Last week we studied the first miracle presented in this chapter, that which is known as the feeding of the 5000.  Actually I said last week that another gospel account said that only the men totaled 5000, so we might assume that as many as 15000 people were present, including women and children.  So it was a tremendous miracle that Jesus did, as the multitudes had followed Him and they had no place in which to buy food, and hardly anyone had bothered to bring food.

But I also told you last week something which I say often, and that is that every physical miracle presented in the gospel is  given to illustrate a spiritual principle. And we determined that the principle that Jesus was teaching in the feeding of the 5000 was that He was the bread of life, by which man might receive spiritual life. Jesus gave a living illustration that He is the source of life.  At the end of the chapter we are going to be looking at a rather long discourse given by Christ in which He talks about how He is the bread of life, by which we receive and are made alive spiritually.  But in the first half of this chapter we have two miracles which serve as illustrations of life in and by the Spirit.  The feeding of the 5000, and then Jesus walking on the water.  

So in the first miracle, as Jesus supernaturally manufactured bread and fish from HIs hands, He powerfully demonstrates that He is the source of life.  But if you look at vs.15, Jesus knew that the people weren’t interested in spiritual life, but only in how He could benefit their physical life.  They wanted to make Him King. Everyone who follows politics recognizes that whoever can give the masses free food and free health care has the people’s vote.  Jesus seemed to be healing everyone of their diseases, and now He’s providing free food, so “hey, let’s make Him King!”  They wanted a King to deliver them from Rome and Jesus seemed at that point like the deliverer that Moses had been from their captivity to the Egyptians.

But that isn’t what Jesus wanted.  He did not come to earth to set up a physical kingdom at this time.  He said in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”   So Jesus did not come to enact a physical kingdom but to establish a spiritual kingdom.  He came to make men spiritually alive, and once the spiritual aspect of the kingdom comes to completion, then He will come again physically to Earth and bring His physical kingdom into existence.  So the principle we see there is that the spiritual empowers the physical.  That is an important principle of the Christian life.  The spiritual empowers the physical.  That effect is what occurred in the garden of Eden.  When the spiritual died, the physical died.  

And that is the operative principle for the life of a Christian.  The spiritual gives life to the physical.  This principle is going to be preached by Christ later on in this very passage; Jesus said in vs.63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”  

What Jesus did by feeding 15000 people was one of the greatest miracles in the Bible. And what I mean by that is the magnitude of the miracle.  It wasn’t just one person being healed; but 15000 people eating food that He created.  But what does that miracle teach us?  It teaches us that the physical food that Jesus created and gave them to eat, may have sustained them physically, but it did not do anything for them spiritually.  They were not saved as a result of eating the food that He provided.  They would have been saved by responding in faith to what that taught; that He was the source of life, God incarnate.  That’s the message that He was preaching, the message concerning the nature of the spiritual kingdom of God.  If they had responded in faith to that message, they would have been saved.  But the eating of fish and bread did not save them.

And folks, that’s a good example that eating the elements of communion, or taking the mass, will not, cannot, save you. It does not, it cannot impute righteousness to your account. Eph.2:8,9 says “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

So though the feeding of the 5000 did not provide salvation, it illustrated that faith in Christ is the source of life, and that spiritual life as well as physical life comes through Him.  But not all who heard Him that day, nor ate  the miraculous food He provided were saved. Only by receiving the spiritual food He offered could they be saved and receive spiritual life.

Now then what is the meaning of the second miracle?  Well because the people wanted to make Him king, we see Jesus sending the multitude away, according to the parallel passage in Mark 6, and then telling the disciples to get into the boat and sending them across the Sea of Galilee.  So note first of all, this is not a miracle for the mixed multitude, but it’s a miracle for the saved, the believers, for the church if you will.  So that’s going to give us a context for how to understand it.  It’s for His followers, those that already have believed in Christ, and consequently are made spiritually alive.

I believe in some respects that this event is a foreshadowing of what to expect in the Christian life, as we live the spiritual life that we have been given – particularly for these disciples, but also for us in the church as well.  And that is illustrated by the fact that Jesus is separated from His disciples.  They don’t want to go away from Him, but He has to send them away.  And I think that this prefigures the ascension of Christ after His resurrection.  He offers Himself as the bread of life which was broken for us on the cross, and soon after His resurrection He is taken up into heaven and His followers are left alone.  In this event we notice that Christ is alone on the mountain praying or interceding with the Father on behalf of the disciples. In Mark 6:48 it says that Jesus saw the disciples straining at the oars, and yet at that point He was on the mountain and they were several miles away on the sea in the darkness.  This is a picture of the separation from Christ that both the disciples and the church would experience after His resurrection.

Now there are several things we can learn from this event.  First of all, that trials are part of the predetermined, sovereign plan of God.  Jesus, in His divine omnipotence,  knows that a severe storm is coming, and yet He deliberately sends the disciples into the sea.  You know, a lot of people expect that the Christian life is going to be a trouble free existence.  That somehow, being a Christian is insurance that life is going to be smooth sailing. Come to Jesus and all your troubles will go away.  But the Bible doesn’t promise that at all.

In fact, if we had the time I could show you scores of texts that show that we are promised tribulation in the Christian life.  We  are promised persecution.  We are promised hardships.  That’s not to say that Christians are necessarily going to experience more difficulties than the unsaved.  On the contrary, I think the Bible teaches us that by following God’s way we are delivered from many hardships that the world encounters.  But the primary difference between believers and unbelievers is that as Christians, God uses trials and tribulations to teach us and refine us, to enable us to be stronger spiritually,  and to conform us to the image of Christ.  That’s why James says in James 1:2, that we are to “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

So Jesus makes the disciples go on without Him, and notice that though the disciples don’t really want to go, or necessarily understand why, they are obedient to the Lord’s commands. In fact, they continue to be obedient even though all the circumstances seem to be against them.  It should have only been a short trip by boat of about 7 miles, but the wind started to pick up against them.  The wind of course produces waves which makes it almost impossible to row the boat with any forward speed.  And then it gets dark.  So there is a lot going against the disciples, even though they are being obedient.  In fact, the trip seems to take forever.  They leave Jesus on the shore before sunset and start rowing.  And Mark says that it was the fourth watch of the night when Jesus came walking on the water towards them.  That’s between 3am and 6am.  Can you imagine rowing a boat against a gale force wind, with waves crashing over the front of the boat for perhaps as long as 8 hours?  Those disciples could never have imagined that the trip would have lasted so long.

And there are so many things we can learn from that. The main thing I would emphasize is that the walk of faith, or the spiritual life is not easy.  It’s not easy because it’s not natural.  As a Christian, you are figuratively running against the wind.  You are swimming against the current.  The world is described in Ephesians 2:2  as a current, as a river course in which life rushes along. And that verse goes on to say that the course of this world is designed by the devil to keep you enslaved to it, to sweep you along to eventual destruction.  So when salvation comes to us, and we are given new life in Christ, in which we walk in the Spirit, we are in effect striving against the current of this world which is opposed to us.  And that is a battle.  It’s so tempting sometimes to just give in to the current, to allow yourself to get swept along by the things of this world.  

And in Mark 6:48 it says that Jesus sees them straining at the oars.  I hope you can picture that.  These guys were straining to make progress.  The Christian life can sometimes require a battle that tests all your resolve.  I’ll give those disciples something.  They persevered.  They kept at it.  Eight hours after saying goodbye to Jesus on the shore they were still rowing with all their might.  And they were still only in the middle of the lake.  Listen, sometimes our trials last a lot longer than we think they should.  Sometimes we think that there is no way that God could be in this situation.  It’s gone on too long.  There are too many things working against us.  

I’ve been guilty of thinking that far too many times.  I start counting all the things working against me, all the things which have gone wrong.  I start thinking about how long I’ve been rowing and have made so little progress to show for it.  And I sometimes get pretty discouraged.  And then there is the darkness.  How depressing is the darkness.  The nights when you seem to wake up every hour and it’s still only the middle of the night.  When you pray and doze off, and then wake up a few minutes later and do it again.  And those nights seem to go on forever, and God seems so far away.  Sometimes, we soldier on in obedience, but we have long since run out of joy and our hope is almost completely gone.  

There is an old sermon which was written many years ago by an African American Baptist pastor by the name of S. M. Lockridge  that I’ve heard a few times, which says, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a coming.”  The idea of the sermon being that when it’s dark and things look hopeless, hang on, Sunday’s coming. The power of darkness was overwhelming on the Friday of crucifixion, but on Sunday, when the sun came up, it revealed that the Son of God has risen up victorious from the grave.  

Well, the disciples still had a few hours to go before the sun would come up, and it was dark, it was raining, waves were threatening to sink their boat, they had made practically no progress, the wind was pushing them backwards for every foot forward they made, and it had gone on far too long. But what they didn’t realize was that Jesus was watching and praying for them on that mountain. Oh, if they could have only known that truth, how much more encouraged they might have been.  I want you to know something this morning, ladies and gentlemen.  No matter how difficult your long night of trial, no matter how long you have been straining against the oars, no matter how long the wind has been against you, or how big the waves are breaking against your boat, Jesus is watching over you, and He is praying for you.  

I want you to know that you are not alone on that dark night of your trial.  Jesus is watching you and praying for you.  If you are HIs child, then He has promised to watch over you and to intercede on your behalf to God.  Hebrews speaks of our great High Priest who is Jesus Christ, who has been seated at the right hand of the Father as our mediator, and intercessor.  It says in Heb 4:13-16 “There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.  Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.  Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Now that should be a great comfort to us all.  But notice that Jesus doesn’t just pray and leave them there to deal with it alone, but He comes to help them. However, I want to point out that Jesus delays coming until the disciples are completely worn out and the night is almost gone.  You know, my biggest problem sometimes in the spiritual life is understanding the timing of God.  Why does He so often delay?  Why does He let us reach the end of our resources, the end of ourselves before coming to help us?  I think it is to teach us that the end of our extremity is God’s opportunity.  God wants us to reach the end of our strength so that we might  look to His strength.  Paul said in 2Cor. 12:10 “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”  The Lord’s strength is made perfect in my weakness, but I must recognize my weakness for His strength to be completed in me.

So Jesus finally comes to them, walking on the water in the midst of the storm.  There is an interesting principle there.  When you pray for someone, there is a good chance that God will appoint you to be the answer to your prayer.  And Jesus illustrates that principle right there.  I appreciate it when someone says I will pray for you.  But sometimes, I think if they really prayed, perhaps they would find that God has appointed them to be the means by which that prayer is answered. God choses to use people to minister to His people.  But  sometimes I believe people try to get off the hook by saying they are praying and not doing anything.  James said in James 2:16  if you say to someone in need, “’Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?”

