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Jesus reveals his difference from us and his mastery over every event.

John 6:1-21. A study of applications.

Jesus walking on water

Jesus walks on water, by Ivan Aivazovsky(1888)

  1. Introduction.
    1. John 6 has four  sections. We will look at the first two.

i.      The Feeding of the 5,000

ii.      Walking on the Water

iii.      The Bread of Life discourse

iv.      The Departure of many disciples after Jesus’ hard teaching

  1. The accounts in John 6 differ from the accounts in the Synoptics in their focus seems to be both on the disciples and the reaction/ interaction they have with Jesus, while largely the focus in John is on what Christ says and does.

i.      The most obvious example is the inclusion of Peter’s request to walk on water that is covered (see Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, Luke doesn’t include the account, either).

ii.      John includes some information that the Synoptics did not include, and he leaves out some points of information that the Synoptics seemed interested in and focused on apart from what John was interested in especially, the Person and work of Christ.

  1. The Feeding of the 5,000
    1. The crowd was probably much larger than 5,000 because the women and children were not counted. It was custom to count the men, it was a convenience and simpler way of estimating the crowd size. The food miracle is defined as dealing with 5,000 men. The implication is clear that there were many more people there.
    2. The test of Philip (6:5–6).

i.      The account begins with the affirmation that “[Jesus] himself knew what he was going to do,” (see John 6:6).

ii.      The disciples appear to be stumped by the difficulties of feeding so many people

  1. The crisis was Jesus’ making. He led the crowd out to the region where there was no quick and accessible food supply, there was no easy relieve of the hungry people other than to send them home.
  2. One can sympathize with the disciples because this was not a common problem that they have dealt with before. It has the trappings of a catastrophe.
  3. The solution was to take the barley loaves and fishes from a small boy. Stealing from a child appeared to be the most promising solution.
  4. Applications
    1. The disciples are stumped, we are often stumped, too.
    2. Their answers to solve the difficulty appear to be small-minded, almost panicked.

i.      Their solutions did not take into account the capabilities of Jesus, though they had seen other miracles, amazing miracles at his hand. They didn’t seem to be able to apply what they had witnessed to the current situation. This is a common failing of the disciples.

  1. The test came at the direction and leadership of Christ. The people were there for a purpose. They need was one that Christ created. They difficult was his design. He did this for a greater display of his glory. To build up the faith of the disciples, and to provide for the need of the people.

i.      Jesus knew what he would do. He knew what he was doing. There is never a time with the Savior doesn’t know, understand, or think about what he is doing.

  1. Sin often strikes us when we do not reflect, think about, search the will of God in a trial or difficulty we are facing. Christ sought the will of his Father and he led the people to this deserted place so that the disciples could be tested and that his glory could be displayed.
  2. There is never a time when Christ does not know what he is doing. Nothing surprised him. Nothing is too great for his mighty power. Nothing overwhelms him. Nothing can defeat him, unless it is the Father’s will. Nothing.
  3. Practical: Trust his competency completely. He is worthy of all your trust.

ii.      The boy had barley loaves.

  1. This reminds us of 2 Kings 4:42-44 where Elijah is given 20 barley loaves to feed 100 men. The loaves were far too few to feed them all, but they proved to be sufficient and the miracle of Elijah was that all were fed aplenty.
  2. It seems clear that Jesus knew the story. A word from the LXX (Septuagint) from 2 Kings, describing the barley loaves, is the same word (a rather rare word, paidarion) that John uses. The other Gospels used another word (loaf) rather than the more specific and rarer term used in John 6.
  3. Seeing what Jesus did in feeding this great crowd ought to fill our prayers and petitions with hope and confidence about the One to whom we are praying. We must not complain about the great numbers, or the opposition, or the insoluble problems. God is capable of answering and of doing all he must and can.
  4. We must learn to pray for what only God can do and will do in the crisis of the moment.

iii.      The abundance of the miracle was in the 12 basket-fulls they had left over.

