Spirit and Truth

Transcript

Several years ago, I did a series called Grace and Truth. It was actually about 12 or 14 years ago now, which is amazing because I've been stealing from it for years. But it was about that long ago. And I was looking recently at the stuff that I had done back then. And I realized a couple of things, one that I'd skipped over a few things that were really, I thought, pretty interesting. So I wanted to go back and take another look at them. That's actually where the whole thing about the nobleman's son came a couple weeks ago, because I had never really looked at that story before. And secondly, there's a series of discourses that the Lord Jesus Christ gives after events take place. And when I did the series on Grace and Truth, it was mostly about how people interacted with Jesus and how they were changed by their interactions with Jesus. That's how stories like the baptism of John the Baptist came from, or the woman of Samaria, and all of those that were done a long time ago. But I'd never really looked at the things that Jesus had said after some of these events take place. And so I thought, well, it'd be nice to go back and look and see what sort of message he's conveying. As you know, in John's gospel, all the language is spiritual. So Jesus says things in John's gospel that you don't hear in other places, things like, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me. This is a very hard thing for somebody that doesn't recognize the spiritual implications. He also said things like, I am the true vine, or I am the good shepherd, or I am the bread of life. These sort of metaphorical statements, in actual fact, aren't actually metaphorical, and I'll explain to you why. Because the word, the spirit word, actually comes before the physical creation. That's why John 1 starts off by saying, in the beginning was the word. The word had to be said in order for the physical creation to come. So the word is preeminent over the physical creation. So when Jesus says, I'm the true vine, Jesus, as a vine in God's plan and purpose, existed before an actual vine was ever created. So that's why he says, I am the true vine. Same thing with calling himself the bread of life. He was actually the bread of life in God's plan and purpose long before bread ever came into existence. So we see in nature and in all these different places all these incredible examples of the word of God, and it's actually the word that has first. So one of the things that Jesus is emphasizing in John's gospel is that what these things represent are more important than what they actually are. That's why he makes a lot of these comments. So I thought it'd be interesting to go and start looking at some of these discourses and actually also reviewing some of the things that we've looked at before and hopefully finding some new things as well. The reason why, you'll notice it says class one, troubling the water, starting in John five. The reason why it starts in John five is that's when the public discourses begin. Prior to that, virtually everything is private. So for instance, the wedding in Cana is a private wedding. Jesus doesn't really say that much at the wedding in Cana rather than to his mother, but some of the other events like the woman of Samaria, that's just with the Samaritans. He doesn't start his public discourses

until after the healing of the impotent man in John five, which we're gonna look at this morning. We're probably not gonna get to the discourses this morning, we just don't have enough time because there's so many interesting things about this story in John five. But that's why we're starting in John five because that's really in the Gospel of John when Jesus' public ministry begins.

Except for one interesting difference, and that's in John chapter two. So if you'll turn over to John chapter two,

he has one public event that takes place, and it's very interesting when we consider it in relation to the discourses that he gives later on. And we're gonna start in, I'll put it up here, John chapter two, verse 13. And notice what it says. Is that up there? Yeah, look at it. And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out them that sold doves, saying, take these things, hence make not my father's house a house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, what signs showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Well, that's really interesting, because that's the one thing the Jews remember, right? Jesus is gonna give very long

and intense discourses, speeches, public speeches. He does it in John five after the healing of the impotent man. He does it in John six after the feeding of the 5,000. He does it in John seven during the Feast of Tabernacles. He does it in John eight after the incident with the adulterous woman. He does it in John 10 after the giving sight to the man born blind, and he does it in John 11 after the raising of Lazarus. That's all these speeches, these public speeches that they give, and when they go to condemn him, the only thing that they can remember is what he says in John chapter two at the very beginning. This is really the only thing he says publicly before John five, and that's the only thing that they remember, which raises the question. We've got these discourses where he is speaking to the Jews. Remember the expression the Jews in John's gospel is those who are antagonistic towards Jesus. We could get into the nuts and bolts of it. That's basically what they represent. Those who are antagonistic towards Jesus. They actually represent something more that I'll get to in just a minute when we consider what we just learned about the nobleman, but that's the essence of it. So after all these, now I lost my place. That's all right, after all these speeches, they don't hear any of it. Now they hear it, but they don't remember any of it. They don't know what he was talking about. They don't get it. So then who are the speeches for? Because that's who he's speaking to. Right, think of the phoenix of the 5,000. The first thing he says to them is you didn't, you're not looking for them because of the miracles. You're looking for them because you were fed, which when we get to that, we'll look at what that all means. But he's talking to the Jews. He's talking to the doubters. So who's he actually speaking to? Well, it's just another example of when somebody is speaking to one person, but he's really talking to somebody else, right? He's speaking to the Jews, but it's not really for the Jews. We know it's not for the Jews because the Jews didn't hear anything they had to say. Again, the only thing they ever heard that they could remember was tear down this temple and they'll rebuild it in three days. So then who was he speaking to? Well, I believe he gives us the answer to that in John chapter four. In John chapter four, he's talking to the Samaritan woman. And this is what he says to her. And again, this is a private discourse. He says, ye worship what ye know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So Jesus says to the Samaritan woman that God is seeking those who worship him in spirit and in truth. That's what these discourses are really all about is to separate the wheat from the chaff.

There were so many that heard what he had to say and didn't, or heard him speaking and didn't hear what he had to say. And yet there's always those that remnant that actually hear it, right? At one point in John's gospel, that number comes all the way down to 12, right? After he talks about eating my flesh and drinking my blood, everybody goes away except the 12. But there's always a remnant. And there's always, or oftentimes in scripture, these examples where somebody is speaking to someone but he's speaking for somebody else. I'll give you a couple examples. The first is in Isaiah. I think it's out of five or seven. It's when Isaiah goes to Ahaz and brings his son's shear jesed. Remember that story? And he says to Ahaz, ask for a sign. And Ahaz says, oh, I'm not gonna ask for a sign, right? And so Isaiah says to Ahaz, I'm gonna give you a sign. A virgin shall conceive. And he goes through the whole explanation of what's all his name is gonna be, Emmanuel and all that kind of stuff. Now he's saying it to Ahaz. But Ahaz has no connection to what he's saying. People have tried to twist things about what happens later and say, oh, that's the virgin that conceived because Ahaz goes and has a woman who is a virgin. Well, that's actually not the way a virgin conceiving works is that you are now no longer a virgin. A virgin is a virgin conceiving, right? So it wasn't actually for Ahaz at all, even though he was saying it to Ahaz. Who it was for was Shia Jessab because Shia Jessab is representative. The name Shia Jessab means a remnant shall return. That's who's hearing the words of Isaiah. Those are the ones that can understand what it meant that a virgin would conceive. So he's speaking to one, but he's actually talking to somebody else. Does that make sense? And you see this repeatedly. I'll give you the other example, which is John the Baptist. In John chapter one,

John the Baptist is actually speaking to the Pharisees who had come to see him when he says, behold the limb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now he's speaking to them, but they have no idea what he's talking about and they don't even care what he's talking about. John is actually at that point, and we don't have time to look at this morning, making a confession to Jesus that he now understands what Jesus represents because Jesus was the one coming towards him. So even though he's speaking to the Pharisees, he's really talking to Jesus. And this happens throughout scripture. And this is exactly what's happening in Jesus's discourses is he's talking to the Jews, but he's talking so that you and I can hear what he has to say. So that message of spirit and truth can be heard by that remnant, that small collection of people that actually understand what the truth is all about. You'll notice he says here to the Samaritan woman, you worship what ye know not what we worship for salvation is of the Jews, which is a really interesting thing. We're not gonna look at the Samaritan woman, but the interesting thing about it is where Jesus is saying this is at a place called Sychar. Sychar is actually Shechem. It's the same place. It just now has a different name in the time of Jesus. Shechem is the place of decision. Shechem is the place where Joshua spoke to the people at the end of his life. And he said, you need to make a decision. It was at Shechem, because that's what Shechem's all about. And he says, but for me and mine, you can worship who you want, but for me and my house we shall worship the Lord, and the Lord must be served in sincerity and truth. So Joshua at Shechem says, you must serve the Lord in sincerity and truth. And Jesus at the same place says to the Samaritan woman, you must worship in spirit and in truth. So what's the connection between sincerity and spirit? What is sincerity all about? Well, sincerity is about giving everything. Sincerity is about complete, completely turning over. That's what sincerity is. And so Joshua was saying to the other people in Israel, you can serve who you want, but if you're gonna worship, if you're gonna serve God in sincerity, it's gotta be complete service. That's what's sincere. It's gotta be sincere. You've gotta mean it. That's just as true today for us as it was for them back then. Our service to God has to be sincere. This is not a part-time job. This is not a side hobby. This is literally our calling. This is what we're called to do. That's what sincerity is all about. But you have to have truth. If you don't have truth, it doesn't really matter how sincere you are. And that's why he's saying it to the Samaritan woman, because the interesting thing about the Samaritans is they were sincere. If you look at 2 Kings, it's out of 17 or 18. I can't remember which one it is. I think it's 17, where it talks about the establishment of the Samaritan. It says they developed this religion, right? This religion in which they had all the other gods that they worship and the God of Israel. That's the five husbands and the one who's not your husband. They have the multiple religions and then the one religion in which it's just one God. You really can't marry those together. So they have this mix-up that Jesus says right here. You don't know what you worship. But then it says that they worship that way from one generation to the next generation to the next generation. They were dedicated to what they worshiped. They just didn't know truth. And if you don't know truth, you can be sincere. But if you don't know truth, you're never gonna hear the spirit. The only way to worship in spirit and truth is to have truth. And they didn't have truth. And so what Jesus does is he stays there for two days and he explains the truth to them. He explains what by the grace of God you and I have come to understand. And of course, then the Samaritan say to the woman, we don't believe just because of what you said now, but we have heard them. And we know that this is the savior of the world. So they are transformed. They are changed by hearing truth. Now they can worship in spirit and truth. The interesting flip side to that is the Jews. Because the Jews, as Jesus said, had the truth. They had the word. They understood what the word said. They didn't have any sincerity. And we're gonna see that in all of these discourses that we go along, right? Because the miracles are gonna happen and the people are still not gonna believe, right? Remember when he says to the nobleman, he says, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. And he saw the signs and wonders and he did believe. And starting in John five with the impotent man in the discourses that come afterwards, you have all these people that see the signs and wonders and yet still refuse to believe. No sincerity. They had the truth. They had no sincerity. And so obviously, Jesus is calling out those who can worship in sincerity or can serve in sincerity and truth, truth therefore worship in spirit and in truth. And of course, we wanna be one of those people. Here's the verse that Joshua speaks in 24. Now therefore. So with that in mind, let's take a look at John chapter five and the healing. Any questions or comments before we move on to John chapter five?