So Jesus comes to them, and the disciples see what they think is a ghost on the water walking towards them.  Now a lot of people give the disciples a hard time about being frightened, but I think that when you have been in the middle of a fierce gale for 8 hours, and rowing yourself to exhaustion, probably haven’t eaten or drank anything because of the severity of the storm, you obviously haven’t been able to sleep either, and suddenly you see a figure walking on water through this storm in the middle of the night, you would probably freak out too.

Jesus says to them, “Take courage, it is I, be not afraid.” I don’t know for sure what fear Jesus was referring to.  Was it the fear of the waves, the fear of the wind, the fear of the night, or the fear of Him?  I sometimes think that we fear complete surrender to the Lord almost more than we do the terrors of tribulation.  I’m amazed sometimes to talk to someone who is caught up in some destructive sin, to the point that it has almost completely destroyed their life.  They have lost everything or are about to.  And yet when you tell them that the only hope that they have is to surrender to the Lord and ask Him to help them you would think that you just asked them to do something terrifying.  People are so afraid to surrender completely to Jesus, to ask Him to be their Savior and Lord.  And I can only guess it’s because they are afraid that they will have to let go of the steering wheel of their lives and let God have control.  We are so conditioned to try to control our lives.  And the devil’s lie is that we still have control even when our lives are clearly out of control.  

But I suppose at it’s simplest Jesus is saying that if we are God’s children, and we are doing what He tells us to do, we are living in obedience, then He is in control over the events of our life and we don’t need to be afraid.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again; there is no safer place on earth than to be in the will of God, and there is no safe place outside of the will of God.  If you are doing what God has told you to do, then you need not fear what man or nature can do to you.  Rom. 8:31 “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

This miracle illustrates that not only is God for us, but He is with us.  Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  In the storms of our Christian life, we can be certain that not only does God superintend the trials we go through, but He has promised that Jesus would pray for us and watch over us as we go through them, and that He will be with us when we go through them.  He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  He says in Isaiah 43:1-2 “But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel,”Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;I have called you by name; you are Mine!  “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,Nor will the flame burn you.”  We can be unafraid of life’s trials when we know that the Source of life is with us.

As David says in Psalm 23, “yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, for Thou art with me.”

And there is one more application that I want to make today which is that He is the strength and the supply we need, to do what He tells us to do.  The disciples had rowed all night and made practically no progress.  But John tells us that when Jesus got into the boat with them, they were immediately at the other side of the lake.  It says in vs.21, “So they were willing to receive Him into the boat.”  Listen, that’s not a picture of salvation, but sanctification.  Jesus gives you new life at justification, but He empowers your life through sanctification.  You get the power to overcome sin, and the power to get through temptation and trials when you let Jesus take command of your boat.  When the Spirit of Christ dwells within us and leads us and guides us. That’s the secret of sanctification.  We have been given the power to triumph over sin and temptation, but it’s not in our strength, it’s not by straining at the oars, it’s in giving Jesus permission to captain our vessel.  When we look to Him for wisdom in every decision, for guidance in every action and then let Him direct our lives according to His will, then we will find ourselves arriving safely at our destination.

But the destination for a Christian isn’t just heaven, ladies and gentlemen.  The goal for a Christian is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  To be remade in the image of God.  To reflect the light of Christ in our lives.  And to do that in our own power and strength is not possible.  The only way it’s possible is to be filled with the Spirit of God, in accordance with the truth of God, and in obedience to the word of God, and in the power of God, we then walk as Jesus walked.  

To be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ is to be sanctified here on earth, and then one day to be glorified with Him in heaven.  That’s the purpose of the trials of life, to sanctify us for His purposes. Paul said in Rom. 8:28-30  “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;  and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

That’s the lesson we need to learn from this passage; that Christ is the source of life because He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the beginning and the end.  What He has called us to do, He is able to make possible.  But in doing so He often brings us through times of difficulty and trial, and though sometimes it seems to take forever, He is working in us that which is pleasing to Him, to bring about conformity to His Son, that we might be His representatives here on earth.  

In closing, let me remind you of what I said at the beginning.  The physical cannot produce the spiritual. In your natural state you cannot ascertain the things of God.  You must be born of the Spirit of God to have spiritual life within you.  Then once you are spiritual, the physical is empowered by the Spirit of God, so that we might do the works of God.  The question I have for you is do you have life in the Spirit?  Have you been born again by the Spirit of God?  If not, then today I offer you the Bread of Life.  Believe in Him and receive life. 

And if you are saved, then I hope that you have come to know more completely the process of our spiritual life.  That our purpose is to be conformed to the image of Christ, and to do the works of God, so that others may see our good works and glorify God.  It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to mean swimming against the current, but God has a plan for you, Jesus is praying for you and interceding on your behalf, and He will come to you and help you if you will look to Him as captain of your soul.  He is the source of our life, and the source of our strength, and He is ever ready to help us in time of need.  

This miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is probably one of the best known miracles in the Bible.  Perhaps that’s because it is the only miracle that is presented in all four gospels. And as such it is perhaps difficult to provide new insight that hasn’t already been presented elsewhere at some point in the past.  But that’s not really my job anyway.  A preacher’s job is not to try to find out new information, or a new perspective and show everyone how clever he is because he has something different.  But the preacher’s job is just to present the old, old story – to a new audience.  So I probably won’t have anything new to say this morning, but I do hope that God will provide the impetus of the Holy Spirit through the Word, so that it will become real to you in a practical way.

The danger of familiarity is that we can lose sight of the practicality and the purpose, and think we already know the answers. It’s like the little boy who was asked what his favorite Bible story was. He said, “I like the one where everyone loafs and fishes.”  He was familiar with the story, but he misunderstood the meaning.  Maybe some of you may have that kind of familiarity. I know I do.  I grew up in the church. Literally.  My dad was a pastor.  I was born while he was at Bible college.  I grew up attending church about 4 times a week.  Back in those days, they used to give you a little pin for attending Sunday School if you attended every Sunday during the year without missing one.  And each year thereafter you got another pin that hung off the bottom of the primary pin.  It was like a medal, that had a ribbon added every year that you were in attendance every Sunday.  By the time I was a teenager, I had about 13 little ribbons on my pin.  I was like a Sunday School hero.

But growing up in the church has it’s downside.  One was I knew all the songs in the hymnbook by heart.  But the downside was I learned them before I could read.  So in later years I discovered that some of the lyrics to songs were quite a bit different than what I thought they were. For instance, it was a few years before I realized it was “blessed assurance, Jesus is mine” and not “blessed insurance, Jesus is mine.” I had heard what I thought were the words, but turns out I was substituting another word that sounded like it, but had a different meaning.

Maybe that illustrates the difficulty in coming to familiar passages of scripture.  We are familiar with the words, but we may have missed the meaning.  So rather than give you some new geography insights, or historical insights, or even theological insights, I want to just focus on the purpose of the miracle this morning, and make sure that we all have the right message.

This is the fourth miracle that John presents in his gospel.  And yet at this point in Christ’s life, Jesus has been in public ministry about 2 years. So John leaves a lot out.  In fact, since the end of chapter five, it’s probably been at least 6 months to a year that has elapsed.  But the miracles that John does give us are strategically presented in order to illustrate his stated purpose found in the 20th chapter, verses 30-31 “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;  but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

So that’s the purpose of this miracle.  It’s to teach us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  And that if you believe in Him, receive Him, then you will have life though Him.  That is the summary of John’s opening thesis of chapter one where he sets forth the theology and doctrine of Christ whom he calls the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  And then he says that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

You should know by now the principle that I state almost every week – that every physical miracle presented in the gospel is  given to illustrate a spiritual principle.  And that is especially true of this event.  There have been many misinterpretations of this miracle over the centuries.  Not the least of which is that it teaches a social gospel – the idea that this presents a template for what the church is to be about; feeding the hungry.  Or another favorite interpretation of Sunday school teachers,  that it teaches little boys that we need to share, and if we share, then we contribute to the accomplishment of the purpose for which Christ came; to make us nicer, more gentle, loving people, and to make the world a better place.

But the fact is, that Jesus took care of natural needs only as a means to take care of spiritual needs.  I have to be constantly reminded of this myself as I go through life.  I tend to focus on the physical, on the immediate, and I lose sight of the spiritual.  But what this miracle illustrates is that Jesus did not come to set up a physical kingdom on earth, where peace and goodwill would prevail.  That is exactly what He took great pains to avoid, as you can see in the last section of this passage.  Look at vs.15, “So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.”  

Jesus didn’t come to set up a physical kingdom, where He would provide universal health care, and universal welfare.  People will vote for that kind of king.  But Jesus didn’t come to establish an earthly kingdom, or overthrow a tyrannical empire.  Jesus came to establish a spiritual kingdom.  So whatever He did in the physical realm, was designed to serve that purpose, and no other.  

And as Christians, we need to be reminded of that.  Christ always sought to expound the spiritual principle through the physical illustration, and not vice a versa.  So when Christ works in  our lives, it’s to promote spiritual growth, not physical growth.  There may be times when He works in the physical, but it’s to bring about a spiritual transformation.  It’s not just for physical comfort or success or profit, or just to make life more enjoyable.  That’s how we get the cart before the horse.

But the fact that Jesus is also compassionate towards our physical needs goes without saying.  These people were hungry and so Jesus is concerned about that and wants to provide for their needs.  But there is a big difference between God supplying our needs and supplying our wants.  Our wants never get satisfied.  And God will not serve our wants.  But He does promise to provide for our needs.  

John says the multitude were only following Jesus because of the miracles He was doing, but He was still compassionate towards them, and so He feeds them physically, but as a means of feeding them spiritually.  That’s what we really see going on here.  It says in Luke 9:11, that when Jesus saw the crowds following Him, “He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.”  In effect, His miracles were designed to teach them that He was the source of all life, even the Son of God. That’s what it means to teach them about the nature of the kingdom of God. But as is often the case, the people were a little short sighted.  Most of them really only cared about the immediacy of the miracles and the signs that He was doing.  

