John 6:1-15 (adapted from KJV)

This chapter opens with Jesus crossing to the other shore on the Sea of Galilee. Probably a distance of about four miles. The region around the northern end of the Sea of Galilee is hilly but even so, we find in verse 2 that a great crowd was following Jesus.

This passage is silent as to whether Jesus walked around the top of the lake, or if one of his disciples supplied a boat for the trip. If he were on the water making the crossing, he would still have been in view of a crowd that may have been walking around the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus then went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. Then here comes the crowds. They had heard all about Jesus' miraculous healings.

(In case you were wondering just which of the three feasts were about to take place that would prompt Jesus to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, we get our answer in verse 4: ...the Jewish Passover Feast was near.)

Jesus saw the crowds. He figured they'd probably be hungry so he asked Phillip, "Where are we going to buy bread and fish for these people to eat?" (verse 5)

Truth is, Jesus already knew what he was about to do, according to verse 6. He just wanted to see what Phillip's response would be. Like a test.

Then Andrew offered this solution: He said a little boy offered to give them five barley loaves and two small fish. Andrew thought they ought to see how far that would go. Now this was in response to what Phillip had just said about needing eight months wages to buy enough fish and bread for the crowd to get just one bite each.

There's an interesting point to be made here that we don't want to overlook. Jesus wasn't just trying to be a good host by making sure his guests got to eat. Rather, I think Jesus was ever-conscious of the physical needs of the crowds.

Satisfying these physical needs paved the way for an analogy that might be used later on about Jesus' supplying everything needful, including earth-food and, more importantly, heavenly food. Jesus wanted the crowds to view him as the supplier of both.

So we've got these two little fishes. They could have been musht, a fish that's native to the Sea of Galilee. It grows to be about two pounds -- about the same size as a trout or a bass. The musht is also known by the name of Tilapia, a delicious fresh water fish that's enjoyed by millions around the world today. (It's also known as St. Peter's fish nowadays.)

So let's call the two fishes Tilapia and figure they weighed about two pounds. They'd need more than a 10,000 pounds of Tilapia to feed 5,000 people, assuming that people were limited to just one fish per person. Where in the world would they get five tons of Tilapia on such short notice?

And if they ended up close to the port village of Ramot, can you imagine getting that order for loaves of bread phoned in? Let's say one fish and two little round loaves of bread per person. That would be 10,000 loaves of bread. Even a commercial bakery couldn't deliver that kind of an order.

But then, there was Jesus. If the crowds were impressed by Jesus healing a couple of sick people, can you just imagine the surprise that was waiting for them?
 
So Jesus had his disciples find a comfortable spot to sit down. There was grass in this area. Maybe even some shade.

Then Jesus blessed the bread and fishes and had his disciples start to distribute them to the people. And get this, in verse 11, we learn that everybody could have as much as they wanted. So they weren't limited to just a little 2-pound fish.

But that's not the end of this story. After everybody got their tummies filled, Jesus told his disciples to go around and collect all the food that was left over, being sure not to waste any of the food.

Do you think there could possibly be any leftovers? And what started out as a measly little couple of fishes and five loaves of bread, they now had twelve big baskets filled with leftovers.

Now the crowd was buzzing. They started talking among themselves that this man was surely the prophet that had been promised down through the ages.

But Jesus, knowing what was in their hearts and minds, figured they were going to force him to be their king even if they had to do it by force. Kind of like what we would call a ""Draft Jesus" in our day and age.

But this wasn't what Jesus was sent to earth for. So he left them sitting there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and went off by himself. He wouldn't have had to go far to get into wilderness area so that he could meditate and commune with his Father either.

John 5:31-47 (adapted from KJV)

The second half of this sermon seems -- at least to me -- that Jesus is talking to the multitudes about their crisis of faith.

They ought to be listening to him. They ought to realize that God had endorsed Jesus as his only Son.

Jesus wondered out loud in verse 37 whether or not the crowds believed God when he spoke out about Jesus being his Son. Remember Jesus at his baptism when the voice of the Father said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased? Matthew 3:17.