Yeah, yeah. Sincerity in spirit, are they interchangeable in that? They're not interchangeable in this extent. In order to worship in spirit and truth, you have to be sincere, but you have to have truth. Sure. To serve in sincerity and truth, Joshua, of course, is speaking to the Jews, but the Samaritans had the sincerity, but they didn't have the truth, therefore they couldn't worship in spirit. That's a great connection to Joshua. So that's, yeah, that's the connection. Sure, anything else? All right, John chapter five.

There it is right there. In John chapter five, one and two starts off saying this. After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is a Jerusalem by the sheep market of Poole, which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda having five porches. Now there is so much just in those two verses that we're gonna take a look at because it is packed with fascinating information, but you notice I yell it out very first, it says after this. So in other words, it's very specific what John the writer is telling us to remember as we come to John five. And after this is the healing of the nobleman or the nobleman's son. That's what takes place immediately before. That's what John the writer is referencing when he says after this. And so what it's telling us is, I want you to remember what you just learned from the nobleman and the nobleman's son as you consider what's about to happen. Now for those that weren't here a couple weeks ago, we talked about this a couple weeks ago. The key to understanding the story of the nobleman's son is to recognize who the nobleman was, right? He was that politician, right? Looking for that quid pro quo. His understanding was that life was transactional. And everything is transactional except love. Love is the one thing that's not transactional. And so as he's going through what he's going through, he's there, I'm not gonna retell the story because it'll take too long, but he's there because of his love for his son, right? Because his son is dying. And Jesus offers him the life of his son without any transaction because Jesus doesn't get anything from him. That's why the man was going through a panic attack because his life was transactional because he's a nobleman, which means he's a politician. And there was no gain for Jesus because that's not what grace is about. God offers grace not as a transaction. He offers grace or kindness simply as an offer. And we're gonna see that again and again in parts of this story. And that's what the nobleman had to deal with, but the nobleman had something that allowed him to grab hold of that sincerity and that was his love for his son. And so remember when his son is healed, he says to the servants, exactly when? Because if it's not exact, I'm not gonna believe it. And it was exact, seventh hour of the day before. And he had no choice but to believe it because of why he was there. Because love is not transactional. You don't love your kids because you expect to get something back from them when you retire. It is, by the way, nice if you do. But that's not the expectation, right? So what this is saying to us is remember that as you look what happens with the impotent man and what goes on afterwards. In other words, it's gonna be different. It's not gonna be the same. And he wants you to understand, the writer, John, wants you to understand what those differences are. Now before we get to some of the specifics, I want you to consider this picture up there of the Pool of Bethesda. So with five porches. So this picture is, I made sure I looked it up to make it look right. This is an artistic rendition of what they discovered archeologically in Jerusalem where the pool is. Oh, Jason said, good, he can speak to it firsthand. It is amazing when you see the pictures, right? When you see the archeological pictures and it looks like just a hole with a whole bunch of stuff around it. And then they come up with something like this and you go, how did you ever see that from that? But they have that ability to do that. They're able to reconstruct. We look at, you know, they show the ancient ruins of Laodicea or whatever and you go, how could you ever picture a city from that? It just looks like a whole bunch of cement or a whole bunch of bricks. But they're able to redevelop. And this is what they redevelop. Now, it says five porches. If you look at that, if you count it, it almost looks like seven, right? But it's really five. What it really is is it's the four sides to the pool and then the one porch running through the middle. That's the fifth porch. So keep that in mind as we consider some of the things that we're talking about. Because the text says specifically that it's five porches. So when you look at this picture and you look at where the fifth porch is,

this is what you have. You have two bodies of water with dry path in between. That ought to make you think of something. And I think it's important that we see what that something is. Two bodies of water on two sides and dry land in between. Bethesda means House of Mercy or House of Kindness or House of Grace. It has all those different connotations. The question is, which connotation is it in this story? And it shows two pools of water with a path running through. What does that make you think of? Any ideas? The Red Sea, exactly. The parting of the Red Sea. Why not the parting of the Jordan? Because the parting of the Jordan, one water goes back and the other water empties out. Parting of the Jordan is about life and death. It's about renewal of life. This is the parting of the Red Sea. It's there in picture right before you. Two pools of water, dry land in between. Why is that important to remember? That's important to remember because we're gonna be coming back to the children in the Exodus and what takes place. But specifically, it's because you're being told, and Jesus would have understood this, you're being told this pool represents the parting of the waters of the Red Sea. So it's saying to you, go back and consider what that means. And so consider what it does mean. And it's found in Exodus chapter,

chapter what? Chapter 14. So this is what takes place at the parting of the Red Sea and what you need to remember about the parting of the Red Sea. First of all, it says this, and start in verse 10. And when Pharaoh drew nigh and the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid. And the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord, and they said unto Moses, Because there was no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? So their response, after everything that had taken place in Egypt with Moses, all those miracles, all those plagues, everything that had happened, they got them out of Egypt. And they come to the Red Sea, and they feel trapped. And the first thing they do is say, why did you ever take us out of Egypt? And they cried to the Lord. What did they cry to the Lord? You say, well, it doesn't say. They must have cried, help us. But Moses is the representative of God. He's the one that did all the miracles in Egypt. That's not what they cried to the Lord. What they cried to the Lord is exactly what it says here, that they said to Moses, same thing. They didn't speak, they were afraid, no doubt about that. But their response to their fear was, why did you do this to us? That's their response. That's their response to Moses. That's their response to God. That's why God says, what are they crying to me for? If they were crying for help, God wouldn't have said it. But in this case, he says, what are they crying to me for? Haven't I just taken them out of Egypt? Haven't you just taken them out of Egypt? Tell them to move, tell them to go. And then Moses parts the Red Sea, and this is what it says. And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show unto you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. So he says to them, stand still. In other words, this is not an act of mercy, this is not an act in which you are responsible to do anything, except stand still and see what happens. You know, the Jews could never do that. They always struggle with that same thing that the noblemen struggle with, which is what's the transaction? If I get something, what do you get? They're always waiting for that other shoe to fall. Throughout their history, even to this day, it's always transactional. It's always, when am I gonna pay the price for the things that I've done? Now that might sound foolish, and yet we all struggle with that same thing. At least I do. I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall. When am I gonna pay the price for everything that God has done for me, and then my incredible disobedience because of it? And the lesson in scripture again and again and again to the faithful is, there is no price to pay. Now you have to understand what that means. That's what grace is. Grace is a two-part process. The kindness of God, not transactional, love giving, and the human response to it, and the human response to it comes from your realization that I'm never really going to pay the price because Jesus has already paid for it. That, in my opinion, is why Jacob was wrestling with the angel. He was expecting to pay the price by having stolen his birthright and having stolen the blessing and all of that. And the answer was, there's no price to pay. It's already been paid for. That's why you need a redeemer. That's why Job comes to the realization that despite however righteous he is, he can never stand before God because God is righteous and he was not. What I need is somebody to go stand there for me. That's Christ. And so here, Moses says, stand still. There's nothing for you to do. There's no price to pay. There's no piece of works to do. You stand still and see what happens. And they stood still and the waters parted and they walked across on dry land and came out the other side. That's the salvation of God. That's the pool of Bethesda. That's everything that's being represented by the fact that it says, notice it says, in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda. What difference does that make? It's telling us that so that we will recognize that what Bethesda represents goes all the way back as the Hebrew language does. It goes all the way back. It's not something new. And when Jesus speaks to them after the impotent man, he says, I do what I see my father doing. That's what I do. What he does, that's what I'm doing. And that's exactly what takes place with the healing of the impotent man. He's doing something that he already saw that the father does. So we'll come to that in just a second. Any questions or comments about that? Okay. And after this, there was a feast of the Jews. Why does it say a feast of the Jews? What does that mean? Well, a feast of the Jews means

it's not a correctly practiced feast of God. In Deuteronomy and other places, they're told specifically what these feasts were all about. And the Jews did something else. So in time and time and time again in John's Gospel, even the final Passover is referred to as a feast of the Jews because they weren't practicing it properly. So it's always called in John's Gospel a feast of the Jews. The feast of Tabernacles in John seven is called a feast of the Jews. Each of the Passover's are called feasts of the Jews because the Jews were practicing it one way and it was supposed to be practiced another way. So that's why it starts off by calling it a feast of the Jews. And it says, oh, oh, yes. And it says this, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. So why does Jesus go to Jerusalem? Well, because it's a feast. Right? That's not really what that's telling us. What that's telling us is this. Same as we talked a couple weeks ago about how, remember how we talked about the nobleman? And after he gets what he wants, it says he goes down. And we pointed out that that going down was moving away from Jesus. That's where he had all of his doubts and fears come in because he was moving away from God. He was going down. Jesus is going up. Jesus is going up to Jerusalem. When you go up to Jerusalem, you go up to worship the Lord. That's what going up to Jerusalem is all about. So in other words, there's gonna be a feast of the Jews, whatever that feast is, and we're gonna consider that in a minute. But whatever that feast is, they weren't gonna practice it correctly, but Jesus was. Because Jesus knows what the feast represents. And so Jesus is gonna do at the feast exactly what is called for, for the feast. Does that make sense? That's why he's going up to Jerusalem. Yes, they're gonna keep it their way. He's gonna keep it his way. And his way is God's way. And therefore, we would expect to see in the feast some sort of representation of one of the feasts. In other words, we ought to be able to figure out which feast it is by knowing what Jesus does. That make sense? So let's consider the three feasts. Before we consider the three, there's three feasts that send you to Jerusalem, right? Is Passover, which is also known as what? Feast of Unleavened Bread, correct. There's Pentecost, which is also known as anyone?