But it shows the mercy and compassion of God towards sinners that Christ does not rebuke them, knowing their lack of spiritual insight.  But rather He continues to be gracious to sinners, in order to open their eyes to the truth.  Romans 2:4 says that the kindness of God is designed to lead us to repentance.  God is gracious and compassionate and kind, even towards sinners who are selfish, or motivated by self serving reasons.  Paul said in Titus 3:4 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,  He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”

So Jesus has already determined that He is going to feed the multitude, but He’s going to do it in such a way as to teach some important spiritual lessons.  And so He turns His attention first to His disciples.  That’s the first principle.  That if we are going to change the world, it starts with us that are saved.  It starts with the church.  God wants to employ us in the building of the kingdom of God. 

Jesus turns to Philip in vs.5 and says, “‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?’ This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.”  Now when it says that Jesus said this to test him, it doesn’t mean He was trying to trick him, or to embarrass him by asking him a question that he knew he would get wrong.  Jesus isn’t like our old school teachers who liked to ask us questions when they knew we hadn’t done our homework.  The idea of testing is to prove something.  To prove that something works as it was designed to work.  David, you will remember, said about Saul’s armor that he had not tested it, or proven it.  That means he had not tried it out and knew that he could depend on it in a fight.  Jesus wants to prove or test Philip’s faith.  And maybe sometimes that means He has to stretch our faith.  He presents an obstacle, and gives us the leeway to tackle that obstacle, not to watch us fail, but to show us the way that He wants us to overcome it.  At the time, it may seem impossible, and we might not handle it right, but the divine purpose is to teach us to be overcomers, and that nothing is impossible with God, when it is God’s will. 

Philip though pulls out his calculator.  He is a practical guy.  Maybe he was an accountant in his previous life.  But irregardless, he is practical.  He does the math, and says, “Listen Lord, if we had 200 days worth of wages, we couldn’t buy enough bread to give everyone here even a snack.”  By the way, Matthew says in Matt.14:19, that there were 5000 men, not including women and children.  So there were probably 15000 people in attendance.  And a denarius was a day’s wage for a Roman soldier, so we could estimate that equates to about $20,000 by today’s standards.  Philip says we don’t have nearly enough money to feed these people.  He was practical, but he was missing the point.

But that’s exactly the point Jesus wanted to make – that it was impossible!  Not practical, nor possible, but impossible.  That’s the whole point of the gospel.  It’s impossible for us to be reconciled to Christ.  Our sins have created a chasm between us and God that cannot be jumped across. God gave us the law to show us that it was impossible to achieve God’s standard of righteousness. So God made the impossible possible through the impractical; holy, righteous God became sin for us, that we might be made righteous through Him.

Now in Mark’s gospel, chapter 6 we read that Jesus tells the disciples to go into the crowd and see if they could find some food. And when they come back Andrew reports that there is only one boy’s lunch, which is five barley loaves and two fish.  But that only further emphasizes the impossibility of the situation.  “What is that for so many people?”

Now a lot of commentators want to disparage the disciples for their lack of spiritual comprehension.  Personally, I cringe whenever I hear preachers disparage the disciples, as if to say if they were there, they would have had all spiritual discernment.  They wouldn’t have been like those knucklehead disciples who couldn’t see the forest for the trees.  But I  think we should give the disciples the benefit of the doubt.  If Andrew didn’t have any faith, then I don’t think that he would have offered Jesus the boy’s lunch.  I think he would have looked at that lunch and said, “there is no point to bring this to Jesus.”  But I think there is a hint of a little faith here.  

And let me tell you some good news.  God can use even a little faith.  In Zechariah 4, God tells Zerubbabel that the rebuilding of the temple will not be accomplished by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.  And then the Lord goes on to say that he is not to despise the day of small things, but He will make this great mountain into a plain.  Now I don’t want to go off on a tangent on that passage, but the point that I want to make is that God doesn’t despise small things, and He can use small things to move impossible mountains.  Not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit.

In Matthew 17:20, the disciples wanted to know why they could not cast out a demon, and Jesus said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”  The point is, a mustard seed is the smallest seed in the garden, and yet even faith of that small size, when it is faith in the right source, can move mountains.  And nothing will be impossible with God.  

Andrew had a little bit of faith. And the little boy had a little bit of lunch.  But it was still an impossible situation.  And Jesus wants to illustrate that even more.  So He says, “have the people sit down.”  It was a grassy knoll there, and the other gospels tell us that Jesus said to make the people sit in groups of 50 or 100.  I like that.  It shows that Jesus had a sense of humor.  Tell 12 disciples to go into a crowd of 15000 people and get them to sit down in groups of 50 on the ground. That’s 300 blocks of 50 people.  That’s like a miracle in of itself to get that many people organized and quieted down and seated in rows.  I think that was another test of faith.  But the disciples didn’t object, they didn’t complain, and they got it done.  They had enough faith to be obedient, even when it didn’t make sense or they didn’t understand it or it wasn’t easy.

And that’s another important principle.  When you are faced with an impossible situation, don’t start running around in circles like a chicken crying that the sky is falling.  Go to God with what little faith you have, trust God to deal with the impossibility, and then just do what He tells you to do.  Do what you know you are to do.  Let me put that in practical terms for you.  When your life is in crisis, don’t stop coming to church.  Find your place in the congregation, sit down, and put yourself under subjection to God in spite of your fear.  Be obedient to what God has already told you to do.  Don’t stop praying, don’t stop reading your Bible. Order your life under the authority of God and make yourself ready to trust in God’s providence.

So Jesus takes the food in His hands and blesses it and breaks it and gives it to the disciples to distribute to the crowd.  John doesn’t say that He gave it to the disciples, but the other gospels do.  Again and again, you see Jesus using the disciples.  But notice that He blesses the food, He gives thanks.  He is giving thanks to illustrate that God is providing the miracle of feeding the multitude.  Jesus isn’t doing this for His sake.  If He were hungry He would not have created food for Himself.  Satan tempted Him with that in the wilderness and Jesus rebuked him by saying, “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Jesus is doing this to glorify God, and to feed these people spiritually. 

By the way, I hope you are in the habit of blessing your food before you eat.  Jesus did it as an example to us, that we should give thanks in all things.  Give thanks when you have but a little and God will multiply His blessings unto you.  And don’t be ashamed to do it publicly as a testimony to others.  That’s what Jesus was doing.

So how did Jesus feed 15000 people from 5 loaves and two fish? Well, he obviously created food already cooked and ready to be eaten. That’s what they call in the military MRE’s.  Meals Ready to Eat.  But I bet you Jesus’ meal tasted a whole lot better than the military version.  Anyhow, the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly how the miracle happened.  But what it does tells us is the result of the miracle.  Everyone ate until they were full.  And the disciples gathered up 12 baskets of leftovers.  John 1 told us that Jesus made everything in creation.  So that is exactly what is being illustrated here.  Jesus is supplying cooked fish and baked bread out of His hands, and giving to the disciples and they give it to the people.  

But the how of the miracle is not as important as the why of the miracle.  One thing that was being taught was that someone greater than Moses was here. That is what they meant in  vs.14 which says, “Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’”  What they are referring to is the prophecy made by Moses in Deut. 18:15  who said, ”The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.”  Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and fed them with manna and quail for 40 years.  But of course, Moses didn’t feed them himself, God rained down manna from heaven.  Now they see Jesus, manufacturing bread and fish out of His hands to feed 15000 people.  The parallel was apparent.  This was the prophet that Moses spoke of.  This was the Messiah.  So their impulse was to make Him their king, thinking that He would overthrow their oppressors the same way that Moses did.

But that was not God’s purpose in doing the miracle.  Yes, it was to confirm that someone greater than Moses was here. The Messiah was here. The kingdom of God was at hand.  But not a physical kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom. Jesus told Pilate in John 18:36  “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” 

So if Jesus did not come to establish a physical kingdom, then what was He coming to do? Jesus will say later in chapter 6 vs.35  “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” The real significance of the miracle is to illustrate that Jesus is the bread of life, the source of spiritual life. That is how He establishes a spiritual kingdom, by transferring sinners from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God through the forgiveness of their sins.  He is the bread of life that was given for us.

My wife is the baker around our house, I am not. But I do know that to make bread there are certain things you have to do. The grain that grows in the field must be cut down.  The grain must be crushed under the grinding stone to make flour. And then that flour is mixed with oil, and then baked in an oven. And all of that pictures the life and suffering of our Lord Jesus.  So when the Lord says, “I am the bread of God that comes down from heaven,” or “I am the bread of life,” we need to remember the process by which bread becomes bread. And Jesus becomes bread by virtue of the fact that he gives his life for us. So it is a lesson in the sufficiency of our Lord for salvation. In order for him to become bread He must be cut down and crushed, He had to be filled with the Spirit of God, and He also bore the punishment of God for sin — the fire of God’s wrath on sin. He must be baked in the oven of God’s wrath, executing penalty upon Him  for our sins.

Isaiah 53 records the beautiful prophecy concerning Jesus doing just that.  It says “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground….Surely our griefs He Himself bore,And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions,He was crushed for our iniquities;The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,And by His scourging we are healed.”

So the significance of the miracle was to show  the impossibility of man’s situation; that man was without hope, cut off from God, cut off from the source of life, and unable to accomplish his own deliverance.  There was no way to provide for what was lacking.  Spiritually speaking, we were starving, facing an impossible barrier, an impossible mountain that we could not overcome.  But God in His compassion and mercy sent Jesus to offer Himself as the bread of life, as our substitute, that by faith in Him, even a little faith, by believing in Him; believing what the Bible said about Him and what He was claiming to be, believing His teaching and His works, by even a little faith, we are able to partake of that bread and receive life.

Salvation, as I’ve said over and over again, is by repentance and faith.  Repentance is simply acknowledging your sin, your inability to attain the righteousness that God requires.  Repentance is coming face to face with the impossibility of your situation, and recognizing that Jesus is your only hope.  And then the second step is faith.  Your faith is just a willingness to believe that He is sufficient to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  That He is God and the source of life eternal.  By simple faith and repentance you receive Him, just as the multitude ate of the meal and were satisfied, Jesus is the bread of life that satisfies forever.  You will never hunger for righteousness again.  Because Jesus is the source of spiritual life. 

Listen, there are a lot more applications that I could make from this miraculous event.  Most of which I’m sure you probably have heard before.  But what I want to express to you today above all else is that the gospel is for lost people.  It is for broken people.  The gospel is for destitute people, hopeless people.  Jesus did a lot of things in that miracle to emphasize the hopelessness of their situation.  I think He even planned it so that they would be far away from every source of food so that they would realize the hopelessness of the situation.  Jesus came to save sinners.  He came to seek and to save those that are lost.  He did not come to make good people better.  He came to make sinners righteous by the grace of God, because of the compassion of God towards man.  

