Chapter Seven: Feast Fight (John 7)
Key theme: Jesus is the Christ; believe and live!
I.OPPORTUNITY—1:15–6:71
He presents Himself to:
A.His disciples—1:19–2:12
B.The Jews—2:13–3:36
II.OPPOSITION—chapters 7–12
There is conflict with the Jewish leaders over:
A.Moses—7:1–8:11
C.Who Messiah is—9:1–10:42
D.His miraculous power—11:1–12:36
E.They would not believe on Him—
III.OUTCOME—chapters 13–21
A.The faith of the disciples—13–17
B.The unbelief of the Jews—18–19
C.The victory of Christ—20–21
(John 1)
(John 2)
(John 3)
(John 4)
(John 5)
(John 6)
(John 7)
(John 8)
(John 9)
(John 10)
(John 11)
(John 12)
(John 13:36–14:31)
(John 15:18–16:16)
(John 17)
(John 18:28–19:16)
(John 21)
John 1
But will God indeed dwell on the earth?” asked Solomon as he dedicated the temple (). A good question, indeed! God’s glory had dwelt in the tabernacle (), and in the temple (); but that glory had departed from disobedient Israel (; , ; ).
Then a marvelous thing happened: the glory of God came to His people again, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The writers of the four Gospels have given us “snapshots” of our Lord’s life on earth, for no complete biography could ever be written (). Matthew wrote with his fellow Jews in mind and emphasized that Jesus of Nazareth had fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. Mark wrote for the busy Romans. Whereas Matthew emphasized the King, Mark presented the Servant, ministering to needy people. Luke wrote his Gospel for the Greeks and introduced them to the sympathetic Son of man.
But it was given to John, the beloved disciple, to write a book for both Jews and Gentiles, presenting Jesus as the Son of God. We know that John had Gentiles in mind as well as Jews, because he often “interpreted” Jewish words or customs for his readers (, ; ; ; , ; ). His emphasis to the Jews was that Jesus not only fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies, but He also fulfilled the types. Jesus is the Lamb of God () and the Ladder from heaven to earth (; and see Gen. 28). He is the New Temple (), and He gives a new birth (). He is the serpent lifted up () and the Bread of God that came down from heaven ().
Whereas the first three Gospels major on describing events in the life of Christ, John emphasized the meaning of these events. For example, all four Gospels record the feeding of the 5,000 but only John records Jesus’ sermon on “The Bread of Life” which followed that miracle when He interpreted it for the people.
But there is one major theme that runs throughout John’s Gospel: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and if you commit yourself to Him, He will give you eternal life (). In this first chapter, John recorded seven names and titles of Jesus that identify Him as eternal God.
Much as our words reveal to others our hearts and minds, so Jesus Christ is God’s “Word” to reveal His heart and mind to us. “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (). A word is composed of letters, and Jesus Christ is “Alpha and Omega” (), the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. According to , Jesus Christ is God’s last Word to mankind, for He is the climax of divine revelation.
Jesus Christ is the eternal Word (vv. ). He existed in the beginning, not because He had a beginning as a creature, but because He is eternal. He is God and He was with God. “Before Abraham was, I am” ().
Jesus Christ is the creative Word (v. ). There is certainly a parallel between and , the “new creation” and the “old creation.” God created the worlds through His word: “And God said, ‘Let there be …’ ” / “For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (). God created all things through Jesus Christ (), which means that Jesus is not a created being. He is eternal God.
The verb was made is perfect tense in the Greek, which means a “completed act.” Creation is finished. It is not a process still going on, even though God is certainly at work in His creation (). Creation is not a process; it is a finished product.
Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word (v. ). He was not a phantom or a spirit when He ministered on earth, nor was His body a mere illusion. John and the other disciples each had a personal experience that convinced them of the reality of the body of Jesus (). Even though John’s emphasis is the deity of Christ, he makes it clear that the Son of God came in the flesh and was subject to the sinless infirmities of human nature.
In his Gospel, John points out that Jesus was weary () and thirsty (). He groaned within () and openly wept (). On the cross, He thirsted (), died (), and bled (). After His resurrection, He proved to Thomas and the other disciples that He still had a real body (), howbeit, a glorified body.
How was the “Word made flesh”? By the miracle of the Virgin Birth (; ; ). He took on Himself sinless human nature and identified with us in every aspect of life from birth to death. “The Word” was not an abstract concept of philosophy, but a real Person who could be seen, touched, and heard. Christianity is Christ, and Christ is God.
The revelation of God’s glory is an important theme in the Gospel. Jesus revealed God’s glory in His person, His works, and His words. John recorded seven wonderful signs (miracles) that openly declared the glory of God (). The glory of the Old Covenant of Law was a fading glory, but the glory of the New Covenant in Christ is an increasing glory (see 2 Cor. 3). The Law could reveal sin, but it could never remove sin. Jesus Christ came with fullness of grace and truth, and this fullness is available to all who will trust Him ().