Shakut? Nope. Feast of Pentecost is also known as the Feast of Weeks. Right, because it's seven weeks. And then there's the Feast of Tabernacles, which is also known as Feast of Booths. Is there another name? Shakut, correct. That's another name. There's another name? The Feast of In-gathering, right? Because everybody's gathered in at the harvest. So those are the three feasts. This is not some other feast. Like I read some commentary that said, oh, this is Purim. It's not Purim. How do you know it's not Purim? Because Jesus is going to Jerusalem specifically. And the only three feasts specifically sent you to Jerusalem, that's Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Those are the three feasts that sent you to Jerusalem. So it's got to be one of those three feasts. So which one is it? Well, what we're going to do is we're going to turn to the spiritual representation of those feasts by going to Deuteronomy and looking at each of the feasts very quickly. We'll try to do it quickly because we're already running out of time. You know what? We'll just continue until we're done. Right? What difference does it make, really? Yeah, thank you, Butch. Butch says it's okay. Passover. Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover on to the Lord thy God. For in the month of Abib, the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. I love that expression, by night. In other words, they were still in the darkness when he brings them out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover on to the Lord thy God of the flock and the herd and the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there. Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction. For the God came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. So that is the Deuteronomy expression of what the Feast of Passover is all about. Is that what takes place with Jesus and the impotent man? No. Now, a lot of people say it's Passover or a lot of commentators say it's Passover because they're counting the Passover's and say, well, you can still fit one more. But it's not the Feast of Passover. What Jesus does to the impotent man is he heals them.

Not because the impotent man asks for healing. He doesn't. He doesn't even answer the question when Jesus says, do you want to be healed? Not because, in other words, it's not an act of mercy. It's not an act of repentance. It's none of those things. It's not even a sacrifice. It's just a healing. Passover is all about sacrifice. Now, when you look at it, it says, at the sheep market, that understandably might make you think of the Passover because the sheep market was where the sheep came in that you could buy a sheep so that it would be sacrificed. But that's not why it mentions the sheep market. The reason it mentions the sheep market is because it's connected to the pool. And what you have at the pool is the sheep. That too is at the pool. That's why it mentions the sheep market because you have a whole bunch of sheep, lost sheep, impotent folk at the pool. A whole bunch, a whole multitude of lost sheep. And that's what you're supposed to see. That's why it mentions the sheep market. It's not about the Passover because it doesn't fit the Passover. The acts that Jesus performs, which you know are gonna be reflective of the feast that takes place, is not what takes place with the impotent man. So it's not the Passover. Now we'll look at the third one because I'm skipping the second because I believe it's the second. Third one is the Feast of Tabernacles. And thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days after thou has gathered in the corn and thy wand. Has everything been gathered in at John 5? Of course not. He's just starting his public ministry. And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy manservant and thy maidservant and the Levite and the stranger and the followers and the widow that are within thy gates. That's an interesting expression. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God and the place where the will choose because the Lord thy God shall bless thee and all thine increase and all the works of thy hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. Is this the Feast of Tabernacles? No. How do we know? Well, first of all, it says, because thou shalt bless thee and all thine increase, he really hasn't had any increase. A lot more increase to come. There's the feeding of the 5,000, there's an increase. There's the whole ministry that he has in front of him, starting in John 5, and none of it has taken place. Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Ink Gathering, is bringing everybody in when the work is done. It's the harvest feast. John 5 is clearly not a harvest feast. Makes sense? So it's not the Feast of Tabernacles. It's Pentecost. And here's why. Seven weeks shall thou number on thee, beginning to the number of seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. In other words, the work is now beginning. Jesus has already had his wedding in Cana, he's already spoken to Nicodemus, he's already spoken to the Samaritans. The work has already begun, but it's a long way from finished. That's just what the Feast of Weeks represents. And thou shalt keep the feast unto the Lord thy God, and this is what it's called. A tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. A freewill offering to God in the way that God has blessed you. Now usually you think about that as food, right? But how had the Lord blessed the Lord, how had God blessed the Lord Jesus Christ? He gave him the power of the Holy Spirit. He gave him the ability to heal. And what Jesus is gonna do is he's gonna perform a healing that he's going to say, this is what my Father does, I see him do, that's why I'm doing it. That's just what this freewill offering is all about. This is a freewill offering of Jesus to heal the impotent man. Because the impotent man didn't call him, right? He just went there. And he went there and he healed one man. Okay, and it says, and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son and thy daughter and his and on and on and on which are among you in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. So there's the difference between in gathering. In gathering, you're all in the same house.

Feast of Tabernacles, you're gathering anything and everybody in, right? Because you're still gathering. So it's not just in your house. God shall choose his place, his name there, that's Jerusalem, and thou shalt remember that thou was a bondsman in Egypt and thou shalt observe to do these statutes. So the feast that's taking place in John five is the Feast of Tabernacles. And the one person that is going to do the proper Feast of Tabernacles is the Lord Jesus Christ by the healing of the impotent man. Comments, questions before we move on? I already talked about that. Okay, now we get to the interesting part although I have to go a little bit to get that explanation because it says in verse three of John chapter five, in these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, a blind halt withered, there's your sheep, waiting for the moving of the waters. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. Now we're gonna talk about what this moving of the waters is about in just a minute. Do I even have a minute? Okay. But here's the problem I always had. And I'll tell you, when I talked about this before with grace and truth, I called it superstition because it just sounds, I mean it absolutely sounds like superstition. This idea that the water gets troubled, right? And all of a sudden somebody can get into the pool first and get healed and then everybody else doesn't get healed. Sounds like superstition to me. But I'm gonna tell you it's not superstition. I'm not gonna explain yet why. But I will say this about it. It's not written as superstition. You guys know I spent a long time in the Gospel of John. It would have taken nothing for John to say for it was supposed that an angel went down at a certain season into the pool. He doesn't say that. I know other manuscripts say it's not there at all but it's here so I just, you know what I mean? It's in my Bible I deal with it because that's what we do. But it's not written as superstition at all. It's written for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. Now he's made whole, he's not saved. He's whatever this person supposedly had, he didn't have it anymore. Now think of the instant man, he'd been there for 38 years.

For 38 years he's been there and probably many other people, they're almost as long. And they're all there because they believe that this water is being troubled. And they believe that somebody has gone down into the water and come out healed. Of course we know people go to Fatima even to this day. They believe, I think it's pray before a statue, I can't remember specifically what it is. But these people are right there. This man is there for 38 years. And in his confession to Jesus or in his competitions, there's no issue in his mind at all that this really takes place. He believes it takes place, he just believes he can't get there. Which we'll look at, it looks like we're gonna look at it next week. But, and there is superstition involved in this and that is how the people perceive what's going on. But I'm gonna talk, next week I'm gonna hopefully be able to explain to you why.

The troubling of the waters is not superstition. This was actually happening. Because it happened again and again and again. It happened in the wilderness. Because what does the troubling of the waters represent? It represents God's presence in the water. Notice they say an angel comes down. They don't say a devil comes down, they don't say, they say an angel comes down and troubles the water at a certain time. It represents the presence, the manifestation of the actual presence of God in that water. And in the Exodus, time and time and time, the actual physical manifestation of God was there. And even though it was there, and even though they knew God existed, they still didn't have faith. Why not? And Jesus, as he comes to his public ministry, here in John five, what's he gonna do? Trouble the waters. That's exactly what he does. He is the physical manifestation of the presence of God. And they refuse to believe him. That's the difference between John four and the nobleman and John five moving on. And we'll get more into that next week.

Transcript

So, good evening, everybody. Thank you again. It's nice to be with everybody. I put myself in a bit of a pickle on this past Sunday, because my plan was to finish up the story of the healing of the impotent man, and then tonight to just pick up from there on what Jesus says in his public discourse because of it. Unfortunately, I didn't finish the

healing of the impotent man on Sunday. I would have finished. It was Butchie, actually, that's only I had to stop. Otherwise, I would have finished. What basically is going on or I've been working on, I started actually a couple of weeks before, and I recognize that some people aren't with us on Sunday that are with us on Wednesdays, and there's some people who are with us on Sundays that aren't with us on Wednesdays. Did I say that backwards? Some people are with us on Wednesday, but not on Sunday, and some people are with us on Sunday and not on Wednesday. Yes, that's right. So, if I'm going to talk on the same subjects, they sort of need to stand on their own by not finishing the story of the impotent man or the healing of the impotent man. I'm going to have to finish that on Sunday. So, I'm just going to move right on to what Jesus says in his public discourses