Even so, the crowds were not easily convinced -- even by Jesus. Jesus must have thought they were too wrapped up in Old Testament stories to believe that he had, indeed, come from his Heavenly Father. So Jesus goes back to the Old Testament times to help build a bridge in between his sermon and the thinking of the crowds when he reminds them that Moses had even written about Jesus. But if they weren't going to believe Moses and if they weren't going to believe God, then Jesus said they didn't have the love of God in their hearts.

Given that, Jesus chides them for studying the Scriptures and not coming to him for eternal life. After all, the Scriptures testify about Jesus and there he was standing in front of them and they still didn't believe he was who he said he was.

Okay then, Jesus says to them in verse 40, you are refusing to come to me for eternal life. 

Remember that only a few verses ago, Jesus told the crowd that he had been given the authority under heaven to make judgments about the people on earth. But Jesus said he wasn't going to be their accuser (in verse 45) Instead, Moses would be their accuser if they were setting all their hopes on Moses.

Moses wrote this about Jesus (from The Jerusalem Bible): 

Genesis 49:10 -- The scepter shall not pass from Judah, nor the mace from between his feet, until he come to whom it belongs, to whom the peoples shall render obedience.

Exodus 12:21 -- (about the Passover) -- Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and choose animals from the flock on behalf of your families, and kill the Passover victim.

Leviticus 16:5 -- He is to receive two goats for a sacrifice for sin and a ram for a holocaust from the community of the sons of Israel.

Numbers 24:17 -- I see him -- but not in the present, I behold him -- but not close at hand: a star from Jacob takes the leadership, a scepter arises from Israel. It crushes the brows of Moab -- the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.

Deuteronomy 17:15 -- I will appoint a king over me like all the surrounding nations. It must be a king of Yahweh's choosing whom you appoint over you; it must be one from among your brothers that is appointed king over you; you are not to give yourself a foreign king who is no brother of yours.

It's not a coincidence that Jesus preached this sermon about the importance of the Passover and the sacrifices that Moses admonished. After all, in 1 Corinthians 5:7, ...Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed ...

Jesus ends his sermon to the crowds with the note that if they weren't going to believe what Moses said, they wouldn't believe him either.

But you can be sure that he gave them a lot to think about for they returned to their homes. No doubt there were many discussions about this man who preached on the hillsides.

Maybe he really was the Son of God.

Maybe we ought to search him out and hear more from this man from Galilee.

Maybe maybe maybe. And then maybe became too late.

The crowds and multitudes that followed Jesus from place to place toyed with the idea that perhaps he might be the Son of God.

But we know different and yet there are those who still toy with their faith lives and faith practices. They live out their lives as if there would always be time to accept Jesus as Lord. They live out their lives under the assumption that there will always be a time to make a course correction, as if they will be conscious during their last moments of breath.

Better to reckon with all that now while we still have our wits about us and we can make the choice to bring Jesus into our hearts and dedicate our lives to this simple Godly truth.

It is through Jesus and only through Jesus that we will ever know life eternal.

Even -- and especially -- if Oprah makes the claim that there are "many ways" to get to heaven. Oh no there isn't. There is only one way and that way is through Jesus Christ.

John 5:19-30 (adapted from KJV)

The rest of this chapter is a sermon from Jesus. And it has a wealth of thought for all of us as believers in Christ.

For instance, Jesus defines an interdependent relationship between him and his heavenly father. In verse 19, Jesus says he doesn't do anything by himself. That's an important distinction. Jesus wasn't walking up and down the length of the countryside doing whatever pleased him.

Oh no. He was well aware of his allegiance to his father. And he was also more than aware of his limitations. He knew, in his own words in verse 19, that whatever his father did, he would do.

Clear enough so far.

Now comes a deeper moment in Jesus' thinking. In verse 20, Jesus says that his father shows Jesus all that he does. And wonder of wonders, the father would even show the people in the crowds that had gathered that Jesus would be doing even greater things.

And what is the one thing that God, and only God, can do that no other miracle worker or prophet of old could do? And believe me, these prophets back in the Old Testament could do some mighty things, with God's help.

But there was one thing that God has reserved for himself alone and that is bestowing the gift of life, and specifically raising a dead person back to life.