  1. From the Didache 9:4, “As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Thy Church be gathered together for from the ends of the earth into Thy Kingdom.” Noting that this is application (implications), not exegesis (meaning, context, and history).
  2. C.H. Dodd, “the pieces which are to be collected symbolize the bread which ‘abides’ and is not ‘lost’.” None is lost.
  3. The people responded by wanted to make Jesus the king.
    1. Jesus refused. He did not want to be an earthy king, his office and title was much greater than that of a human king.
    2. He was God in Human Flesh and Blood, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. It would have been the most grave of injustices to have merely placed him as the king of Israel, even king of Rome, yet alone as king of the world. He deserves more honor, infinite honor and glory is his, not early regal splendor, the splendor of heaven and Highest Heaven.
    3. He removed himself from that place and now acted to create an event that would show more of his glory. Walking of water was another of the signs, showing the disciples who he is (verse 19 shifts to the present tense, implying not only the imminence of the event in the apostle John’s mind, but the current capability of Christ, even at the time of writing, and in our day in the time of reading..

i.      He must have given instructions to the disciples to cross over the Sea of Galilee and to meet him on the other side. They immediately departed from the Eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee

  1. The Sea of Galilee was about 7 miles across. They were crossing East to West. When they reached the half-way mark (3 to 4 miles, “20 or 30 furlongs”). Jesus came up them walking on the water.

ii.      Walking on water was not a solution to a crisis. It was not necessitated by the illness of a person. He wasn’t walking on the water to facilitate a resurrection. It appears that he enjoyed walking on the water and that he desired to show his disciples more of his distinctions, more of the ways in which he was different from the disciples in his capabilities and works.

iii.      Turns out that the destination of the disciples was Jesus walking in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and not the far shore.

iv.      The account of Peter’s attempt to join Jesus is not included. Neither is the failure of the disciples to apply the “lesson of the loaves” in this situation. Their unbelief was not the focus, as it is in the Marcan account (Mark 6:45–51).

v.      The account ends with the enigmatic account of the boat being transported to the shore, “immediately the boat came to the land.” Cryptic language that conveys perhaps how much those who were in the boat understood. He didn’t explain how it occurred, simply that it did. The record of an eye-witness. And the implications are for the reader to make.

  1. Lessons from the miracle of Jesus Walking on the Water

i.      To see Jesus’ towering supremacy over all of creation.

ii.      To understand how different he is from the disciples. Still a man, but much, much more.

iii.      His leadership and foreknowledge. His perception of what the disciples needed to know and his ability to create experiences in which to teach, instruct, show, demonstrate, and reinforce lessons previously taught.

iv.      The matter of the “will of the Father” comes up through John. Here again, the will of the Father is direct or implied, 6:37, 40, 44, 45, 47. It seems to be absolutely essential to Jesus’ decisions (what do I do?), choices (what is best in this situation?), and personal obedience (how shall I live?), and his direction (which way to go?), and ultimate destiny (what is my purpose?).

v.      Practical: Christ creates situations in which we may not have a need, a sickness, or a crisis, but we need to know more of him. He directs us into an impossible situation, and there we must go because we know he is leading. But it seems to go nowhere. Do we trust him? Do we look for him? Do we believe that he is not limited by any measure, power, force, or spirit, to do what the Father wants him to do? And that he can be trusted completely even in the midst of the Sea, when we are not making headway, and our destination seems impossible.

  1. Jesus demonstrates in his signs his identity as the Son of God. No one can do the things that he is capable of. Nothing is impossible for him.
  2. Again, his distinction from other humans.
  3. Again, his mastery over all creation.
  4. His independency and his quest for joy in exercising his prerogatives as God/Man, walking on the water just for the fun of it; a delight to give the disciples a million questions to ask him.
  5. The transport of the boat to the other shore seems to be an inclusion of his friends in his miraculous power and for them to experience the miraculous for themselves.
  6. The purpose was to bring worship and glory to the Son of God by displaying his God-nature to his followers. To cause worship, not fear.
  7. Implication is that we out to pray to God who is capable, strong, able, wise, the ruler over all things and every circumstance. We ought to remember Jesus walking majestically, joyfully, on the water when we pray, to know who it is we are addressing: The Master of All Creation! God in Human Flesh. Who can do all things, and anything he wills to do.
  8. In sum: “No other man is like you.”
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Bible Study

John 5 Outline: The Confrontational Character of Christ

Outline of John 5

Introduction. Until now the Gospel of John has shown Jesus in relationship with individual people, or with his disciples or family (his mother). But now the scene broadens. Jesus begins to be in conflict with a group of people, the Jews, especially the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law (Scribes).