and try to do as little backstory as possible or lecaps as we like to call it in Stoughton. But to give you a brief lecap, basically two Sundays ago for an exhortation, they talked about the healing of the nobleman's son. And the reason why that was important to the series that we're talking about in the Sunday School is because in the Sunday School, we're talking about the public discourses of Jesus in the Gospel of John. And they start in John chapter five. Prior to John chapter five, all the things that Jesus did is private, you know, the wedding at Canaan and the meeting with the Samaritans and his conversation with Nicodemus and all of that. It's all private except for one brief moment in John chapter two, where Jesus goes to the temple during Passover. And, you know, they ask him why he does the things that he does or he has one statement where he says tear down this temple and I'll rebuild it in three days. As we pointed out on Sunday, that's the one thing the Jews remember of all the things that Jesus says in all of his discourses. That's the one thing they can bring back at his trial because everything else that he says, and he has a lot of public discourses in the Gospel of John to the Jews, to those doubters. That's the only thing that they can remember. So the question that we asked was, well, then who is he speaking to, even though he's talking to the Jews, who's he really speaking to in these multiple discourses? There's one in chapter five, there's one in chapter six, there's one in chapter seven, there's one in chapter eight, there's one in chapter ten, there's one in chapter eleven or eleven or twelve. Actually, I think it's chapter twelve. Well, he's talking to the revenants, he's talking to the believers, and he's trying to get them to understand how to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. That's what we pointed out on Sunday about what he says to the Samaritan woman, that you must worship in spirit and truth, and that the Father is seeking those that do that. And so Jesus is teaching his disciples and his believers, such as ourselves, the true representation of his relationship specifically with his Father in a lot of these discourses, certainly in the first big one, the one that he has in John chapter five after the healing of the impotent man. The nobleman story is interesting because at the end of John four, because Jesus says to the nobleman, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. And of course, then he sees the signs and wonders, and he does believe. And what happens starting in John five is Jesus starts meeting with the public, and he starts doing these same signs and wonders like the healing of the impotent man, and they see the signs and wonders, and yet they don't believe. They continue to not believe. And part of the reason they don't believe is because of the way that he speaks, because he's revealing to them that their perspective towards his Father is incorrect. And so that's what we're going to talk about this evening. One of the things that we pointed out on Sunday that those of you that are with us will remember, those of you that aren't, it's just a little recap, is the fact that there's a feast mentioned at the beginning of John chapter five. It's called the Feast of the Jews, but it's one of the three main feasts. And the question is, which one of the feasts was it? And what we tried to show, and hopefully we show it successfully, is the feast that takes place in John chapter five is the Feast of Pentecost. Now, it has to be one of the main feasts because it says that Jesus went up to Jerusalem. So Jesus went to the feast, even though it was a feast of the Jews, meaning that they weren't worshipping God properly in the feast, Jesus was going to worship properly in that feast. And so when you look at the story of the impotent man and what Jesus does, it should fit one of the feasts. And so we looked at the three main feasts, and when we looked at them, it was easy to tell that the one feast that it mirrors is the Feast of Tabernacles. That's where Deuteronomy 16, 9, and 10 comes from. Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee. Begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. Well, that's exactly what Jesus is doing in John chapter five. Like I say, this is his first public event in the Gospel of John. So he's just putting the sickle to the corn. He's just starting his process of harvesting, which is, of course, what Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks represents. Thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a free will offering of thy hand. Again, that's exactly what Jesus does to the impotent man. He doesn't go to the impotent man because the impotent man is asking to be healed. He just goes to him. It's a free will offering. In fact, he asks the man if he wants to be healed, and the man doesn't even the Lord at the Feast of Tabernacles, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God. And we're going to talk a bit this evening about how he gives it unto the Lord thy God. In other words, he does what he sees his father doing. And what he sees his father doing is these free will offerings of his love and kindness, of his grace, if you will. The example that we used on Sunday was the parting of the Red Sea. At the parting of the Red Sea, which mirrors the pool of Bethesda, where the impotent man's healing takes place, at the parting of the Red Sea, Moses says, for the words of the Lord, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. In other words, it's not about something you can do. You stand still, and I'm going to do this for you. And that's exactly what he does. He parks the Red Sea, and they walk across on dry land, not because of anything that they had done. They even say that he takes them out of Egypt in the night. In other words, they were still in darkness. So that's what Jesus sees the father doing, and so that's what he does. That's the whole purpose of the healing of this impotent man, is to reflect the father. As it says, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. And Jesus, of course, was given the power to heal. And as we consider his discourse, we'll see that he's given so much more than just the power to heal, because the father loves the son. So that's what we talked about on Sunday, for those of you that weren't with us. And we get to the point where we were going to talk about the troubling of the waters. We'll cover that on Sunday, if you want to join us then. And we didn't actually talk about the healing itself that takes place. We'll also cover that on Sunday. I want to pick up this evening right at the end of the healing, when Jesus says this, when Jesus says, take up thy bed and walk. And of course, that's the instruction that he gives to the impotent man that gets the impotent man in trouble, or gets Jesus in trouble with the Jews, because it happened on the Sabbath day. And so in verse 16, it says, Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. So why were the Jews so obsessed with keeping the Sabbath day?

Keeping the Sabbath was the big act of righteousness that the community could do, they believed, to bring about redemption, basically to get into God's good graces. The one thing they could do is they could keep the Sabbath day. In other words, you could do nothing on the Sabbath day. In fact, it kind of made me think of Nazi Germany, when people were watching their neighbors to try to catch them, maybe hiding the Jews or something like that. In Jerusalem, there were these people going around, specifically the Pharisees and others, who were just watching to see if anybody does anything they're not supposed to do on the Sabbath day. Because if you do it on the Sabbath day, then God's not going to be happy with us. And then his salvation is not going to come, his redemption is not going to come. They were vigilant about keeping the Sabbath day. They dedicated it as a community, because the community had to keep the Sabbath day in order for God's mercy and God's redemption and God's love and God's grace and God's approval would come. Of course, there's an obvious counter-argument to that idea of, well, you can't do healing on the Sabbath day. That is the fact that, obviously, because of the fact that the healing took place, God was happy with the healing. Otherwise, he would not have allowed the healing to happen. So you have this sort of catch-22, where you're not supposed to do anything on the Sabbath, according to the Jews, and yet Jesus is performing a miracle on the Sabbath. Now think about that on the way the Jews would look at it. All of a sudden, along comes this guy, he's doing something like this on the Sabbath day. For generation after generation, we've been striving as a community to perfect the Sabbath by not doing these things on the Sabbath day. And then what? All of a sudden, when one guy comes along and does what they call these things, in John chapter 5 verse 16, now we're supposed to throw out the law of the Sabbath? And the answer, of course, is yes, that's exactly correct. But they're not ready to do that. And we'll talk in a minute why they weren't ready to accept this miracle on the Sabbath day. But notice what they do instead of calling it a miracle, they're calling it a sign. They say, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day, they kind of lower it down to just some sort of something that took place. I mean, he gave strength. He healed a man who had been impotent for 38 years. For 38 years, the man had been lying by that fool, impotent. And Jesus comes along and heals him in a moment in time. And their reference to it is that he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But notice it talks about how they persecuted Jesus because of it. And they sought to slay him or to kill him because of it. And that seems to me to be a really strong reaction to what Jesus was doing, almost like an over the top kind of reaction that he performs a miracle, these things on the Sabbath day.

And yet, is it because they're so dedicated to the Sabbath day that they'd rather kill somebody than let something like this happen? I think there's more to it than that. In fact, I know there's more to it than that. Yes, they were angry because he was breaking the Sabbath and they're trying desperately to keep the Sabbath. But this goes back to the very nature of where they're coming from. And the very nature of it is this. Jesus speaking to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. This is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. And you might ask, what's the relationship between this issue of keeping the Sabbath and John chapter 3 verse 19 and the reality about human nature and the reality about those that turn down the light? And the connection is this. Again, if they had just been angry, if they'd just been upset, if they'd just said, you can't do that, then it would be fine. But when you want to kill somebody for it, that gets into a very, very much deeper reality about what you're doing and what your motivation really is. Remember, God looks at the intent of the heart, right? And what the universal commitment to keeping the law, what it does is it really covers up the true intent of the heart. We don't have to face the light if we can all agree that the light is darkness and the darkness is light. Remember what John Perks talked about a couple of weeks ago when he pointed out that politician that was talking about Christian strength and presenting the light as darkness when we know it's darkness and we know the light, as John was pointing out, is in weakness. The light is putting your trust in your father instead of your own strength. That's what this commitment to law really does. And you can see it by their reaction because their reaction is so far over the top because the last thing they want to do is be exposed to the light. Now, they might not know that on a conscious level, but there are certain things that they do know on a conscious level that they know they don't want to have to face because that's what Jesus does when Jesus responds to them. Jesus responds to them and his response is going to force them to face their own reality or to try to kill them in order to not to. And Jesus responds first and foremost is this. He says, my father worketh the two and I work. So Jesus says, the whole law of the Sabbath was that you do no work on the Sabbath day. That's the way they saw the Sabbath. You don't do any work on the Sabbath day. That's what we were commanded to do. So you do nothing, basically. And there are people watching to make sure that everybody's doing nothing on the Sabbath day. And the reason for that is because God rested on the Sabbath on the seventh day. That's the supposed reason. But what Jesus says is, I've been watching my father for 33 years. He doesn't rest. He never takes a day off. And if he never takes a day off, how can I take a day off? Because I'm always about my father's business. So he says, my father works hitherto. He doesn't stop. God is not not around on the Sabbath day. His work is not being not done on the Sabbath day. And so Jesus says, if he's working, I'm working. And of course, they taught that keeping the Sabbath is what honors God. To do nothing on the Sabbath day is what honors God because they want to honor God so that God will accept who they are. And Jesus says, that's ridiculous. My father never stops working, so I don't stop working. And the Jews' response, right, was this. Therefore, the Jews sought more to kill him because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but he said also that God was his father making himself equal with God. So let me tell you, the whole reason I started to look at this series was this verse, because I couldn't understand this verse. And that's an interesting fact that I couldn't understand this verse. How was saying that God was his father making himself equal with God? I thought about it and I thought it took me a long time. And the reason it took me a long time is because I was having a hard time seeing it from the Jews' perspective. And the reason I was having a hard time seeing it from the Jews' perspective is because I don't have that perspective anymore. And you don't have that perspective anymore.