Life is a key theme in John’s Gospel; it is used thirty-six times. What are the essentials for human life? There are at least four: light (if the sun went out, everything would die), air, water, and food. Jesus is all of these! He is the Light of life and the Light of the world (). He is the “Sun of righteousness” (). By His Holy Spirit, He gives us the “breath of life” (; ), as well as the Water of life (, ; ). Finally, Jesus is the Living Bread of Life that came down from heaven (). He not only has life and gives life, but He is life ().
Light and darkness are recurring themes in John’s Gospel. God is light () while Satan is “the power of darkness” (). People love either the light or the darkness, and this love controls their actions (). Those who believe on Christ are the “sons of light” (). Just as the first Creation began with “Let there be light!” so the New Creation begins with the entrance of light into the heart of the believer (). The coming of Jesus Christ into the world was the dawning of a new day for sinful man ().
You would think that blind sinners would welcome the light, but such is not always the case. The coming of the true light brought conflict as the powers of darkness opposed it. A literal translation of reads, “And the light keeps on shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it or understood it.” The Greek verb can mean “to overcome” or “to grasp, to understand.” Throughout the Gospel of John, you will see both attitudes revealed: people will not understand what the Lord is saying and doing and, as a result, they will oppose Him. John 7–12 records the growth of that opposition, which ultimately led to the crucifixion of Christ.
Whenever Jesus taught a spiritual truth, His listeners interpreted it in a material or physical way. The light was unable to penetrate the darkness in their minds. This was true when He spoke about the temple of His body (), the new birth (), the living water (), eating His flesh (), spiritual freedom (), death as sleep (), and many other spiritual truths. Satan strives to keep people in the darkness, because darkness means death and hell, while light means life and heaven.
This fact helps explain the ministry of John the Baptist (). John was sent as a witness to Jesus Christ, to tell people that the Light had come into the world. The nation of Israel, in spite of all its spiritual advantages, was blind to their own Messiah! The word witness is a key word in this book; John uses the noun fourteen times and the verb thirty-three times. John the Baptist was one of many people who bore witness to Jesus, “This is the Son of God!” Alas, John the Baptist was martyred and the Jewish leaders did nothing to prevent it.
Why did the nation reject Jesus Christ? Because they “knew Him not.” They were spiritually ignorant. Jesus is the “true Light”—the original of which every other light is a copy—but the Jews were content with the copies. They had Moses and the Law, the temple and the sacrifices; but they did not comprehend that these “lights” pointed to the true Light who was the fulfillment, the completion, of the Old Testament religion.
As you study John’s Gospel, you will find Jesus teaching the people that He is the fulfillment of all that was typified in the Law. It was not enough to be born a Jew; they had to be born again, born from above (John 3). He deliberately performed two miracles on the Sabbath to teach them that He had a new rest to give them (John 5; 9). He was the satisfying manna (John 6) and the life-giving Water (). He is the Shepherd of a new flock (), and He is a new Vine (John 15). But the people were so shackled by religious tradition that they could not understand spiritual truth. Jesus came to His own world that He had created, but His own people, Israel, could not understand Him and would not receive Him.
They saw His works and heard His words. They observed His perfect life. He gave them every opportunity to grasp the truth, believe, and be saved. Jesus is the way, but they would not walk with Him (). He is the truth, but they would not believe Him (). He is the life, and they crucified Him!
But sinners today need not commit those same blunders. gives us the marvelous promise of God that anyone who receives Christ will be born again and enter the family of God! John says more about this new birth in John 3, but he points out here that it is a spiritual birth from God, not a physical birth that depends on human nature.
The Light is still shining! Have you personally received the Light and become a child of God?
John the Baptist is one of the most important persons in the New Testament. He is mentioned at least eighty-nine times. John had the special privilege of introducing Jesus to the nation of Israel. He also had the difficult task of preparing the nation to receive their Messiah. He called them to repent of their sins and to prove that repentance by being baptized and then living changed lives.
John summarized what John the Baptist had to say about Jesus Christ (). First, He is eternal (). John the Baptist was actually born six months before Jesus (); so in this statement he is referring to our Lord’s preexistence, not His birth date. Jesus existed before John the Baptist was ever conceived.
Jesus Christ has fullness of grace and truth (). Grace is God’s favor and kindness bestowed on those who do not deserve it and cannot earn it. If God dealt with us only according to truth, none of us would survive; but He deals with us on the basis of grace and truth. Jesus Christ, in His life, death, and resurrection, met all the demands of the Law; now God is free to share fullness of grace with those who trust Christ. Grace without truth would be deceitful, and truth without grace would be condemning.
In , John did not suggest that there was no grace under the Law of Moses, because there was. Each sacrifice was an expression of the grace of God. The Law also revealed God’s truth. But in Jesus Christ, grace and truth reach their fullness; and this fullness is available to us. We are saved by grace (), but we also live by grace () and depend on God’s grace in all that we do. We can receive one grace after another, for “He giveth more grace” (). In , John hinted that a whole new order had come in, replacing the Mosaic system.