The time. The chapter begins with the information that this was the time of a “feast.” But no specific feast is mentioned. The alternative reading “the” feast, is doubtful and does not settle the question. John gives us some details, but not all that we would, perhaps like. Nonetheless, it is all we need.

Jerusalem seems to be standing at the time of writing (dating the Gospel before 70 AD), see 5:2, “Now there is in Jerusalem the Sheep Gate . . .” (Leon Morris, John, ad loc).

The chapter breaks into two sections. The healing of the paralytic by the Pool of Bethesda, and the conflict with the Jews over the Sabbath.

Part 1 — The healing at Bethesda.

  1. The man who was healed by the pool of Bethesda had been ill a long time. For 38 years he had been  coming to the pool waiting for the waters to be stirred so that he might receive healing. The myth or legend of the stirring of the waters was well-known, and it is a point of pity toward the man so-long-ill. The language used to describe the man may infer or imagine that he was injured and became a paralytic as a result of the injury. But the text is notably absent on the cause of his paralysis, just the length of it, pointing to the protracted time of his malady. The age of the man is not given, only the length of the time of his suffering.
    1. It is to be noted that the man did not express any faith in Christ, nor knowledge of him other miracles or his competency to effect healing of his organic disease. The man seemed not to know anything about Jesus in terms of his name or family, or spiritually as one who was a worker of miracles. It is most amazing that the man didn’t stay with or follow Jesus after he was restored.

i.      It could be that the healing put new responsibility on him.

ii.      It could be that he had learned to be passive and a beggar and that he was not able to function as one who was able to provide for himself.

iii.      It appears that his lack of faith was profound (see 5:16, his betrayal of Jesus).

  1. The absence of faith in the paralytic is all the more interesting because it was Jesus who came to the man, not the other way around. Jesus came and asked the man if he wanted to be healed.
  2. Faith was not the cause of his healing. He did not seek healing, but pity from Jesus, “there is no one to help me get into the water.”

i.      Many are healed of terrible diseases, they call upon God to heal them, and they are restored, yet they do not believe.

ii.      His belief in the “stirring of the waters” myth (hope) seemed to have been his only hope for healing. When Jesus comes to him and heals him, he doesn’t have any way to interpret what Jesus did for him. Jesus didn’t stir the waters. Jesus didn’t carry him first into the pool. Jesus didn’t do any of the things the man believed would bring him healing. Jesus simply healed him.

  1. The healing of the paralytic set in motion the totality of events that resulted in the death of Jesus.

i.      The conflict with the Jews about carrying a load on the Sabbath, and the ensuing defense that Jesus gives to them of his work, his person, of his relationship to the Temple, to God the Father and to the Father’s work, all created the set of charges that would follow Jesus until he is formally charged and then executed for blasphemy.

ii.      The references to the murderous inclinations of the Jews toward Jesus found in John’s Gospel:  5:18; 7:19, 25; 8:37, 59.

iii.      The greatest irony of Jesus’ death is that he is executed for the sin of blasphemy because he claimed “he was equal with God,” which he was.

  1. The distinction that Jesus made of his relationship with the Father was that he was “my Father.”  The Jews spoke of God with very careful language, as “Our Father,” — the same name by which he taught the disciples to pray to God in the Lord’s Prayer.
  2. The claim that Jesus was in a special relationship to his Father in Heaven was a claim of equality with God, of being of the same family and origins as God. It was most offensive for the Jew to address God in this manner.
  3. Jesus, at the end of John, employs the same language of intimacy with the Father, and with God.
    1. He joins those who have faith in Jesus in that circle of intimate relationship with God as a personal and familial connection.
    2. Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17 ESV)
    3. Addressing God
  4.  The paralytic proved himself to be “the worst sort of character.” Immediately after being found by Jesus after he spoke with the Jews about why he was carrying his bed around on the Sabbath, he immediately returned to the Jews and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.

i.      There was no appreciation for the healing expressed. There was no sense of loyalty or desire to protect Jesus from the religious authorities; he was immediately and continuously loyal to the Jews and their leaders.

ii.      This even though Jesus warned him (5:15) about worse things  happening to him, Jesus said to him, “Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