And so you have to actually stop and really think about it to remind yourself of what that perspective is. And so what is that perspective? Put yourself in their hands, in their perspective, in their thinking. What they're doing and keeping in the law, it's not about God. The God that they see is the God that's expressed in the parable of the talents. The God that they see is that austere man who reaps where he does not sow. That's the God that they recognize. That's the God that they saw. And so it wasn't about that, about God. What it was about was how they were going to be perceived by God. That's what their perspective was. How is what I'm doing or not doing going to be perceived by God? It was all about them. And any law-abiding Jew or any self-law-obsessed

Christian, Christadelphian, whatever, this is something that they all know and we know. It's absolutely true that God can see your heart. He knows who you really are. But that's why you hide in the darkness. That's why you can't stand the light. Because stop doing that. Because you know they know, sorry, because God knows who you are. So you don't want to go into the light because you want to be exposed. And so what you do is you keep law. And if you keep law, then you say, as long as God sees me keeping law, then maybe I will be acceptable to God and I'll never have to be exposed to the light. That's what keeping law is all about. It's a perspective of how God is going to see you. They were law-abiding Jews. They understood their own personal nature, but they never want to show that nature. And so you hide it by the works and you say, if I keep the Sabbath and if we keep the Sabbath, then maybe we can be acceptable to God and we'll never have to change and we'll never have to face the light. We'll never have to come out of the darkness because I'm going to call the darkness light and I'm going to show God my dedication by keeping the Sabbath. And that's what he will accept. There's two problems with that. The first is that God looks at the intents of the heart. He doesn't look at what we do. The second problem is this. Why do you want to stay in the darkness? And the reason you want to stay in the darkness is because you like the darkness. That guy that you created through sin, you like that guy. I like that guy. For this guy, for me, that guy is that wise, smart Alec, always has something sharp to say. That guy, I know he's wicked. I know every I trust him. I like that guy. That's why I never really want to give that guy away because I can trust him. He's got me on his side. That's not what Jesus does. But when Jesus says, God is my father, this is the way they would see it. They would say, you are by saying, God is your father, making yourself as if you have the righteousness of God. You are making yourself equal with God. That's just what they said. You're making yourself equal with God. And every law-abiding Jew knows that every person is an evil, terrible sinner. So you have no right to make yourself equal with God by calling God your father. And Jesus' response is, you don't know God. You have no idea who God is because you never see that God. The God you see is the master, just like in the story of the talents. It's a relationship of a master and a servant. It's not a relationship of the father with the son, or just the relationship of a father. And so Jesus is going to emphasize again and again and again that God is a father. He comes right back in the very next verse, and he says this. He says, verily, verily. In other words, this is absolutely true. I say unto you, the son can do nothing of himself. You think I'm making myself equal with God? I can't do anything. But this is what I do. What I see the father do, for whatsoever he doeth, those things the son likewise does. In other words, I watch the father, and I see what he does. I don't get obsessed with my relationship to the father. My relationship to the father is based upon him, not upon me. Of course, he wasn't a wicked sinner, but they didn't know that. But that's not his response because he says, I can do nothing. He's another human like everybody else. But what I see my father doing, that's what I do. And that's what any loyal son does, is he sees what his father does and he copies it. And that's just what Jesus did. That's the whole story of the impotent man, is he sees what the father's doing and that's what he does. In fact, that's part of the story of the nobleman, right? When we talked about the nobleman and we said the nobleman was a politician, he was a quid pro quo kind of God. But he had one thing that wasn't quid pro quo, and that was his love for his son. And so that's what Jesus is talking about. All I really do is I watch the father. And what I see him doing, that's what I do. So consider the Exodus. We talked about it. He sees the father part the Red Sea, even though they were still sinners. Even though they were still disobedient, he still did. And again and again and again, the grace of God is seen again and again and again without any sort of quid pro quo, no payback. There is no payback. So that's exactly what he does with the impotent man. And by the way, that's why we're never told whether the impotent man changes, because the whole point of the healing of the impotent man is there is no payback. That was the same point as the healing of the nobleman. There's no payback to the nobleman. Jesus gets nothing out of it. That's what Jesus sees the father doing. A true relationship with God is based upon who God is, not based upon who we are in relation to him. That's what they didn't understand. It's a father and son relationship and not a master-servant relationship. And so what Jesus does is he goes on and he says this,

And showeth him all things that he himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these that ye may marvel. I want to consider just for a few minutes this incredible statement where Jesus says the father loves the son. Remember again the nobleman, the politician, the man whose entire setup was you take care of me and I take care of you. And yet his relationship with son was not like that. He went from Capernaum to Cana because of his love for his son. He lowered himself before some itinerant preacher because of his love for his son. His love for his son was everything. Now consider the father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was he is the Almighty. He is the perfect God.

He you know all things are before him. All things are possible with him and

everything is founded. Everything is founded in scripture on the father's love for the son. It's everything in scripture. Look what he says. Look what Jesus says in John chapter 17. He says he's talking of course he's in the midst of his prayer with his disciples and he says father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. For thou loved me before the foundation of the world. Before anything was created the father loved the son. Everything is founded upon the father's love for the son and everything is possible because of the father's love for the son. Let's consider some of the things in that relationship. Consider what happens at the birth. Before the birth even before the conception the angel comes to Mary and he says he shall be great talking about the child that she will bear and he shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord shall give onto him the throne of his father David. Now consider what he's saying there. It's amazing. He said he's going to give the throne of his father David but he will be called the son of the highest. In other words people will know that he's the son of David and he's the descendant of David. They'll know that he's going to be given that throne but they will come to know that he's much much more than that. That he's the son of the highest. That he is the literal son of God and I want to consider a place where that comes out in the most remarkable spot you could possibly think of and that's at the cross. At the cross you had this man the centurion and the others that were with him who were just observers. They had a job to do but they're not even involved in the situation beyond doing their job and notice what it says. Now on the servant the centurion and they were with him watching Jesus. This is the moment of crucifixion. This is the moment of his death. This is what from a worldly perspective is the lowest moment anyone has ever had to endure. This sinless man dying on the cross. We can feel the pain and yet the centurion sees it and sees everything that goes on. The darkness. The earthquake. Everything. The response of everyone that watches and he says it says uh and Jesus saw the I'm sorry now when the centurion and they that with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things that were done they feared greatly saying truly

this is the son of God. What an incredible reaction to what they were saying. They said this is the son of God and the angel told Mary that is exactly what they're going to call him. The son of the highest. They could see the almighty. They could see the earthquake. It's mentioned and they said this is this this is the son of God and that's just what Jesus is. He's the son of God. Notice what it said in that verse we just considered a minute ago when we said in the father love of the son and show him all things unto himself and he will show him greater works than these the he may marvel and Jesus goes on in this chapter to say you're going to see even greater things than the healing of the impotent man. Look what he look what he says in the next few verses in verse 21. Now again he's talking to the Jews but the people that are supposed to hear it is you and I. We're the ones that are supposed to understand what he's saying because they certainly didn't they didn't even remember it when they were asked. In verse 21 he says for the this is right after he says the father loves the son therefore for as the father raises up the dead and quicketh them even so the son quickeneth whom he will. So the father loves the son before the foundation of the world and the father gives him the power to raise the dead. Now yes there were other people that had that power but he gives them the power to do it and and and he has more than in verse 22 it says for the father judgeeth no man but hath committed all judgment onto the son. God the father does that with no one else no one else is given all judgment onto the son. Jesus is going to judge everything and the father is not going to sit there and dissect it and say well you did this good you didn't do that right no no no he gives it all to him that's how much he loves his son how much he trusts his son. In verse 23 he says that all men should honor the son even as they honor the father there's no separation even though he can say of myself I can do nothing there's no separation between the honor of the father of the son because of the love of the father for the son. In verse 24 he says verily verily saying unto you he that heareth my words and I believe on him that sent me have everlasting life and shall not commit to condemnation but is passed from death on to life he gives him the power of life itself the power of eternal life you make the decisions who receives eternal life the father gives that to the son. I mean this is quite a business Jesus has taken on and taking on his father's business and yet it is the love of the father for the son that

drove everything that he did that drove him to the sinless life that he lived that leads him even to this day in his father's in his father's heaven guiding even when he comes back all things are his because from the very foundation of the world the father loved the son and gave all things on to him notice what it says later on in the chapter he says I am coming in my father's name if you receive me not if another another shall come on in his own name him you will receive but he how can ye believe which receive honor one of another and seek not honor that comes from God alone notice where it's coming from it's coming from God that was everything Jesus was telling me I watched the father and I do what the father does and he has given me all things and I do exactly what he wants done because of who the father is that's why I do it and my motivation my father's love it was there from the very foundation before the world began and it drove everything and he took it all in and was a perfect obedience of the father and so where does that put us brothers and sisters as

servants of the son it puts us in a situation in which it is all about the relationship between the father and the son it's not about our sinfulness yes we're sinners yes we have to face just like paul did oh wretched man that I am who can save me we have to go into the light we have to face the light and we have faced the light and we continue to face the light each time we fall short but each time we fall short and each time we get down upon ourselves for what we did and we want to turn back into darkness because it's right there calling to us it's right there it's good over here you don't have to stand in the light each time we do that we have to turn back to the relationship between the father and the son that's what you and I are called to we're not called to all the things that the world is called to we're called to be witnesses and as best as we can reflections of the relationship between the father and the son and its whole foundation lies in the love of the father for the son all things can be done because of the love of the father for the son and our faith and our lives are founded upon the love of the father for the son this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased

Transcript

we are finally going to leave the impotent man behind and uh move on to John chapter 6 in the feeding of the 5,000 I'll explain uh shortly why I put parentheses around uh the

5000 um just a just a couple things to remember as we're moving forward one of the things I want you to remember when we as we talk about the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6 because we're not going to cover these verses specifically is remember that after Jesus says unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part of me that everybody turns away but the 12 the only people left by the end of John chapter 6 John chapter 6 is a really long chapter uh we're not going to look at everything I'm hoping we can get uh through it through all of it today I've got a lot of uh things to bring up but keep in mind the fact that by the time you get to the end of John chapter 6 the only people that are left are the 12 everybody else has has uh abandoned um

Jesus at that point um we we've got some ongoing themes that we're that we're considering you know the whole theme about about uh spirit and Truth the fact that you can't Worship in spirit Spirit and truth without sincerity you need to have sincerity that's what Joshua emphasized and so without sincerity you can't you can't follow the spirit and so we pointed out about the Jews remember we talked last time about the Jews that the Jews didn't have sincerity because they wanted to cover up what was in their heart that's why they saw God as a Taskmaster because if you have a Taskmaster then all you have to do is do the tasks and if you do the tasks then the Taskmaster is happy but God is not a Taskmaster God is a father and so when Jesus calls God his father they are petrified and they're Furious they want to kill him

because if we have that kind of relationship with our father then what's in here is going to get exposed now we know that God looks at the heart we understand that but when you're not worshiping in spirit and truth that's not the point the point is if I do this then the Taskmaster is going to be happy and if it's not a Taskmaster then we have to look at my heart and I don't want you to see what's in my heart because my heart my heart is evil

in fact this is what Jesus says at the end at the end of uh John SE or at the beginning of John 7 after what happens in John 6 as they're going to the Feast of Tabernacles remember it says his Brethren didn't believe on him we we'll get into that later because the Brethren certainly knew who he was they just didn't think he was doing things correctly um but this is what Jesus says um to his Brethren he says the world cannot hate you but me it hateth because I testify it that the works thereof are evil that's just what Jesus was doing he was exposing this what he talks to Nicodemus about in chapter three he was exposing that the inner thoughts of every man is

evil so that has to come out if that doesn't come out if you want to keep keep that hidden then you can't worship the god in sincerity and in spirit and in truth it has to come out that's what Paul talks about in Romans 7 a Wretched Man that I I am it has to come out that's what we do at at baptism we make that confession that we have no control over this sinful man that's inside of us and everybody understands uh that there's a sinful man uh inside of us uh a couple other thingses that we're following we're talking about how how it builds up um who Jesus meets who he interacts with continues to expand and expand and expand it started out in a very small place in John chapter 1 with John the Baptist and expands out a little bit more with Nicodemus expands out a little bit more with the Samaritans expands out a little bit more with the Jews the Jews in Jerusalem who we pointed out had a form of godliness but denying the power thereof that's that represents them wonderfully because remember they did have a form of godliness they were they were law abiding or law obsessed