And that primary application demands a response from you.  Have you received the bread of life?  Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good?  Have you received the forgiveness of your sins and been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ?  Listen, no amount of money could purchase the bread that was needed to feed that multitude.  Jesus gave it without charge, without cost, so that whoever would receive it might receive life, and be filled abundantly.

There is one other obvious application as well which must be made and that is the involvement of the disciples.  When Jesus had witnessed to the woman at Samaria in chapter 4, He sent the disciples away to buy food in town.  And when they came back, urging Him to eat, He told them that He had food to eat that they did not know about.  He said in vs. 54, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”

And that principle is laid out for us here in this passage through the disciples.  He wants them to do even as He did in Samaria.  He wants them to find spiritual food in feeding others.  And when they do that, they end up with 12 baskets left over. Twelve baskets for 12 disciples. That was the disciples’ spiritual food.  In doing the will of God, God provided more than enough for their own needs.  Each of them ended up with their own basket filled with provisions.  So for us that are Christians, our job is to be obedient, even as the disciples were, and feed His sheep.  And when we do that, we will find food for our souls, and life for our spirit.  

I want to close this service today by asking you once again, have you eaten of the bread of life? Jesus was broken for you.  God loved you so much that He sent Jesus to be broken and crushed, to bear your sins upon the cross so that you might know the forgiveness of sins and receive eternal life.  Have your received Jesus as your Savior?  He says, “eat, drink, this is My body, which is broken for you.”  You can’t do anything to earn salvation, or buy it, or try to find it on your own.  But what you can do is come in faith to Christ as your Savior and the source of all life, and you will find spiritual life in Him.  Do it today.  It’s already bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, and He offers it to you as a free gift today.  Receive Him, eat the bread of life that you might have eternal life.

As we continue in this study of the fifth chapter of John, I would remind you of the claims that Jesus made concerning Himself in the second half of this chapter which we studied last time.  They really are amazing.  Jesus claims to be the Son of God, equal with God, the One sent by the Father, the source of eternal life,  the one in perfect unity with the Father,  the judge of all the world, and that He would raise all the dead in the earth either to stand in judgment before Him, or that He would give them eternal life.  Now those are exceptional claims.  No man in history has ever made such extraordinary claims.  

As I said last week, Jesus was either the Son of God as He claimed, or He was a lunatic and a blasphemer deserving of being locked up or executed. But there is no middle ground.  He could not be just a good teacher, or a good man, or just a prophet.  He was either God incarnate, or a complete fraud. Jesus doesn’t give us any other choice.

It’s no wonder really, that the Jews were skeptical of Christ’s claims.  When you consider His claims in spite of lacking a religious position or priestly pedigree,  you can almost understand the animosity towards Jesus by the Jewish establishment.  But I say almost understand because in reality there were many accompanying signs which should have validated who He claimed to be.  The fact is, that the evidence that He was the Messiah was overwhelming, but they choose not to believe in Him, because He did not fit into their template for how they wanted the Messiah to operate.  It’s almost as if God sent Jesus the Messiah to the Jews, and they looked Him over pretty good, examined His resume, and said, “No thanks.  He’s not what we’re looking for right now.”  

So John says in vs.18, that the Jews were already conspiring to kill Him.  Not only did they not accept Him, but they believed the best way to get rid of Him was to murder Him.  Pretty amazing really.  They hated Him without a cause.  Without  justification.  They hated Him simply because He did not fit into their agenda. 

The first part of the chapter illustrates their attitude perfectly.  Jesus healed a paralyzed man who had been sick for 38 years and all they seemed to care about was that Jesus healed him on the Sabbath Day.  They really didn’t care about the sick man or the Sabbath Day.  They just wanted to exercise their power and position over Jesus and the traditions of the Sabbath served their purpose.  They really wanted Jesus to have to submit to them instead of them submitting to the Messiah.

And that’s not just an attitude exclusive to the first century, by the way.  That’s a common 21st century attitude as well.  We still have people who want Christ to serve them, rather than to submit to serve Christ.  People may be willing to believe in Christ to some degree, but they see Him as a means to achieve their agenda, to get Him to help them achieve their goals, their happiness, their success.  What they need to realize is that the crux of the gospel is the cross of the gospel.  And as Jesus went to the cross for us, so we are to go to the cross for Jesus, sacrificing our glory, our goals, our priorities for the sake of Christ.  So we have the same problem today that the religious Jews had in that day.  A convoluted, self serving sense of entitlement at the expense of Christ.

So Jesus made these outrageous claims, in effect saying that He was equal with God, and now in verses 31-47 He is going to present validation for His claims.  And to do so, to establish His deity, He is going to put forth five witnesses.  That was in keeping with the law, by the way.  The law said in Deuteronomy 19:15, that every fact was to be corroborated by 2 or 3 witnesses.  In other words, in a court of law, in order to establish truth, there must be at least 2, or better yet 3 witnesses to validate one’s statement as truth.  So Jesus is upholding the law here and actually exceeding the requirements of the law by offering multiple testimonies to His deity.

I have to say as I have studied John’s writings over the years, I’ve often struggled with his writing style.  I get the sense sometimes that he is overlapping things or being repetitive in laying out certain principles.  And I have to admit sometimes I am almost frustrated by it.  I kind of want him to step up the pace a little bit.  But as I was thinking about this writing style that John seems to have, I remembered something which is called in engineering terms, redundancy.  According to Wikipedia, in the field of engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system.  So redundancy is very important in engineering things like airplanes.  When you are 30,000 feet in the air in a tin can going 600 miles an hour, it is comforting to know that the essential hydraulics and components of the engine have redundant features.  So if one system should fail, there is at least one or two more that are designed to sustain the aircraft.  Redundancy may produce a more complicated system, but it generally produces a more reliable system.

And perhaps that is what John does with His gospel.  He takes the essential doctrines of the gospel, and overlaps principles or evidences or witnesses in such a way as to provide a fail safe gospel.  It provides for a faith that will prove to be reliable, no matter how great the stress that is placed upon it.  And that should be a comfort to us as we go forward in his gospel.  Sometimes as we study it, it may seem overly complicated, but I hope when you feel that way you will remember that the principle of redundancy is there for your safe keeping.

So John is going to be somewhat redundant in this passage in order to verify the claims of Christ, upon which we base our faith, and thus our salvation.  And so he records  several testimonies or witnesses of Christ.  And the first witness that Jesus mentions is that of His own testimony.  He gave witness of Himself as we read in vs.19-30 last week. In them He makes the claims that we stated at the beginning which are all statements reserved for deity.  But Jesus says that they don’t accept them as true.  And so Jesus sets His own testimony aside, because He knows that they will not accept His testimony alone as legal proof.  However, of course we know that His testimony is true, just as we know His words are true, because the Spirit says amen in our hearts.  But these men who don’t know God, do not have the Spirit of God, and so they do not know the truth, nor recognize the truth.  They were blind to the truth, even as Paul said in 2 Cor. 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

The second witness that Jesus presents is that of the Father.  In vs.32, Jesus says, “There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true.”  Now He is going to go on in the next verse and speak of the witness of John the Baptist.  But in vs.32, He is speaking of  His Father.  And he picks up this testimony of the Father again in vs. 37, “And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”

Now how did God bear testify of Jesus? Well, through multiple dispensations.  There were several instances at His birth when angels who are the messengers of God spoke concerning Him as being born of the Spirit of God, as the Son of God and as the Savior of the world. And God appointed a special star to shine out of heaven to guide the wise men to birth of the King of the Jews so that they could worship Him.  Then there was the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descending upon Him at His baptism in fulfillment of prophecy.  And there was the voice of God declaring “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” So God the Father bore witness of Christ’s deity.

The third witness Jesus brings forth was that of John the Baptist. Vs.33, “You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.”  Now John was an important witness, and yet Jesus says in the next verse that He did not receive the testimony of man.  What does He mean by that?  He means that God is self sufficient. Jesus does not need the testimony of man to validate Himself. Christ needs no letters of recommendation from man – He is able to establish His own credentials.  But He includes John’s testimony because it was important for our salvation.  So then, He brings up John not to prove Himself, but as a benefit for our salvation.  God has ordained that by the foolishness of preaching men are saved.  And God has chosen to use men to preach the gospel to other men, so that they might believe.  So He includes John’s testimony for our sake, and not for His own.

He goes on to say that John was a lamp that was burning, and they were able to rejoice for a while in that light. They received for a while the ministry of John. It was a novelty in their minds, he was popular for a while.  But because they did not truly believe his testimony concerning Jesus as the Christ, they eventually discarded him.  But Christ says that His own testimony was greater than the lamp of John, because He was the light.  John was a lamp in which the light was reflected.  But Jesus is the Light of the world, that sets ablaze the lamps of men. Jesus’ testimony is greater than John’s testimony even as the light is greater than the lamp.  But nevertheless, God uses lamps to draw men to Himself so that they might be saved.  God has designed you to be a lamp as well.  You are to reflect the light of Christ in your life that men might see your light and be drawn to Christ.  We are told not to hide our lamp under a bushel, but set it on a hill that men might see the light of salvation and the result of that salvation reflected in us.

The fourth witness then which is greater than the witness of John was the works of Christ. Vs. 36 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish–the very works that I do–testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

Now we know that the religious leaders knew that Jesus did the works of God, by the testimony of one of their own and that was Nicodemus whom we were introduced to in chapter 3.  Remember Nicodemus said in 3:2, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”  They knew that He did miracles that only God could do, and so He had to be of God.  And yet they still planned to kill Him.  That’s why I said last week that I am convinced that the Jews knew that He was the Son of God, and yet they still wanted to kill Him because He did not fit into their religious agenda which was designed to promote themselves.  That is a damning accusation, and as such it is more than enough justification for God’s judgment to fall upon Israel which it did in AD 70.

So the miracles and works that Jesus did were testimony to the fact that He was God incarnate. You know, John the Baptist didn’t do any miracles.  Did you ever think of that?  God ordained that John would simply preach the gospel of repentance.  The miracles Jesus did were evidence that He was the Son of God. The miracles that the apostles did were evidence that they were spokesmen for the Son of God, appointed for the foundation of the gospel.  Paul said in 2Cor. 12:12 “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.”  Are there true apostles today?  I would say there are not.  The apostles were specially commissioned men who had been with Christ that were given attesting miracles to show the veracity of the word of Christ that they were speaking.  