No matter how many times we watch the movie Frankenstein, it remains a mystery as to how life miraculously flows from God's hands to ignite life within a human being. And Jesus does what the father does.

But now listen to what Jesus says in verse 22. Jesus tells the crowds that the father doesn't judge them. Judgment is something that Jesus does. Did you think that it was God the Father waiting at the Pearly Gates who would judge you and decide whether you get into heaven or not?

Not so. Not according to John 5:22.

So if you've been worried about whether God the Father was going to keep you out of heaven and that his son, Jesus, was some minor character in the heavenly drama of who gets eternal life or not, think again. It's Jesus who decides what judgment befalls you.

The Bible says so. And Jesus shares this vital truth with the multitudes who had gathered to hear him. In verse 23, John says that if you want to honor the Father, you'd better honor the Son, because it's this Son -- Jesus Christ -- who requires that each of us believe what he has to say. If you don't believe Jesus, then you don't honor him. And if you don't honor Jesus, you dishonor the Father who sent him.

End of discussion.

Then Jesus tells the crowd that the time has come when the dead will raise up from their graves when he calls them forth. The dead will hear Jesus' voice. And the people who are dead and hear Jesus' voice will live because they recognized him as the Savior.

Life is a gift. Life is in the Father. We need to understand this against the history of the Old Testament because God the Father has given this gift-giving life to the Son also. You see, in the Old Testament, the gift of life came from God the Father. That did not change when Jesus was born because the Father gave his Son this gift-giving life also.

Now, there is a key passage in this sermon that may seem contradictory to you. That is, in verse 28, Jesus says that the people who come from their graves will be given life if they have done good. Some of you, perhaps contrarians, will think, "Aha, I thought you said we are given life through God's grace."

And that's a true statement too, because if we are believers in Christ, we take in all his goodness. He erases the sins from our hearts through his death on the cross and we do good because we become redeemed by Christ's blood.

Those who do evil things, who bear rotten fruit as James would say, will rise up from their graves as condemned persons who suffer the judgment of Jesus Christ. But in verse 30 Jesus again points to the interdependence with his Father when he says that by himself he can do nothing, but he makes his judgments to please his Father. And he closes this part of the sermon by saying that his judgments are just because his Father makes them so.

It is through Divine origin, then, that all good things come to life within us. And we need to pray for the protection of that good life within us daily. It's that divine grace that brings to us the only way we can live a life of faith in the Son of God.

Our temperament and personality and services here on earth follow out of that divine faith and belief in Jesus. It is his voice that we always want to listen for. It whispers to us in the still, quiet soul that lives within us.

It is Jesus who wants to hear from us each night before we go to bed. It is Jesus who washes our sins away every day as we sleep.

John 5:1-17(adapted from KJV)

With these early verses in Chapter 5, we read about some timing. To scholars, this is important because we want to place a time span on the length of Jesus' ministry.

Verse 1 says that Jesus went to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.

These festivals were Passover, Pentecost or the Feast of Tabernacles. John mentions the Passover in 2:13, 23; 6:4; and the third time is mentioned more than once: in 11:55 and 12:1. The point is, if there were three Passovers, then we could say that Jesus' ministry lasted three years. But if this feast in 5:1 is a Passover feast, then that would extend Jesus' ministry to four years.

These three feasts were known as pilgrimage feasts and Jewish males were expected to make these pilgrimages.

So this is why Jesus was hurrying through Samaria on his pilgramage to Jerusalem.

When he arrived at Jerusalem, he went over to the Sheep Gate, which is also known as Bethzatha in Hebrew, or Bethesda in Aramaic. This was an important gate. And if it had five porticoes, it must have been big.

What was exciting about Bethesda is that the angel of the Lord come to the pool and stir the water. Then, the first person who got into the water would be healed. It didn't matter whether the person had been blind from birth, was crippled, or paralyzed. The important thing was to get into the water as soon as the angel had stirred the waters.

So now here is Jesus. And here is a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

Jesus knew this. It was a kind of little secret that they shared for that moment in time.

Jesus walked over to the man and asked him why he didn't get into the pool and be healed. "Don't you want to get well," Jesus asked him.