Jews that's they they they kept the law because they believed in God but they didn't understand understand or or they refused to face what God really was but they were a law abiding Jews they were

dedicated but their dedication made them want to kill Jesus so the dedication was outward but it doesn't create the transformation that takes place with spirit with spirit and truth and now we're going to expand even further because now we're going to we're going to meet a multitude and this multitude is not about keeping the law remember at the end of John 6 at least at least at that point in time that multitude that rejects Jesus they're not trying to kill him but they still reject him and so what's the difference between the L abiding Jews that want to kill him and reject right and they reject the remember the the lers rejected the miracle right they have a form of godliness but denying the power thereof Jesus said healed the impotent man but that became not important the only thing that was important was he did it on the Sabbath day and so the Taskmaster is not going to be happy

so they they they deny the miracle they they deny the power thereof these people literally come to Jesus because of the Miracles but the Miracles don't offer to them a sign don't offer to them uh what is this all about what does this mean it offers to them an opportunity and that's what the world does it takes whatever they can to make it an opportunity for them and we'll take a look at that opportunity this morning but you can see it's continuing to expand and expand and expand further out and further out uh it goes so let's um you know what I didn't I left quickly this morning and I didn't bring my Bible of all things to forget on a Sunday morning you forget your Bible I

mean everything is going to be on the slides anyway but turn to John chapter 6 and we'll start our consideration of the feeding I I I wanted to call it just the feeding instead of the feeding parenthesis uh of the 5,000 and we'll get into why but I just thought the feeding sounded too much like uh Stephen King novel so I didn't think that was the best thing to call it but this is how it starts

out after these things Jesus Went Over the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of tiberias and a great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles we said it was the Miracles that they were following him for which he did on them that were diseased and so it starts out by saying after these things well of course those things are everything that takes place in John five everything we looked at for the last three or four uh classes uh the healing of the impotent man the the the uh confrontation with the Jews and so we talked about the fact that there's continuity this thing is building and building and building we certainly would expect continuity but even the words itself there don't forget this is there's continuity going on here there's things that are happening remember the beginning of John 5 it said after this specifically talking about the nobleman so that's always building upon it and of course it says after these things Jesus in other words Jesus is the one in charge of what's going on I know that's not surprising to us either but it's not like Jesus is just you know there and these things are happening he is literally controlling what's what's going on he can see these expanding things obviously and he knows what's go he knows specifically what going on so when we get to the feeding of the 5000 Jesus knows exactly what he's going to do why he's going to do it so so Jesus is in charge and it says after these things Jesus Went Over the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of

tiberias now why does it tell us that the SE of Galilee is called the Sea of tiberias it doesn't from from a standpoint of where Jesus is at this moment it offers us no new information right if this thing just said after these things Jesus Went Over the Sea of Galilee we would know exactly where Jesus was and exactly what he was doing and yet it adds in this piece which is the Sea of tiberias and this is the only one of of of well three places where tiberias is mentioned but only twice is the Sea of liberus

mentioned so what is being added by putting this in that is that which is called the Sea of sea of tiberias anybody have an idea of what's being added here why it mentions that it's also called The Sea of tiberious nobody else mentions it the only other time it's mentioned here is in John chapter 21 by the way remember when Jesus meets the disciples after he's been raised from the dead and he's going to have a meal with them and then he's going to send them out to preach right and and in the record in John 21 it says he met them by the Sea of tiberias so why is it mentioned why do they give us why does he give us basically two C's why does he give us two C's any

ideas going to be important to remember as we go through

yep I

don't I like

that compar to Luke 5 right when he said um they came to see the Mir done in Luke 5:1 it says they came to hear the word of God and so they're coming for a different intention and there instead of the SE thanks instead of the Sea of Galilee it says the lake of ganar correct which I don't know maybe there's something in that which is a third name right it actually has three names it's generally referred to as the Sea of Galilee but it's also called The Sea of tiberias here and then in uh Luke 5:1 it's called the lake of garet

here's why thank you for that here's why it's called the Sea of tiberias you got two Seas the Sea of Galilee the Sea of Tiberia same place but two different names one name is Hebrew the other name is

Greek what you're going to have with a feeding of 5000 is you're going to have a multitude you're going to have a sea of people that's what a multitude is it's a sea of people that's what sea represents it represents a multitude and that multitude is going to have Jews and is going to have Gentiles there's two groups of people in the multitude that we're going to look at there's Jews and there's Gentiles that's why it tells us it's the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of tiberias in other words this is going to be uh Jewish event and a gent and a gentile event well actually in the end it actually just turns out to be a faithful event we'll talk we'll talk about that but that's why it tells us there's two C's and that's going to play a point later on when we look at something else where we deal with something that has two different things so that's why it mentions that it's the Sea of tiberias because you have both Jews and Gentiles in the sea or the multitude that's about to come towards them uh on the mount on the hill and a great multitude followed him notice it doesn't say a great multitude of Jews it just says a great multitude that's because there's more than just Jews in this multitude and we'll explain why surely because they saw his miracles which he did on them that that were diseased in other words they came because of the Miracles they saw the Miracles and they said this is something right and so and so they come towards uh this multitude comes towards Jesus now notice what it says in the next verse that's coming up yes very good and Jesus went up onto a mountain and there he sat with his disciples and the passor over a feast of the Jews was nigh we'll talk about why it's the Passover what's the importance of the Passover but notice here a here's a picture generally speaking of what people believe where where it took place uh that word Mount can also mean Hill I don't think Jesus at this point when all the way up to the top left Mountain there whether this is is the place or not he obviously went up to the top of the hill I don't think he made 5,000 people Trek all the way up to a mountain uh the top of the highest mountain what he did is he went up in the top of the hill but notice this notice what it says there he sat with his

disciples the only thing that's going to take place is the multitude coming and the feeding of the mult and the feeding of the multitude and what all that represents and yet it says he went up to the hill and sat with his disciples this whole story of the feeding of the 5000 is not about the feeding of the 5000 we actually talked about this before remember he gives discourse after discourse and nobody's listening except the redeemed except the faithful he's talking to the multitude or or in this case the next day he's talking to the group that's there that represents the multitude but they're not hearing what he has to say and he's saying things like unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part of me we know exactly what that means they considered it hard hearing why because they weren't worship they weren't serving in sincerity therefore they couldn't see the spiritual application of them to them he was talking about cannibalism if he's talking about cannibalism that is really a hard teacher but of course that's not what he's talking about and remember what happens at the very end of the chapter what happens the last things that happens at the chapter well the second to last thing the last thing is he mentions that one of the 12 is a devil but the last thing that happens as far as the as far as everything is concerned is Peter saying to them where shall we go

you have the words of eternal life it's about the disciples that's what the whole story is really about it's really not the feeding of the 5,000 it's really the feeding of the 12 or the feeding of the

144,000 because the feeding of the 5,000 is just a meal that's what Jesus literally says to them you just you just got coming to me because you got fed you're not coming to me because of the sign because of what it means that you were fed you're seeing opport unity in the fact that I have the ability to do this that's what he means when he says that so it's really about the 12 this whole story right from the beginning is really about the 12 so keep that in mind as as we move

forward uh and they were told that this uh event took place at the time of the Passover right because the Passover was nigh and their way up right up in the north and this takes place at the time of the Passover did did we look at that map did I show a map in the previous one I did sorry about that just quickly you can see they don't really know specifically where where it took place they believe it took place in the place that they showed but notice the map there they have the feeding of the 5,000 on this map down to the right that's the Sea of Galilee uh bethor is up top Capernaum a little bit to the left ganess it's over there thank you very much uh tiberias is a city or a town as well as the SE of Tiberius and so that's sort of the the layout of uh where things take take

place and again it mentions that uh they're up there but the Passover is not so why do they mention why does it mention that it's a Passover what's the purpose of this when it comes to the fact that it's a Passover and the reason is

this because the Passover and this is again a repeating theme that we we run into again and again and

again the Passover is about passing over judgment that's what the Passover is about right the original Passover that takes place in Egypt God is going to pass judgment on the Egyptians but he's going to pass over judgment on the Jews right on those that put the door on the lentil post right well let's look at it this is what it says in Exodus 12: 12- 13 it says this and this is important to understand what's being emphasized

here it says for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and I will Smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both men and beasts and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment I am the Lord he is going to execute judgment on Jesus he has the right to do it he is the god he is the Creator and sustainer of all things and he's going to pass judgment on Egypt and everything that Egypt represents that night right he's going to kill the fir he's going to kill the first born but he but it's not about

smiting it's about judgment you say well what's the difference the difference is this what's your motivation for putting the blood on the lentil are you putting the blood on the lentil to P have judgment passed over are you putting the blood on the lentil so that you don't get