So then we might wonder if God is doing miracles today?  I would say yes He does, according to His will and purpose.  But I would add the caveat that God does not work through apostles any more, and He has not appointed certain people to be healers.  God may heal as He sees fit, but the purpose of that healing is not to validate the word of God, nor to validate a person as a spokesman of God.  God has sufficiently done that through Christ and the apostles and so His word is established and verified and sealed as being true.  It does not need continual verification by miraculous means.  But yet God may still heal as He sees fit.  

I remember a service we had on the beach a few years ago, and afterwards a woman came up to me and said that she had recently been diagnosed with stage four cancer.  She was a believer, yet she wasn’t coming to me for healing, but simply to ask for prayer and to let me know that she desired to live out her remaining days for the glory of God.  I prayed with her there on the beach, and I asked that God would grant her wish that her life would bring glory to God, and that if it was His will, that He would heal her.   Well, that lady’s name is Pat Nordstrom.  And I can tell you that today that Pat is cancer free.  I don’t know how or claim to have anything to do with it.  I am not a healer.  Lot’s of people besides me I’m sure were praying for this lady.  But I will tell you that God healed this woman, and all the glory goes to God.  And today she is very involved in a Christian ministry.  So God heals as He sees fit.  

But I also will tell you another story. I had a brother in law that was a pastor/missionary in Australia.  He was a godly man who spent decades living in Australia starting churches and training pastors.  And after decades on the field he got a respiratory disease that caused him to be unable to preach or teach or even to fly back to the United States.  After about a year or so he was finally came back to the States, and after another year or so of intense struggling to breathe, he succumbed to the illness and passed away.  I can assure you that his family was praying fervently for his healing, I was praying, and many other Christian churches were praying for him to be delivered from his illness.  But God chose not to heal him but to take him home.  God heals as He wills.  Not according to how much faith we have, but according to His eternal purposes which we are not able to comprehend.  Even Jesus, as we discussed when we talked a couple of weeks ago about His healing of the paralytic, did not heal everyone. But the miracles that He did testified to His divinity.

The fifth witness that Christ brings forth is the testimony of scripture. Vs. 38 “You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;  and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”  What was amazing about this statement was that the Jews were the custodians of the scriptures.  They of all the people in the earth had been given the word of God and were supposed to be stewards of it.  Yet  though they physically possessed the scriptures, they did not spiritually possess it.  God wrote the law upon tablets of stone, but He desired to write it upon the tablets of their hearts.  

That is speaking of salvation by the way. Jesus will say in the next chapter in John 6:63  “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”  When the word of God is combined with the quickening power of the Spirit of God, then it brings about spiritual life.  Jesus gave a parable concerning the soils, and He said that the seed was the word of God and some fell on good soil and some fell on bad soil.  That soil which was good caused the seed to spring up into life, producing fruit, which was spiritual life.  These men were those who were illustrative of bad soil, on which the seed fell but did not remain.  So that Jesus says they didn’t have the word abiding in them.  And they didn’t have spiritual life because they did not receive Jesus whom God had sent.

Ironically, they searched the scriptures, they memorized the scriptures, they knew the scriptures backwards and forwards.  And because they knew them, they thought that they had eternal life.  They saw the rules and the laws and read ordinances between the lines and found symbolism in every syllable, and they thought that they could keep the law and find righteousness, thereby earning eternal life.  But they missed the point of all the scriptures.  The scriptures present Jesus Christ from Genesis to Malachi, and yet they did not see Him.  They saw only themselves as being more righteous and honorable and deserving than others, and so they missed the entire point of the scriptures.  So in vs.40 Jesus says that “you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”  You missed out on eternal life, because you do not come to Him who is the source of eternal life.  He is not talking so much about ignorance, as about their will.  There was ample evidence, but the problem was that they were not willing.  

I think that is true of all men that reject Christ.  It is not because there is not enough evidence of God that men and women become atheists. It is because they do not want to have this Man rule over them.  People today champion independence as a virtue.  While that may be true of nations, it is fatal for individuals.  Our total salvation is dependent upon being dependent upon Christ.  That is one of the reasons we go to church by the way.  We go to church to declare publicly our dependence upon God.  Those that claim to believe in God and yet will not bow to depend upon God, and declare that dependence in the congregation must still be intractable in their independence from God.

Note that is what Jesus continually asserts He cannot nor will not do.  He is never independent from God.  What God does, He does.  What God says, He says.  They are unified, but never acting independently.  And by the way, that is the purpose of the Holy Spirit as well.  So many Christians today seem to think that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath, and that was replaced and done away with by Jesus Christ, who is the God of love.  And now that Christ has gone into heaven, He has given us the Holy Spirit, who is the God of experience.  So when some spiritual experience happens in the Christian realm, whether at church or a concert or crusade or whatever, they attribute such things to the Holy Spirit.  

Folks, that is poppy cock.  That is borderline heresy.  The Trinity is One God.  There is one faith, and one baptism.  God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  And furthermore, listen to the unity of the Trinity as Jesus describes it in John 14 an 16. John 14:9-11 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.”  So everything Jesus did was mirrored in the Father.  He was the exact representation of the Father.  

Now consider what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit in John 16:13-14  “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  So then, Jesus is the perfect representation of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the perfect representation of Jesus Christ, so that all three are One. One nature, One essence, and one voice, but separate in persons. And that is a good way to test the spirits, by the way. If something is occurring in the church and you want to know if it is of the Spirit or not, then ask yourself is it something Jesus did. If Jesus didn’t do it, then the Holy Spirit isn’t doing it. The Holy Spirit will not act on His own initiative.  He is not glorifying Himself. He glorifies Christ, who glorifies the Father.

So in vs.41, Jesus says that He does not receive glory from men.  He does not need glory from men because He  receives glory from God.  But Jesus is rebuking them because they should have been glorifying Him, but they were not.  He says that they don’t glorify Him because they don’t have the love of God in them.  That means that they don’t love God.  Instead, they love the glory of men.  They love receiving honor from men.  That’s the condemnation of mankind, that they are lovers of self, and lovers of men, lovers of ungodliness, and rejecters of righteousness.  That is our nature.  We love darkness rather than light.  We love the applause of men.  We love the glory of men.  And as such we dishonor God who made man for His glory.

That is why repentance is a constant staple in the diet of a Christian.  We must constantly be renouncing the pride which is such a part of the fabric of our lives that we hardly even recognize it.  Pride of life seems normal, and perhaps it is.  But normal means natural and therefore it is not spiritual.  That’s why God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  God hates pride.

So because men love the honor and glory of men more than God, then God will give them over to a deluding spirit.  Jesus says that they will receive those that come in their own name, that seek after their own glory, and in accepting those false prophets they condemn themselves.

Jesus says in vs. 44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?”  Paul classified such men this way in 2Cor. 10:12 “For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.”  

The point is that they used religion to compare themselves among themselves and even to commend themselves, and as such they did not seek to glorify God nor the glory of God.  And so they are unbelievers.  And as such they will deserve the judgment due them for rejecting Him.  Vs. 45  Jesus said, “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.”  Moses wrote the Penteteuch, the law.  The very scriptures in which they professed to know, will be the thing that accuses them and judges them.  

But, Jesus says in vs.46, if you truly believed Moses, you would have believed in Me, for He wrote about Me.  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

I think that Jesus is indicating there that the greatest witness of all is the Word of God.  Not the miracles, though God did use miracles.  Not some experience, though God may use experience.  But the great expression of God is the Word of God.  John says in chapter one vs one, that Jesus is the Word of God manifested in the flesh.  To reject the Word of God is to reject Jesus Christ.  To believe the Word of God is to believe in Jesus Christ. It is the testimony of God, the testimony of Jesus, and the testimony of the Spirit all in One.  That is a greater testimony than miraculous works, that is a greater testimony than John the Baptist, and it is a testimony that will endure forever.  1Peter 1:25 “BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.”And this is the word which was preached to you.”

I hope that you do not reject the testimony of God’s Word concerning His Son.  If you believe in Him, in all that He claimed to be, then you will receive life, and His word will abide in you, and you will be fruitful.  But if reject His Word, then you are rejecting the solemn testimony of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and as such you will enter into judgment.  And that judgment will be merciless.  Because you have rejected Mercy and lived independently.  

When I am judged, thank God I will not be judged independently.  I will be judged as dependent upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Because I have trusted in Christ as my Savior, and my substitute.  2 Cor. 5:21 “God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  When I come before God I will stand dependent upon Christ’s righteousness alone, and not my own.

You can either be found righteous in Him on that day, or you will stand alone in your independence, and have no answer when you are asked why you rejected the gift of God’s Son’s righteousness.  You want to remain in your sins and face that judgment?  That is your choice.  But I pray that you choose to come to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the One equal with God, the One sent by the Father, the source of eternal life,  the One in perfect unity with the Father,  the Judge of all the world, and the One who will raise all the dead in the earth either to stand in judgment before Him, or choose Him, and believe in Him and be saved.

This is a difficult passage to deal with, especially for 8am on a Sunday morning.  It would be  perhaps easier on everybody to give a sermon that is more energizing, uplifting, or empowering rather than heavy theology.  But if our faith is going to really and truly be those things, if our faith is going to have any power, or any energy, or any ability to lift us up out of darkness, then it has to be grounded in truth.  Jesus said in the previous chapter (4:23) that they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. He would later declare that He was the way, the truth and the life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him. So foundational to our theology then, Jesus has to be God in the flesh, or our faith is in vain, and our worship is worthless.

Now that is the question that Jesus has found Himself dealing with after healing the man at the pool of Bethesda. The Pharisee’s asked, “by what authority did Jesus do  these things?”  Jesus had told the paralyzed man to get up, take up his pallet and walk.  And so the man was immediately made well and obediently picked up his pallet and headed to the temple, presumably to give thanks to God for healing him.  But the Jewish religious leaders see him coming and say, “You aren’t allowed to carry your pallet because it’s the Sabbath day.” But he said, ““He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’”. Well of course they wanted to know who that was.  But he didn’t know who had healed him. However, later Jesus discloses Himself  to him in the temple and so afterwards he tells the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

The Jews then, it says in vs.16, began plotting to persecute Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.  John reveals here by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the reason these religious leaders persecuted Jesus was that He was disrupting their religious system.  They had developed a system of religion, and they had learned to manipulate that system to their advantage.  Jesus would later accuse them of being hypocrites, because, according to Matt. 23:4, “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”  

This is the thing about false religion or false doctrine that is so damning, and which I believe will justly bring the judgment of God upon it one day.  And that is that men find a way to manipulate religion to serve their own interests, while at the same time keeping the naive under bondage.  That’s why I get so angry over false teachers.  Because they are manipulating what should be liberating, in order to  feather their own nests, and at the expense of naive people. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.  But when it’s not truth, then it leaves people in captivity.  And so false teachers and false doctrine has to be exposed.