Well, of course the man wanted desperately to be healed. So he told Jesus that. And then he added, "But I don't have anybody to help me into the pool."

Jesus had a better cure for this man than anything the angel of the Lord could have done for him. All Jesus had to do was say, "Get up and walk, then."

Well, okay then. The guy got up, rolled up his mat and walked away! Just like that.

All's well that ends well, right?

Not so. There was troublemakers hanging around. It almost seems like they were just waiting to catch Jesus doing something. Anything.

Jesus hurried into the crowd. But this man didn't particularly know who had healed him. Later, Jesus ran into the man again. He must have still been carrying his mat because Jesus told him to stop sinning.

That was the rule -- no working on the Sabbath. Carrying his mat was a sin because it was considered toil. Not so much because the man was carrying his mat, but the rule was not to carry a load of any kind.

This wasn't one of Moses' laws. It was a Jewish interpretation of the law.

Now we don't know whether Jesus introduced himself or if the man learned who Jesus was from someone else, or if he figured that if Jesus told him to stop sinning, then Jesus must have been a Rabbi of some sort. And there was word around town that Jesus was a Rabbi.

The man went and told the Jews who had healed him. Then, in verse 16, we read that the Jews began persecuting Jesus. We don't know what they did to persecute Jesus at that point but they could have done a lot of things to make a complete nuisance out of themselves.

Jesus even reminded them that his Father continued to work all the time even on the Sabbath, and Jesus said, "I work too."

And we'll see in our continuing lessons how the murderous plots against Jesus began.

John 4:27-54 (adapted from King James Version)

Jesus was still talking with the Samarian woman when his disciples returned with food for them to eat. The woman left and headed back to the town she had come from. In essence, she told the men, "You're just not going to believe who I ran into at the well."

They were curious, to say the least. "First of all, I met a man who was somehow able to tell me everything I've ever done. And I think he's the Christ that we've been waiting for."

They all hurried back to the well. These men really wanted to meet Jesus and see for themselves whether or not he was the promised Christ. When they all got back to the well, sure enough Jesus was still sitting there with his disciples.

The disciples, being the over-protective sorts, tried to get Jesus to eat. After all, they had travelled some distance to get to this point. And walking through the desert over the hill country wasn't the easiest thing to do. They weren't barefoot but sandals are the next step up from barefoot.

They certainly didn't have nice Nike walking shoes in those days. Or boots to keep the dust out. Jesus was tired. And he must have been hungry if he had sent his disciplines out to get some food.

So now they came back with food and they wanted him to eat something to keep his strength up.

But Jesus turned them down.

Well, that was a curious thing for Jesus to do. The disciples wondered if someone had brought Jesus something to eat while he was sitting there at the well.

"Oh no," Jesus said. "I have food you don't know about."

Well, that was a strange thing to say, they must have thought. And what food might that be?

Jesus told his disciples that his nourishment came from doing the will of his Father, and completing the job that God had sent him to do. That gave him all the sustenance he needed. Jesus said.

But then the Samaritans wanted to know if Jesus had a place to stay and since he didn't, it was settled. He'd stay with them as long as he wanted. Two days was the length of time Jesus that settled down for a rest. And while Jesus was among them, he talked and talked and told them things they needed to hear.

Many new believers joined with Jesus while he was in their little village. Then Jesus and his disciples were on their way. Headed off toward Galilee again.

They came to Cana. This is where Jesus went to the wedding feast and turned the water into wine, but the Apostle John doesn't spend as much time on the details as the other gospel writers do.

But John does tell us about the nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When this gentleman heard that Jesus was in the area, he hurried to see him, hoping that Jesus could heal his son who was at the point of death.

"Of course, I'll heal your son. It's because of these signs and miracles that I am able to bless you with that makes you believe my message. If you believe that I am able to heal your son, then your son will live."

So Jesus didn't actually need to go to the nobleman's son and see him lying in bed. All he had to do was look into the man's heart and see that wonderful miracle of faith and he knew then that the nobleman believed in him.

Then everybody in the nobleman's house also came to believe in Jesus.

And this was the second miracle that Jesus performed in his ministry here on earth.