Smit right there's there two possibilities so look what it

says and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are when I see the blood I will pass over you and the plague shall shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt I will pass over you when I see the blood now we know what the blood is right the blood is from a lamb of the first year without blemish or without spot we know the blood is Christ's sacrifice that's that we can worship in spirit and Truth we can see it right but if you put that blood on the

door what this is saying notice it says notice it says shall be a token be for you a token it's not a token from you it's a token for

you and what's the token represent well the token is the same thing as a sign it's a miracle and a miracle takes place because they don't die right but it's also a token and I'm not changing the meaning of the word it's all part of what the word means it's a pledge that's what a token is it's a pledge and God is making a pledge to the people that if you put that blood on the lentil I will not pass judgment on

you now why did the Jews who we know rejected God

why did the Jews put the blood on the

lentil because they didn't want to die that's why they put the blood on the ltil they want to get Smit I don't get me wrong I I would do the same right well if you put this blood on I'm going to kill all the firstborn but I'm I won't kill you if you put the blood on that's not what this says but that's what they did but that's not what this says what this says what the law is teach teaching is if you if you kill that lamb and you put that blood on there it's all about the blood right I will pass over judgment upon you if you believe in Jesus if you believe that that lamb and that blood represents your

sins that's what it means then I will pass over judgment it's not about passing over smiting yes they're they're saving themselves from getting killed but that's not that's not what the motivation is supposed to be it's the same with the sacrifice of Christ the sacrifice of Christ is not supposed to be payment for our

sins it is what that sacrifice represents that's why we we eat of the Bread and Wine every single every single day to remember that God has passed over judgment upon us through

Christ see the difference one is about what God has done and what God is doing and who the God is about and the other thing is about protecting my

hide and that's the difference remember we talked about that last week with the Jews all they're really trying to do is protect their protect their High they're not looking at the father to recognize what the father really represents and again and again and again for the faithful this is what the father represents one who passes over judgment a god of love a God of kindness a god of Mercy a god of

faithfulness so once again it's right there it's right there in the law and notice it says uh upon the houses where you are that's another repeated theme again and again and again and it is this there's nothing for you to do other than let this happen just like stand still and and see the salvation of the Lord with Moses at the at the party of the Red Sea right you don't have to do anything you just stay in your house you got to put the blood on you got to believe in you got to believe in the in the sacrificial

lamb all you have to do is stay in your house and you will not be judged so who's going to see that if this is what part of what's going on with the feeding of the 5,000 who's going to see it but the faithful the others aren't going to see it they're going to see the miracle and say this guy should be king we're going to take this guy and make him King whether he wants to be whether whether he wants to be king or not and then we'll talk about who also has that feeling as well any questions or anything else as we as we continue all

right I I have this picture this is some artistic rendition of the feeding of the 5,000 I have this picture on my uh computer at work on my um on my screen saver I have a whole list of of uh Bible pictures on I think I've mentioned it before of Bible pictures on my screen saver when I when I have a moment of time where I I want to let my mind wander I'll pop up one of these pictures and I like I like I truthfully I like this picture um it's not a good representation of the feeding of 5,000 for a number of different reasons but I do like I do like the picture at least everybody's sitting down right uh and it's on the side of a hill which is where the feeding of the 5,000 takes um not a lot of grass and every in every account it always talks about the fact that there's a lot of grass there you know green grass there's not a lot of grass there but the the reason why I want to point this picture is if you look close and maybe I have too much spare time I don't know but if you look close there's multiple multiple people passing out Bread and Wine there's people up here on Upp left yeah let me hop up for one second sorry Phil this is uh this is Jesus up here by the way you can see the guy in white up there he's passing out the bread and the fish you got people passing here you got people passing here people passing here if you count them it's about about 30 or 40 people just in this scene alone and if you really have time at work and and you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing you also know that that's about 200 people uh in this picture it's a it's a rough estimate because there's a lot of small heads but it's about 200 people so if you are actually feeding the 5,000 which of course is just the men right so you have the women and the children so you're probably closer to 10,000 you need this scene taking place about 40 times over uh in order for this to be true and like I say you've got about 15 or 20 people uh passing passing the bread and the and the fish but it's very very specific both that it's always grass and etc etc and that it's the 12 that pass and it's the 12 that clean up it's not everybody else is told to do

what everybody else is told to sit down that ring a bell we just saw it in Exodus we saw it at the part of the red see this is going to happen there's nothing for you to

do that's what salvation

is Right stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord and you're going to have it happen again right here with the feeding of the 5,000 all they do is sit down and they're fed now whether or not they recognize what they're being fed for that's that's a different deal but when they sit down and they're fed they don't they don't serve they don't clean up they are being fed willingly without any that's what the sacrifice of Christ is that's what we recognize about the sacrifice of Christ it's not about us it wasn't something yes we were Sinners but there wasn't something for us to do or something for anybody to do for that for that to take place Jesus was in charge of being crucified him and his him and his

father I know it's being picky that there's no grass in the picture but I I do actually like the picture it says now it says this

when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw the great multitude come onto him he saith unto Philip When shall we buy bread that these may eat and this he said to prove him for he himself knew what he would do again he's in charge of everything that's taking place and so it we pointed out he sits down with the 12 it's about it's about the disciples but the first thing that happens right away is Jesus sees this multitude coming towards and just so you know we're going to stay in John's gospel if you have ideas from other gospels that's perfectly fine but what we're trying to follow is how John repesents what's going on with the feeding of the 5,000 what he's presenting it's still just as true but he's being very specific about what he presents and how we know in other Gospels it says that they come to Jesus and said what are we going to do about this in this case it is Jesus seeing the people coming and he turns to philli and and he says how are we going to feed how are we going to what what does he say specifically whence shall we buy bread that these may eat so so first question is why does he go to

Phillip right well Philip is one of the disciples right but why does he go to philli well he goes to philli because if you look back at the map the closest town to where they are is Beth seder and that's where Philip's from so if anybody would know where to buy bread from it would be Phillip but Philip says

we we don't have enough money we we couldn't have enough money to buy enough bread to feed this many people there's no way we could do it and of course the answer is that's correct there's no way you can do it because this is not oh Jesus is going to physically feed feed them for

sure but he's going to feed them through a miracle through a

sign that teaches the lesson of what the bread represents when he gets into his discourse It's All About The Bread and it's all about one other thing and we'll talk about that as well but why does he say it to Phillip he says to prove him he says it to Philip to prove him in other words Phillip have you gotten the message yet do you know what this is all about yet notice he's saying it to the disciple have you got the message yet do you know what's going on here do you know what this all is and Philip doesn't know what it all is so Philip as one of the disciples has to learn learn what this is all

about right and what is this all about everlasting life because you have the words of eternal life that's what this feeding of the 5000 is all about we'll look at it a little bit more that these May because he knew what he was going to do he knew what was going on he knew what the multitude represented he knew what he was going to do he knew the message he was going to teach he knew he was who he was going to teach it to

Jesus is controlling the entire event by the way the feeding of 5,000 people when we talk about this the disciples you know many of you know I ran functions for years and years and years that's a big event a lot of 5,000 people or 10,000 or whatever you want to call it doesn't matter it's a lot of people and and for 12 people to pass out bread to to 5,000 people that's a pretty big event this is a really big event and of course it's a big event as well because a miracle takes place and everybody sees the miracle everybody knows there's not a chance that anybody has enough Fe food to feed all of us and yet they all get fed for as much as they want to eat everybody sees it everybody so this is a big event with 12 guys one guy serving you know you you would for 5,000 people you'd need about 50 chefs one guy

one of his disciples said unto him there is a lad here which hath five barley Loaves and two small fishes but what are they among so many and Jesus said make the men sit down there it is again and there was much grass in the place so the men sat down you think that's an important point of course it is it's a free will offering that's what the sacrifice of Christ

is in the number about 5,000 so the first question I ask when I see this is is where do the lad come from he's just sort of there right with Five Loaves and two fishes by the way I don't have the answer to that question I have a suggestion and I'm going to present it to you simply as a suggestion I have no backing for this this is what I like to refer to as a Harry Whitaker suggestion if you've ever read Harry Harry loves to make love to make suggestions where you kind of sometimes you go that's incredible I would have never seen that and sometimes you'll go I'm not so sure about that one

I'm going to give you one of those I love Harry I love reading his writings this is who I think the lad is again it is just my own romanticized opinion of who the lad is I think the lad is the nobleman's son he was either sent by the nobleman or he came himself to bring a free will offering to the guy that had saved his life we're not far we don't have the map anymore but we're not far from Capernaum the nobleman has never repaid but but as we point out it wasn't never about repayment but he's never done anything this Jesus has never seen the son that we know of and I think that's who the lad is again it's just a suggestion because I don't have a better one but it would be a beautiful thing if Jesus now saw the child that he raised from the dead and now the lad is there and he's brought a meal probably he's thinking or the the nobleman's thinking for Jesus and whoever his disciples he's not planning to feed 5,000 people with Five Loaves and two fishes

but I think that's who the lad is just again just my

suggestion and he has Five Loaves and two fishes why why is that what he has he has Five Loaves and two fishes well that's first of all that's seven items if if my math is correct I believe that's seven seven is the number of spiritual completeness there is going to be a spiritually complete event that takes takes place at the feeding of the 5000 and that spiritual event is the disciples recognizing that it's really all about eternal life and that eternal life is only possible through the bread of life which is the Lord Jesus Christ that's a message they have to learn and they learn it in this event so this is a spiritually complete message that's why it's seven seven items why is it Five Loaves and we'll talk about why it's barley in just a minute because that's even more interesting but why is it Five Loaves well in in difference to my my dear brother David who does not believe that five is the number of Grace five is the number of Grace this is going to be an act of Grace upon the 12 now why do I say it's an act of Grace upon the 12 because it's an act of kindness upon 5,000 plus right this is he's feeding them for free $5,000 you know what that would cost at like a function to have five even if all you were serving was bread and fish it' cost about

$400,000 by my math having done functions and events and I'm not offering a

salad about $400,000 this is free but it's but but it's an event uh of Grace for the 12 because remember what Grace is Grace is the kindness of God and the effect of that kindness upon the believer that's the transformation that we're all seeking Grace is transformation

and this is going to be an act of Grace upon the 12 it's an act of kindness upon 5,000 but it's an act of Grace upon the 12 and of course it's bread because in the discourse that Jesus gives It's All About The Bread he is the bread he is the

feeding so why is it two fish before we talk about why it's barley why is it two fish any ideas given what we've already talked about why there's two fish