So in vs.17, Jesus has been cornered somewhere in the temple by the religious leaders, and accused of breaking the Sabbath.  And His response is to say, ““My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”  The Jews knew  that God’s work is to keep all things in existence, all things holding together, working together.  Nothing exists outside of the power of God. If God shut off the power by which He holds the world together, then it would be destroyed.  God has to be working, or nothing works.  What causes the earth to stay in it’s orbit?  What keeps the sun in it’s course through the galaxy?  What keeps the atoms spinning by which all life exists?  It is the power of God. 

1Cor. 8:6  says, “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” So God is the Creator, through whom are all things, and yet He shares that responsibility with the Son, so that Jesus can say, God is working, and I too am working.  Specifically, He is working as Col. 1:15-17 declares: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”  So Jesus says, “My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.”

But notice how that really infuriates the Jews.  Vs.18, “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”  Why does this infuriate them so?  Was it because they honored God so much?  Hardly.  It was because if He was the Son of God, then He was equal with God, and therefore He had the authority to over rule over them and judge their religion by which they had established their livelihood and power base in Israel.  I believe there is evidence to support the idea that the Jews knew for certain by the time of the crucifixion, that Jesus was the Son of God.  And they knew the full implications of that title, as evidenced by this verse. It meant that He was equal with God.  To the western, modern minds the title Son of God seems to be a lessor title.  But in their minds, in a patriarchal society where all the rights and privileges of the father were passed on to the son, they understood the full implication; that He was declaring Himself equal with God.  And yet their response is to want to kill Him.

I mean, these aren’t “sincere, but sincerely wrong” kind of people here.  Their response to the paralyzed man being healed shows that clearly.  There is no interest in the man’s healing. There is no rejoicing that a man paralyzed 38 years has been restored fully to health.  They obviously could care less about that.  They are frothing at the mouth at Jesus in an insane desire to kill this man who could heal the sick.  The only reason for that kind of hatred is that they were demonic, steeped in apostate religion that took advantage of people, and they wanted to protect their position and lifestyle at all costs.  They could care less that people were being healed.  You will see that attitude evidenced by the Pharisees again and again in the gospels.

So Jesus is going to use this as an opportunity to authoritatively declare His unity with God, even though He knows it will be just more fuel for their hatred, and eventually be used against Him in order to put Him to death.  But if we examine His statements, we get one of the most comprehensive perspectives on the deity of Christ, from Christ Himself.

So let’s just look at Christ’s statements in order then and I’ll give a running commentary as needed.  In vs.19, Jesus declares His unity with the Father.  This is one of the greatest mysteries of the gospel.  How Jesus could be fully God and fully man in one body? It is a mystery that we cannot fully understand I think until we get to heaven.  But though we can’t understand it, we believe it, and in fact we must believe it in order to be saved.  Saving faith is believing that Jesus was fully God in the flesh. John has already declared that in his opening prologue in chapter one.  Jesus was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  God in flesh.

So Jesus says to that effect, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”  Now what Jesus is saying is that this is proof that I am God, because I do what the Father does explicitly.  I do the works of the Father.  Jesus says this over and over again in His ministry; that His works, and His words, are of the Father and therefore offer proof that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. In John 14:10 Jesus asked “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”  

Incidentally, that is how we show we are the children of God, is it not?  Because we do the works of God. Jesus said you shall know them by their fruit. And Eph. 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Peter says that now that we are saved we are to follow in Christ’s footsteps, according to the pattern which He gave us through His own obedience. 

So Jesus is saying that He cannot, nor will not act independently of the Father. In some mysterious way, He was both separate, yet unified with the Father.  I would suggest that in Spirit He was unified, but the separation was in HIs flesh.  In HIs flesh He was a man, and yet He lived constantly, continuously in the Spirit in unison with the Father.  And that is how we are designed to live now that we are saved.  Though we are in the flesh, we walk by the Spirit and not according to the passions of the flesh.  We put to death the lusts of the flesh, that we might do the works of God through the Spirit. 

Now for us, we are never going to be perfect while in this body, but are progressively being conformed to the image of Christ.  But in Christ it is an absolute unity, something that could only occur in the life of an individual who was equal with the Father. He speaks about the fact that “He can do nothing of himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”  He’s  expressing absolute unity with the Father. Later on he will say even more clearly, “I and the Father are one.”  Meaning not simply one in will, but one in essence.” Literally, He says, we are one thing. So he’s talking about absolute unity only possible for those who truly possess the same nature.

Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature.” That identical nature is the basis for their unity, and that unity is the basis for Christ’s deity.  Now that perfect unity with the Father that Christ claimed is an amazing thing for someone to profess.  C.S. Lewis said, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d either be a lunatic — on the level with a man who says he’s a poached egg — or else he’d be the devil of hell.”  And J. B. Phillips said something similar, “You must take your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But don’t let us come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He hasn’t left that open to us.”

Then Jesus elaborates on that unity in vs.20, saying “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.” The word Jesus uses there for love is interesting.  Usually the word for love found in the NT is agape.  But this time the Greek word is phileo.  It’s the word we get brotherly love from.  It speaks of a familial love, the love of family.  Jesus loves His Father, and the Father loves HIs Son, and so the Father reveals all things that He is doing, so that the Son may do them.  They are united not only in nature, but in love.  This is perfect love. There is no independence, no contest, only a perfect mirror of activity because there is perfect love.

And note that He says that because the Father loves Him He will show Him even greater works than these.  There is a progressive nature to Christ’s ministry.  There is a progressive nature to the gospel and it’s revelation.  And there is a progressive nature to our revelation by sanctification as we are obedient to what God shows us, and we do it, then He will show us greater works than these.  And the same was true with Christ.  He would do greater works, greater than the healing of the paralytic, greater than the works which had been witnessed up to this point in His ministry.  

And specifically these greater works that He speaks of are shown in vs.21-23, and they are the work of giving life, and the work of judgment. So many Christians are overly enamored with the idea of a healing miracle of some physical illness, as if that is the highest measure of God’s work on earth. But what Jesus is saying is that the spiritual works that He would accomplish was an even greater miracle.  Vs.21, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.”  Now what Jesus is talking about there is that the Son of God is able to give life to whomever He wishes.  Now He is not talking about giving physical life to a dead person.  He will raise the dead with Lazarus and others.  But He is talking primarily about giving life to spiritually dead people. 

And we know that to be true because He elaborates on that principle in vs.24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.”   Now He is clearly talking about salvation.  The dead He speaks of are not those in the grave.  He will talk about them in a moment.  But for now He is talking about the spiritually dead.  That He has the authority to give life to the dead, sight to the blind, ears to hear the word of God and that by hearing and believing in His word they might be saved.  He says that explicitly in vs.34, “I say these things so that you may be saved.”

Notice that spiritual life, or salvation, eternal life comes through hearing the word of God.  This is such an important principle. Rom.10:17 says, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  That’s why I put such an emphasis on preaching the word.  It’s not that I can’t find some sentimental stories to tell, or that we can’t find a Christian themed videos to watch, or listen to some Christian singers give a concert.  We could do all of those things, but we chose to preach the word because it is how God has ordained that men might be saved. 1Cor. 1:23-25  “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,  but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”  1Cor. 1:18, 21 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. … 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” So we are saved through hearing the word of God.

Now what does it mean to be saved?  Simply speaking, it means to be saved from judgment.  Saved from the wrath of God against sin.  And that is the other greater work that God has given Christ.  The work of judgment. Vs. 22, “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”  

So first note that honoring God but not honoring Christ as God is not enough.  Jesus says that you must honor the Son as you honor the Father. He is claiming equality with God.  And secondly, Christ has the authority as the Son of God to give life to whom He wills, and that life results in deliverance from judgment.  He has the authority to deliver from judgment because He also is the judge of the world. Christ has been given the authority as the Son of Man to  judge the whole world.  Vs.27 “and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.” That is an interesting title.  Many times Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man because it is a title of humility, but also because it is a Messianic title. In the Old Testament it is used almost exclusively in the book of Ezekiel. It is a title used in conjunction with the judgment that was coming upon Israel for their rebellion.  But I also think that in this case, it may be that Jesus switches from Son of God to Son of Man because as Son of God He is our Redeemer; only God could redeem mankind by His substitutionary death.  But as the Son of Man He is qualified to be our judge, because He suffered in the flesh as we did, yet without sin.  He knows our frame, He knows our weaknesses.  Because He too was in the flesh, and so He is intimately acquainted with man and thus able to judge man justly.  He says that in vs.30, “My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” His judgment is just, because He is righteous and lived righteously while in the flesh.

But what about that judgment that Jesus will render?  Jesus describes it in vs. 28 “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”  Now notice the difference between this verse and vs.25.  Vs.25 says the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of God and be saved.  That’s speaking of the spiritually dead. In the present time those that are spiritually dead will hear the voice of God and be saved.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation. 

But vs. 28 speaks of the time to come.  An hour is coming.  It isn’t here now.  It’s in the future, when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth.  The tomb or the grave speaks of physical death.  They are not literally in the tombs, of course.  Their bodies are there, and as such they represent the person who lived in that body.  But the spirits of men are either in Hades or in Paradise.  Both of which I believe is clearly taught  is in the heart of the earth.  Jesus gave a very vivid description of it in Luke 16.  Between Hades and Paradise there is a great gulf fixed, Jesus said, which no man can cross.  I believe this is where Jesus went for three days upon His death, as He told the believing thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”  

And Paul, speaking in Ephesians about the resurrection of Jesus said, Eph. 4:9  (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?”  And Peter, in 1Pe 3:18-20 says, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, (He was laid in the tomb) but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,  who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.” He is speaking of the demonic angels in Hades, in prison because they were disobedient to God’s restrictions upon His creation, when the sons of God went into the daughters of men in Genesis 6.  

Now I don’t say all of that to start an eschatological debate with anyone.  But I say it to illustrate that the tomb or the grave speaks of the abode of the dead which was Hades.  And Jesus says that one day everyone will hear His voice and come out of the tombs.  Everyone.  Christians and non Christians will be raised from the dead and will either go into the resurrection of life, or the resurrection of  judgment under the supreme Judge of the earth, who is King Jesus. 