  1. The Jews are directly addressed from 5:19–47. The teaching Jesus gives them about himself is clear, challenging, confrontational, and glorious.
  2. Notes on John 5:19-47
    1. 5:19  Jesus declares that he is only “doing what the Father is doing.” This is the way in which Jesus decided what he would do. If he saw the Father working, he would work there. If not, he would not. This is associated with Jesus’ prayer, “Not my will, but yours be done” see Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42.

i.      The revelation to the Jews is quite stunning. These men have been rising in their opposition to Jesus even in these early days of his ministry and yet he addresses them with many doctrines and teachings about himself, his relationship with God the Father, and his own Person and work.

ii.      Because he is doing what the Father is doing, any complaint about his work becomes a complaint about the Father’s work and a criticism of the Father.

  1. 5:20  The love of the Father for the Son and the work of the Son to reveal all the works of the Father to those who have eyes to see it.

i.      And there is promise of far greater miracles that will be seen in the future. Scholars often see this as  a cryptic  reference to the resurrection, though it is impossible to know exactly what miracles Jesus had in mind at this early point.

ii.      The end of these miracles is that they may “marvel” at what he has done.

  1. 5:21  The work of resurrection (spiritually and physically) is both the work of the Father and the work of the Son of God.

i.      The sovereignty of the Son is laid out in that the Son gives life “to whom he will” and to them alone.

ii.      This would appear to be both an allusion to the electing mercies of God and to the sovereignty of the Son to heal (like the paralytic) or not to heal as he wills, remembering that he has said that he only does what the Father is doing, so even the electing graces of Christ are consistent with and flow from the Father. Trinitarian theology is richer than gold.

  1. 5:22  All judgment is given to the Son. This is remarkable for the Father to relegate all Judicial action to the Son of God alone.
  2. 5:23  The giving of judgment to the Son was so that all may honor him.

i.      The connection between honor to the Son and honor to the Father is established. Just as no one can be received by the Son unless the Father give him (and many statements of similar point).

ii.      5:24  This is the giving of Eternal Life by the Son, to those who hear his voice and believe him (the Father) who sent the Son.

  1. They are delivered from death unto life. The physical resurrections are a down-payment of the spiritual life-giving of the Son.
  2. 5:25  The promise of resurrection by “the Son of God.”

i.      The “Son of God” is rarely used in the John. But here Christ speaks of himself in this language.

ii.      Belief in the Son of God gives eternal life. Those who hear the voice of the Son of God will live.

  1. 5:26   The Father has life in himself, he gives his same self-generating life, to the Son. The Son is not dependent on the Father for his life, but the Father have given the Son the authority to have life in himself, just as the Father has life in himself. Again, difficult, wonderful, Trinitarian doctrine given by Christ as he describes his own life with the Father and how this life is sustained from eternity and to eternity.
  2. 5:27  The authority to execute judgment is the Father’s but he gives this authority to the Son.
  3. 5:28  Resurrection of life and resurrection of judgment.
  4. 5:30 –36 The witnesses to Jesus, from John the Baptist (the last and greatest prophet, whom the Jews rejected) and from God the Father.

i.      The conflict and the confrontation are set up in this section.

ii.      Notice the many uses of “witness” through this section.

iii.      This leads to Jesus turning to the Jews and charging them that they do not believe 5:37ff.

  1. Confrontation with the Jews about Jesus’work and Person.
    1. 5:37  The Father has borne testimony to the Son but the Jews have not understood (remember the prologue of the Gospel, John 1:11, “he came to his own, but his own did not receive him.”
    2.  5:38  “and you do not have this word abiding in you.”
    3. 5:39 – 45 The Jews thought that through the Scriptures they would have eternal life, but it was the Scriptures (Moses) who condemned them.

i.      They did not have the “love of God within” them (5:42) .

ii.      He has come in his Father’s name, yet they do not receive him (5:43).

iii.      They receive glory from one another, not from God (5:44).

iv.      Jesus doesn’t have to accuse them, Moses is the one who indicts them (5:45).

  1. The prophetic words of Moses predicted the coming of Messiah, the Christ, and Moses wrote about Jesus (5:46).
  2. They are beyond believing in Christ because they did not believe Moses’ writing, therefore they could not receive him (4:47).


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