognized Christ even today. Lastly, the man needed help. He didn't really need the water; he needed Christ, just like we don't need anything else in the world but Christ.

After all of this, Christ was persecuted for helping a man and changing his life! This is a good reminder that sometimes we will also face persecution for sharing Christ and changing people's lives. Isn't it reassuring to know that our Savior has walked the road before us?