CU I didn't know why there was two fish until I thought about the fact that there was two separate multitudes the two fish represents the Jews and the Gentiles that's what the two fish are he's going to feed both with both the fish he's going to feed the two fish now how do we know that that's that's what that represents here's how we know what that represents because when you get to the end of the feeding and they C they collect 12 baskets of remnants there's no fish there's only bread now why would that be that there would be no

fish because in the body of Christ is neither Jew nor Greek there's neither Bond nor free there's neither male nor female We Are All One in Christ Jesus that's what this represents there's no remnant of f there's remnants of bread because the word of God isn't gone right there's plenty bread left over even after the feeding of the 5,000 there's 12 baskets of bread left over but there's no fish because the fish don't exist

anymore because when we partake of this bread in in wine on a Sunday morning there's no fish there's no there's no Jews there's no Gentiles are all one so the fish are gone so that's what the fish represents why is it barley this is really

interesting in Leviticus 23:10 does that pop up it did it says

this when you get into the land Moses uh the Lord is speaking he when you get into the land and you and you have your your you're established it says you shall bring a sheath of the first fruits of your Harvest onto the priest and he shall save the sheath before the Lord to be accepted for you on the tomorrow after the Sabbath a priest shall wave it Leviticus 23: 10 and 11 what time we got 1010 oh we got plenty of time I'm not presiding today

what's going on here the first fruits that are waved is the barley that's the first fruits it's barley every first day of the week once you get established in the land every first day of the week in the morning you're going to wave The Barley loaf as a recognition that you know what the barley represents

now what happens on the first day of the week early in the

morning there's really only one event

chrises Jesus is raised from the dead exactly correct that's why it's a barley loaf because this whole thing is about Resurrection that's what it's all about Resurrection onto eternal life that's what all this is about that's what the feeding represents that's who's there that's who believes that's what this is about this is all about Resurrection that's why it's a barley loaf because Jesus is raised from the dead because this isn't about in the in the case of of this feeding of the 5,000 this isn't about the Passover as far as the Passover being the sacrifice being killed the blood is already on the lentil this is about resurrection and when we come here on a Sunday morning we remember the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and then we remember his resurrection and all this represents the new life that we're offered that's what this is about thank you uh

Chris and Jesus Took the Loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would what is it that he does with the what is it that he doesn't do with the loaves here

and Jesus Took the Loaves and when he had given thanks what doesn't he do he don't break them right every Sunday morning we read it again and again and again he takes the he he took the bread and he break it why because it represents his death right the flesh being broken that's what it represents the bread's not broken here because this doesn't represent death this represents Resurrection so the bread's not broken now was the bread obviously broken of course it was I mean I mean you got 12 baskets of fragments of bread you don't get 12 baskets of frag of full breads this is 12 baskets of fragments but the specifically John doesn't break the bread because this is not about sacrifice this is about

Resurrection the entire discourse that Jesus talks about after this is all about Resurrection it's all about everlasting life that's the message that's being taught to the disciples I've got to go quickly but take just take a look at some of them really fast they says this is how much this is about resurrection and how much this is about eternal life look at how many verses in Jesus's discourse verse 27 he's talking to the to to uh the people now the multitude labor not for the meat which perisheth but that meat which endureth unto everlasting life they were all about to meet the perishes they were all about what they could get out of out of this miracle which we'll talk about in just a second verse 35 I am the bread of life he that cometh after me shall never hunger verse 39 all of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day Resurrection verse 40 everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up on the last day Resurrection verse 47 verily verily I say unto you that he that believeth on me hath everlasting life verse 48 I am the bread of life verse 50 this is the bread which came down from heaven that a man eat thereof and not die verse 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven If any man eat of this blad he shall live forever verse 54 whoo eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath Everlast has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day verse 50 you think it's you think he's uh pushing a point verse 58 this is the bread which came down from heaven not as your fathers did eat mana and are dead he that eateth this bread shall live

forever verse 6 68 Peter's response then Simon Peter answered Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life it's teaching the lesson of Resurrection teaching the lesson of everlasting life and they still need to learn it and I'll show you why we going to have to go really fast now and Jesus Took the lo oh I already said that oh oh la picked up again and he tells them to sit down uh and it is the disciples that serve and it is disciples that clean up because it's all about the disciples and then it goes on and says

this then those men when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did said this is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world those men who are those men that saw this miracle and recognized that this represents Moses that these people were still multitude you know there there are still many many Jews there right and it says those men that recognized that this miracle was a reflection of Moses in the wilderness why is it a reflection of Moses in the wilderness because Moses gave him the Mana did Moses really give him the Mana no God didn't Jesus says that in the discourse but in their mind this is a reflection of that Prophet because that Prophet was going to be like Moses right and Moses gave us bread in the wilderness and this guy gave us bread on the bread on the hill and it says those men that saw this who are those

men I got to go quickly so I'm not going to wait for an answer you're going to say 5,000 that's incorrect but it's close you're very close it's not 5,000 it's

5,012 about 5,000 and 12 that's the men that saw this miracle and recognized it's the 12 as well and that's really important understand for what takes place right after that that it's not just the 5,000 that see it it's the 5,000 and the 12 they all saw it they all saw the miracle they all recognized that this is just like what Moses did in the wilderness this must be the prophet that's going to come that's going to be about that's going to be like Moses they all saw it including the including the 12 and look what

happens this is what it says in Deuteronomy om this is the this is the prophet the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee and thy Brethren like unto me like unto Moses unto him ye shall

hearken who is that speaking to unto him you shall hearken it's got to be speaking to somebody and now the prophet has come that's like unto Moses and

5,012 people hear it how many of them hearkened onto it it's got to be speaking to somebody it is the Prophet this is how you know it's also including the 12 because the 5,000 didn't hearken they didn't hear it they reject Jesus only the 12 listen that's exactly who this verse is speaking to but it's

5,12 that recognize that he's that Prophet so look what

happens when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by Force to make him a king he departed onto a mountain himself

alone so when it says when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force who's he talking about and I always thought he was talking about the 5,000 right because when you look at some of the other accounts he rushes the disciples into the boat we're not looking at the other accounts we're looking at this what does he do he leaves all

5,000 and 12 and goes onto a mountain alone remember he comes up to the Mount at the beginning with the 12 sits down with the 12 and now he goes up to the mountain the picture's gone up to the top of that other mountain right and he goes alone he leaves the 12 behind because the 12 are part of the 5,2 that want to take him by force and drive him to Jerusalem and force him to be king because there's an incredible opportunity here and a amazing event has taken place everybody has seen it and everybody went what could we do with this including the

12 the 12 were just as overwhelmed as everybody else and that that that multitude that sea of people in like a wave like the stirring up of the waters a wave we can do so much with this and if he's not willing to do it we're going to force him to do it because this is exactly what we

need and when Jesus recognized that that was their response he goes up to the mountain alone and leaves all 5,000 and all 12 by

themselves because he has no intention not because he's going to go to the mountain but because there's still a message to be Tau and that message is still going to be for the 12 he leaves them alone and then this happens

and when the even was now come it's night right it's night we've looked at night a few times and now we're talking about the 12 getting in the boat and it's evening time they're in the darkness that's what it's telling us and it says it twice his disciples went down onto the sea and entered into a ship and went over the sea toward Capernaum and it was now

dark they're in the darkness this is what's going on

Jesus leaves them all

alone and now the twel are just like the noblemen now they've got something to deal with themselves because they have been just as duplicitous in the idea of forcing Jesus to Jerusalem as everybody else and now they're by themselves and now they have to think about what that represents they have abandoned Jesus or at least his purpose by now saying we should take this guy by the way the the 5,000 could have never pulled off grabbing him and dragging him to Jerusalem without the help of the 12 because there would be no organization to do it they need the

12 and the TW got swept up in that multitude swept up in that roaring sea we're going to take him to Jerusalem we're going to make him King and they got caught up in it and now they're by themselves in a boat by themselves and now they have something to to deal with and that is the Judgment of

Christ now that we've left him and he's left us and we're

alone how are we going to deal with this what does this say about us what's going to happen and this is what

happens and the Sea arose by reason of a great wind that

blew right there is the stirring up of the waters we've seen it before we've seen it again the waters get all stirred up they're all stirred up these people are petrified these 12 are petrified they don't know where they stand anymore the sea is churning everything is falling apart all around

them so when they had rode about five and 20 furlongs they see Jesus walking on the sea doesn't say a ghost and a spirit I know that's what it talks about now this is John they see Jesus walking and drawing nine onto them and they were

afraid why if they saw

Jesus why were they

afraid because they didn't know what Jesus was

coming they didn't know if the Jesus that was coming was going to pass judgment on them by having abandoned him with the multitude and what

happens but he said unto them it is I Be not Afraid in other words you got got nothing to fear you know who I am they're caught up in their fears because they have sinned just like we all get caught up in our fears when we sin and here comes Jesus and the and the waves are roaring and everything's a messing he's just walking calmly along the water that's the Jesus that we believe in who in those times when we're dealing with our fears when we're petrified because of our sin if you don't know that feeling you are the most blessed human being in the world because we all know

it Jesus says you got nothing to be afraid of I'm not here to judge your sins I'm here to save your life and look what it says then they

willingly received him into the ship of course they did they willingly received him you know who I am and that's just what we have to do in those times when we're inter Waters well we don't know if God's about to drop that other shoe we have to willingly Let Jesus into our ship willingly receive Jesus that incredible forgiveness that we received because of his sacrifice and it says and immediately the ship was at was at the land with they went that's just what happens to us brothers and

sisters when we Let Jesus into our ship when the the Waters of trouble because of our own

sin Jesus will take us to the other side and the other side is everlasting life we receive everlasting

life because God Is Passing Over judgment upon us because we believe in Jesus we know there's nothing else we know that's all there is and here are the disciples and they learning this message and Jesus speaks to the to the to the multitude the next day and it's all about eternal life it's all about letting go of your own sins and putting your faith in the father and at the end of it when everybody else abandons him because it's too

hard the 12 says where do we go you have the words of eternal life that's just what we're saying where do we go we have no place else to go

and so it's not the feeding of the

5,000 it's the feeding of the 12 or the 144,000 it's the feeding of you and I because we're the ones that are going to hear the message because we seek in sincerity to worship the father in spirit and Truth