Rev. 20:4-6 speaks of the resurrection of life, the resurrection from Paradise of the souls that are saved; “And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.  The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” 

And then it speaks of the second resurrection, which is called in this place the second death, which refers to those that are spiritually dead in Hades; Rev 20:11-14 “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”

So Jesus is One with the Father, and so He will do greater works than the miracles which these men have witnessed, namely the work of giving spiritual life to those who are dead, and the judgement of the world.  By His command all men will be resurrected, either to their reward of eternal life with God, or to the judgment of death for eternity. 

And then finally in vs.30, Jesus basically recaps His unity and authority with God. “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”  It’s amazing how Jesus can state authoritatively His unity with God, His authority as God to be the judge of the whole earth, the source of life for those who believe in Him, and at the same time express His humility. And He also states that HIs judgement is just.  God is a just God, He is holy, and Jesus is just and holy because He does the will of God the Father.

And in the same manner, as we learn through Jesus’s submission to His Father’s will,  that submission is how we are unified with God.  

The best commentary on scripture is scripture.  And so to that point of submission as the means of unity with God I will close by reading Phil. 2:5-11 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  

May God give you the grace to believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords and to submit to Him, to follow His example and do HIs will.  

I have said before that every miracle presented in the gospels is given to illustrate a spiritual parable.  And so it is with the miraculous account of the healing at the pool of Bethesda.  In fact, this text perhaps more than many others offers several spiritual principles which I would like to bring out today.  Not the least of which is the nature of healing. That is the most obvious feature in the passage and so we should look at it first.  

I suspect that everyone sooner or later will come to a point of desiring to receive healing from God.  If not for yourself, then perhaps for a loved one.  It is common to all men to be afflicted in the flesh sooner or later. The Bible says “it is appointed unto man once to die.”  That is a certainty.  And the same curse of death also produces various illnesses, not all of which produce immediate death – we may in fact recover – but eventually everyone will still one day die.  

However, besides this text there are numerous examples in both the Old and New Testament of people being healed.  And while I believe that they symbolize a greater spiritual principle, I don’t want to minimize the fact that physical healing does occur in the Bible and that the possibility exists for physical healing today.  But I want to emphatically say that being healed of an infirmity is not universally promised in the Bible. And that is proven by our text today.  Not every facet concerning healing is dealt with in this text, but let’s start by looking at what it does teach us, and then at the spiritual principles it teaches.

First of all, a little historical background is necessary.  John says that Jesus has left Galilee, where He had healed the nobleman’s son, and now has returned to Jerusalem to attend a feast.  There were three feasts which Jewish men were required to attend, and it’s possible that this could be any of the those.  Many would like to say this is THE feast, that is the Passover, but to say that extends the ministry of Jesus by a year more than that which the synoptic gospels seem to indicate.  

But as to which feast it is, it is not really that important to John, otherwise he would have made it clear.  He then describes a pool which is by the sheep gate.  It was called Bethesda, which means “house of mercy.”  That sounds like one of those holy roller healing churches, doesn’t it?  I recently saw one called “The Holy Ghost House of Deliverance and Healing” or something like that.  You see them here and there in Sussex county, and I suspect other places as well. And I guess that people are drawn to that sort of thing.  They’re looking for a miraculous healing for themselves, or to be able to witness a supernatural healing. 

John tells us that this pool was called Bethesda and it had five porches or porticos.  Now there is a very interesting historical fact here which is helpful to know about.  And that is, when you read early commentators, particularly those in the 18th and mid nineteenth century, there was a common consensus that this place did not exist.  And many skeptics said that  was evidence of the unreliability of the scriptures.  Additionally, they pointed to the fact that the Bible said it had 5 porticos and suggested that it had to be untrue because that would indicate a five sided pool which would have been unheard of in those days.  But in any event, there was no evidence for it’s existence, so it put a doubt upon the reliability of the scripture.

But in the late 19th century excavations were made by archeologists in that area during which this very pool was discovered, and they found that it actually did have five porticos.  Turns out that the pool was rectangular shaped, but divided across the middle to form in effect two pools, and the center division had it’s own porch on it.  Thereby creating 5 porches.  So as in so many other cases, archeologists eventually came to verify what the Bible claimed all along.

There is another situation regarding these verses which have been viewed suspiciously as well.  Starting halfway in vs.3 and through vs. 4, you will notice that your Bible may have brackets around those verses indicating by a side note that they are not found in the best manuscripts. Some Bibles eliminate them altogether. And so some translators say that those words were not inspired in the original text, but were added later by an overzealous scribe.  

The fact is that the information contained there is not essential to the story.  A lot of commentators dismiss the legend concerning the pool being stirred up as superstition and therefore not factual, and say it should not even be in the Bible.  But I am not so sure about all of that.  I am hesitant to dismiss something that God let stand as scripture for 500 years.  The fact is, that there are no original copies of the New Testament.  However, there are a tremendous amount of early copies compared to other historical texts.  There are about 6000 early copies of the New Testament.  But of those, some are considered earlier than others.  The KJV of the Bible used one set of texts called the Textus Receptus.  But since that time, translators have found other copies which they believe are older and thus more reliable which are called the Morphological Greek New Testament.  But both are copies of the original texts.  There are not a lot of differences between the two, but this is one of them. 

However, there is some other evidence that this debated passage does in fact belong in the text.  It is found in the Alexandrian manuscripts, and in the Latin and early Syrian versions. The second century Christian writer Tertullian refers to it. So all of this points to a wide acceptance from the second century onwards, which lends a lot of credence to it being original. 

So that being said, I have no problem accepting those verses as part of the original text.  However that does not answer the question if what it’s speaking of was just superstition or if it was a divine act of God that brought about healing at certain seasons.  

There is another historical note that is significant and has some bearing on the correct understanding of what happened at this pool.  When archeologists discovered the pool of Siloam which is mentioned in context with another miracle healing of Jesus in John 9, it was determined that it was a mikveh, which was a pool constructed in such a way as to perform ceremonial cleansing.  And with the discovery of the pool of Bethesda, it is also believed by some to be a mikveh.  So there is a possibility that Jesus deliberately healed two people at mikvehs, which may have some theological implications in the stories.

Now I know this is a lot of technical stuff, but I promise it has some application if you will just bear with me for a moment.  In order for a pool to be considered a Mikveh, it had to have a well of water or spring of water coming up in it, so that it had fresh water flowing through it.  They referred to it as “living water.”  Interesting, isn’t it? Especially in light of the previous chapter when Jesus was speaking with the woman at the well and said that whoever asked of Him He would give them to drink of the living water which would become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. 

The purpose of the mikveh then was to provide a means of ceremonial cleansing according to Jewish law.  A man had to be ritually clean before he could enter the temple.  And there were a number things that could make him ceremonially unclean.  The bath by the way had to be big enough and deep enough so that they could be fully immersed.  This was also the bath that was used to baptize persons who wanted to convert to Judaism.  So this is the predecessor of the baptismal pool.  And it should answer the question of whether baptism is by immersion or sprinkling.  John the Baptist did not initiate a new ordinance, but he simply administered baptism to everyone as a means of repentance, which symbolized spiritual cleanliness. 

So that’s the context of the pool.  The pool at Bethesda then was more than likely a mikveh, and also had become known as having miraculous powers at certain times. But the question remains was the angel stirring up the water causing healing true or just superstition?  It may be impossible to know for sure.  But I would lean towards it being true. To accept the text at face value then, at certain times, an angel of the Lord would stir up the water and the first person who made it into the water was healed.  I would suggest it may have just been a way that God showed His mercy towards HIs people, and especially towards the sick.  I would also suggest that it would seem that this man had been there a long time (maybe as long as 38 years), and there were many other sick people there as well, so that there would undoubtedly have been multiple instances in those years of people who were healed.  Otherwise, I think that it would have soon been proven to be a false hope, and the sick people would have deserted it. Many in-firmed people in those days survived by begging, and there would have been limited resources for that if all of them stayed there together.  So I think they stayed there because there was real hope, but it was only achievable for a few. 

And I think there is Biblical evidence of God showing that kind of compassion upon His creation. Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, “for [God] causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” And Paul said in Acts 14:17 “and yet [God] did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”  So God does good because it is His nature to do good, to be merciful, and to leave Himself a witness on the earth so that men might turn to Him.

Now note also that it says all kinds of sick or in-firmed people were lying around this pool. Vs. 3, “In these [porticos] lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered.”  Now to this place Jesus comes, we are not sure why.  Maybe He or His disciples needed to ritually cleanse themselves prior to entering the temple.  But irregardless, He goes to this place full of sick people who were lying around this pool under these porches.  And yet He focuses His attention on just one man there, the paralytic who had been sick 38 years in that condition.  

Now there are a couple of points that need to be made about this.  The first is that Jesus does not heal everyone at the pool who is sick.  Now some people have a hard time with that.  They have a hard time with the sovereign prerogative of God.  That He has a right to choose some and not choose others.  We want to know why.  We want to try God according to our understanding, according to our concept of justice or fairness.  But I would suggest that to question God is a failure of faith.  And the Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin.  So I would caution against questioning God’s motives.  Rom.3:4 says, Let God be true and everyman be a liar.  God is true, He is just, He is good, and He is merciful.  But He is also sovereign.  Our responsibility is to trust Him.

The obvious conclusion that we can make from this is that not every person is healed of every disease.  Everyone there at the pool was desirous of being healed.  But only one was chosen to be healed. God does not chose to heal everyone.

This man laying there was not chosen because of some merit of his own. He did not even seem to know who Jesus was. But Jesus knows who He is.  He knows that he has laid there for 38 years in that condition.  And if Jesus knew that, then obviously He knew the man’s heart. Jesus reveals His omniscience with this man the same way He revealed His omniscience with the Samaritan woman.   So for reasons which are the domain of only God to know, Jesus picks out this man and asked him what seems to be a superfluous question; “Do you wish to get well?”

But I would suggest that it isn’t superfluous. I don’t ever see Jesus do anything superfluous in the gospel accounts.  His every word and action were in obedience to His Father.  Rather, I think that Jesus asks this man a simple question, similar to the question that He asked the Samaritan woman, in order to produce a desired response.  Even though God acts in His sovereign will to do whatever He pleases to do, He almost always includes the agency of man.  God doesn’t override man’s will, but operates His will through the agency of man’s will.  So Jesus asks a question designed to get the man to admit that he wants to be healed.

I have had some experience with people that are caught up in alcohol addiction.  And one fact I have learned is that rehab or AA or anything like that cannot deliver a person.  They can help, they can be tools to help that person who desires to be healed.  But in order for a person to be healed of their addiction, they must come to the point of surrendering all hope of doing it themselves out of their own strength.  They have to come to the point of asking God to deliver them.  And when that point is reached, then the help of God is there for them.  I know of many people who have done that and have been delivered from alcohol, but as far as I could tell they were not saved.  But God heals people who stop trusting in themselves and call on Him.  

So that is what I think Jesus is doing with this man.  This man is hopeless, helpless, depressed and probably close to giving up.  In fact, I would suggest Jesus picked him because he had already given up.  He had no friends to help him get into the pool.  Year after year he must have waited only to see someone else, maybe someone who didn’t even have as serious an illness as he had, and yet they slipped into the pool and were healed when he wasn’t hardly able to move.  Perhaps he had given up on anyone helping him. Perhaps he no longer had the strength to muscle his way into the pool.  Perhaps he had come to the end of hope in himself and his circumstances.  And that is the point at which God can help us, when we surrender all hope in our own efforts or merit.  

So the paralyzed man says to Jesus, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”  Notice the phrase, “I have no man to put me into the pool.” What a tragic statement.  I have no man to help me.  I can hear the heartbreak in this man’s voice, even 2000 years later.  Lying by this pool in misery for years and years, being in this paralyzed condition for 38 years and there is no one to help him, no one who cares about him.

But Jesus has compassion on him.  Jesus said I have come to seek and to save that which is lost.  This man was surely lost. He was hopelessly, helplessly lost, and he knew it full well.  And perhaps in response to some private unspoken prayer, God sent Jesus to help him.  In 1 John 2:1 John says that Jesus is our Advocate with the Father, acting on behalf of sinners.  Advocate is from the Greek word Paracletos, which means one called alongside to help; an Intercessor.  Jesus comes along side this man to help him because of the mercy of God.

So Jesus said, “Get up, take up your pallet, and walk.” I love that.  I think there is a sermon in that statement alone.  Get up, take up, and walk.  That’s a formula for the Christian life.  Get up out of your sin, get up out of the world, take up the full armor of God, take up the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith, and then walk with your feet shod with the gospel of peace, walk in the power of the Holy Spirit in obedience to His commands and follow His example.  

Now notice something.  This man didn’t even ask to be healed.  Christ chose to heal him out of compassion and out of a desire to show forth the glory of God.  And notice that Jesus didn’t ask him if he had enough faith to be healed.  I don’t think this man had any faith at this point.  He had no friends, no one that showed him compassion, so he had no reason to hope in any man or even perhaps in God.  The Jews actually believed that to be in-firmed was evidence that God was punishing you for your sins.  So he had no reason to have faith that God would heal him.  And note that Jesus doesn’t do all kinds of physical remonstrations in order to heal him.  He doesn’t smack him on his forehead, He doesn’t knock the poor guy over backwards. He just simply speaks and gives him a command to get up, take up his bed and walk.

You might say, well the guy had faith in that he tried to obey Jesus.  I don’t think that is indicated in the text at all.  I think that the power of Christ flowed into this man’s body, and he suddenly felt strength in his legs that hadn’t been there before. He was able to move, to feel, and so he got to his feet. Vs. 9, “Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.” In fact, I think that the spoken word of Jesus brought this man to his feet.  It says immediately.  He didn’t have to think about it, or get used to the idea, or try it.  Jesus spoke it and it came to be.  That is the power of the Creator.  He spoke everything into existence and it came into existence.  That’s what John was talking about in chapter 1,vs.3, when he calls Jesus the Word and says about Him that “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”  The Word spoke and it came into being. So Jesus spoke and the man got up completely and immediately healed.  

This man is obedient as well.  Jesus said “walk”.  And I”m told by Greek experts that the tense of that word indicates “keep on walking.”  So this man walked right out of the porches of Bethesda and kept right on going.  Some have criticized this man for not stopping to thank Jesus and find out more about Him.  We see in vs.13 that the man did not know who it was  who healed him because Jesus slipped away into the crowd.  

In fact, most commentators I read seem to want to find fault with this man.  They say that he ratted out Jesus to the Jewish leaders.  That he showed more allegiance to them than he did to Jesus.  They say that he was some sort of obvious sinner since Jesus said to him to stop sinning or something worse would happen to him.  But I just don’t buy all of that.  I believe this man was sincere, earnest, and appreciative of what Jesus did for him.  And I’ll tell you why.  Because immediately after being healed this guy headed for the temple.  Why would he do that?   Maybe because his prayers had been answered.  Maybe he didn’t know who Jesus was, but he believed that God had healed him and so he went to the temple to give thanks to God.  Maybe he had laid there in that portico for umpteen years and had wanted to go to the temple, but couldn’t.  But now that he was healed he made a beeline for it. 

I would to God that more people today were like this guy.  I’ve seen far too many people caught up in some sin, or some illness, or some crisis situation and they pray and pray for God to have mercy on them and deliver them.  But then when God does deliver them, they soon forget all about God and all the pledges that they made to Him when they were in need.  Listen, when God answers your prayers, then He expects to find you worshipping and praising Him in HIs church.

So this man picks up his pallet and walks, and heads for the temple.  But the Jewish religious leaders head him off at the gate and say “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.”   I don’t think that they could have known at this point what happened to this guy.  I think that they just see this man walking in the gate of the temple carrying his pallet on his head on the Sabbath day.  He probably stood out from the crowd just a little. So he says, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’” He didn’t care about the laws concerning the Sabbath because the One who made him well told him to pick it up and walk.  He was just being obedient.  

Of course they want to know who healed him.  And he says he doesn’t know. So presumably they left him alone.  But then afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple.  That’s why I think Jesus went to the pool to be cleansed or His disciples needed to.  Because Jesus was going to go to the temple.  Remember they had stayed in Samaria for two days.  That wasn’t forbidden by the law particularly, but who is to say that something there did not ceremoniously defile them.  But in any event, Jesus finds him at the temple.  To me that is an indication that this guy was sincerely ready to surrender to God.  Jesus didn’t find him at the bar, Jesus didn’t find him fishing, or at a nice restaurant.  It was the Sabbath, and he was in the temple.  Boy, we can learn a few things from this guy for sure.  We aren’t under the law of the Sabbath anymore.  I will be the first to declare that and defend that freedom we have in Christ.  But I think the principle is the same.  That there is to be a day set apart to the Lord as His day.  A day of rest.  A day of worship.  A day to come together corporately as a body to give thanks to God for all that He has done for us. 

I’m appalled that Sundays have become Little League days.  They have become football game days.  They have become “get out of town” days. Us Christians love to blame the woes of this world on the sinfulness of the unsaved.  But I think that’s the wrong focus.  I think that the world is so corrupt because the salt has lost it’s savor.  We can barely give an hour a week to God, and everything seems to take precedence over church.  And then we wonder why the world is in the mess it is.  “If MY people, which are called by MY name, shall humble themselves, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and heal their land.” 2 Chron. 7:14

So Jesus found him in the temple.  When the Lord comes back, I hope that he finds us in church, don’t you?  I hope He doesn’t find us in a bar, or at a rock concert, or watching some  Hollywood movie. I hope we are not embarrassed when He comes back.

Vs. 14 “Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”  The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.”

So this is where the critics point to say that this man was obviously guilty of some heinous sin and was loyal to the priests and not Jesus.  But again, I don’t see that at all.  I would rather believe that this is the means by which this man was saved.  Up until this point, he was merely healed.  But as I said concerning the nobleman and his family last week, God had something bigger in mind than just a physical healing.  God desired salvation; spiritual healing.  The physical healing was just to bring him to the point of recognizing that Jesus was the Son of God.  

Jesus meets him and says don’t sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.  What could be worse than 38 years of being paralyzed?  Well, the answer of course, is an eternity in hell.  That’s far worse.  So what Jesus is presenting here is the need of this man for repentance.  To turn away from his sin.  To be willing to turn from it, to want to turn from it.  He needed to understand that if he really wanted to be well, then he needed to be spiritually well.  He needed salvation.  He already had a belief in God.  That’s why he was in the temple to thank God, to worship God.  But as Jesus said in the last chapter, they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  What is truth?  Well, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father except through Him.  So this man needed to know who Jesus was in order to be saved.  And so I believe that Jesus introduced Himself to him there in the temple.  I’m sure that John does not record all the conversation that occurred there.  He doesn’t say that Jesus said, “Hello, I’m Jesus.”  But yet the man tells the priests that it was Jesus who healed him.  So there was obviously more conversation than what was stated in the text.  And I believe it was enough for him to know that Jesus was the Son of God.  

So then salvation comes to the former paralytic by repentance and faith the same way all men come to Christ.  The physical healing was only an instrument of God’s grace to show this man Jesus Christ.  The physical healing had not saved him.  It merely was the means by which Jesus opened his eyes to see who He was and to believe in Him.  

That’s the spiritual application.  This whole scene was divinely designed to illustrate a greater spiritual truth, the only truth that can set you free.  All of humanity is represented in the multitude of sick and lame and blind and withered people that were lying by the pool of Bethesda which was by the sheep gate.  “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have each turned to our own way.”  

So the entire world lies in the sickness of sin, bound to the captivity of sin and under the penalty of death.  The world is gathered together in the “house of mercy” where the living water is supposed to be stirred up on occasion so that some may be cleansed of their illness, but where many come to be washed ceremoniously.  It’s a picture of the ineffectiveness of ceremonial religion that believes in a form of God, but denies the power thereof, and relies upon the sick person’s power to get himself into the pool at just the right time.  

But Jesus comes into this world, into this world of death, into this world of religious ritual, into this world of hopelessness and helplessness, and He finds there one who is ready to be well.  Who wants to be made well, but who realizes that there is no way  to be made well without God’s intervention.  And so to that aching heart, Christ speaks, “Get up, take up your cross and follow Me.”  

Jesus told the Samaritan woman that “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”  This water that the angel stirred up in the pool of Bethesda could only heal one person.  The water of the mikveh could only make a person ceremonially clean.  But the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, for all time and forever, and gives us eternal life.  He is able to save completely.  He is able to heal completely, both inside and outside.  Both physically and spiritually.  

The question for each of us today is the same as it was for the paralyzed man.  “Do you wish to get well?”  Not just get healed from some illness.  That may or may not be in the plan of God. But it is the desire of God that you would be made spiritually well.  That you would not have something worse happen to you.  The formula is simple; repentance and faith in Jesus Christ results in forgiveness of sins and new birth resulting in eternal life.  God will produce in you a well of water springing up into eternal life, everlasting life, where sin and death will no longer have dominion over you.  I hope that God has stirred up in you a desire to get well.  Surrender to God and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior today and receive the eternal life that God has promised.