Finally, Jesus Christ reveals God to us (). As to His essence, God is invisible (; ). Man can see God revealed in nature (; ) and in His mighty works in history; but he cannot see God Himself. Jesus Christ reveals God to us, for He is “the image of the invisible God” () and “the express image of His person” (). The word translated “declared” gives us our English word exegesis, which means “to explain, to unfold, to lead the way.” Jesus Christ explains God to us and interprets Him for us. We simply cannot understand God apart from knowing His Son, Jesus Christ.
The word Son is used for the first time in John’s Gospel as a title for Jesus Christ (). The phrase “only-begotten” means “unique, the only one of its kind.” It does not suggest that there was a time when the Son was not, and then the Father brought Him into being. Jesus Christ is eternal God; He has always existed.
At least nine times in John’s Gospel, Jesus is called “the Son of God” (, ; ; ; ; , ; ; ). You will recall that John had as his purpose in writing to convince us that Jesus is the Son of God (). At least nineteen times, Jesus is referred to as “the Son.” He is not only the Son of God, but He is God the Son. Even the demons admitted this (; ).
John the Baptist is one of six persons named in the Gospel of John who gave witness that Jesus is God. The others are Nathanael (), Peter (), the blind man who was healed (), Martha (), and Thomas (). If you add our Lord Himself (; ), then you have seven clear witnesses.
John gave the record of four days in the life of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the first disciples. He continues this sequence in John 2 and presents, as it were, a “week” in the “new creation” that parallels the Creation week in Genesis 1.
On the first day (), a committee from the Jewish religious leaders interrogated John the Baptist. These men had every right to investigate John and his ministry, since they were the custodians and guardians of the faith. They asked him several questions and he clearly answered them.
“Who are you?” was a logical question. Was he the promised Messiah? Was he the Prophet Elijah who was supposed to come before the Messiah appeared? () Great crowds had gathered to hear John, and many people had been baptized. Though John did no miracles (), it was possible the people thought that he was the promised Messiah.
John denied being either Elijah or the Messiah. (In one sense, he was the promised Elijah. See .) John had nothing to say about himself because he was sent to talk about Jesus! Jesus is the Word; John was but “a voice”—and you cannot see a voice! John pointed back to Isaiah’s prophecy () and affirmed that he was the fulfillment.
Having ascertained who John was, the committee then asked what he was doing. “Why are you baptizing?” John got his authority to baptize, not from men, but from heaven, because he was commissioned by God (). The Jewish religious leaders in that day baptized Gentiles who wanted to adopt the Jewish faith; but John baptized Jews!
John explained that his baptism was in water, but that the Messiah would come and baptize with a spiritual baptism. Again, John made it clear that he was not establishing a new religion or seeking to exalt himself. He was pointing people to the Saviour, the Son of God (). We shall learn later that it was through baptism that Jesus Christ would be presented to the people of Israel.
This is the second day of the week that the Apostle John recorded, and no doubt some of the same committee members were present to hear John the Baptist’s message. This time, he called Jesus “the Lamb of God,” a title he would repeat the next day (). In one sense, the message of the Bible can be summed up in this title. The question in the Old Testament is, “Where is the lamb?” () In the four Gospels, the emphasis is “Behold the Lamb of God!” Here He is! After you have trusted Him, you sing with the heavenly choir, “Worthy is the Lamb!” ()
The people of Israel were familiar with lambs for the sacrifices. At Passover, each family had to have a lamb; and during the year, two lambs a day were sacrificed at the temple altar, plus all the other lambs brought for personal sacrifices. Those lambs were brought by men to men, but here is God’s Lamb, given by God to men! Those lambs could not take away sin, but the Lamb of God can take away sin. Those lambs were for Israel alone, but this Lamb would shed His blood for the whole world!
What does John’s baptism have to do with Jesus as the Lamb of God? It is generally agreed by scholars of all denominations that, in the New Testament, baptism was by immersion. It pictured death, burial, and resurrection. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, Jesus and John were picturing the “baptism” Jesus would endure on the cross when He would die as the sacrificial Lamb of God (; ). It would be through death, burial, and resurrection that the Lamb of God would “fulfill all righteousness” ().
Perhaps John was mistaken. Perhaps John was not sure that Jesus of Nazareth was the Lamb of God or the Son of God. But the Father made it clear to John just who Jesus is by sending the Spirit like a dove to light on Him. What a beautiful picture of the Trinity!
This is now the third day in the sequence. The seventh day included the wedding at Cana (); and since Jewish weddings traditionally were on Wednesdays, it would make this third day the Sabbath Day. But it was not a day of rest for either John the Baptist or Jesus, for John was preaching and Jesus was gathering disciples.
The two disciples of John who followed Jesus were John, the writer of the Gospel, and his friend Andrew. John the Baptist was happy when people left him to follow Jesus, because his ministry focused on Jesus. “He must increase, but I must decrease” ().
When Jesus asked them, “What are you seeking?” He was forcing them to define their purposes and goals. Were they looking for a revolutionary leader to overthrow Rome? Then they had better join the Zealots! Little did Andrew and John realize that day how their lives would be transformed by the Son of God.
“Where are You dwelling?” may have suggested, “If You are too busy now, we can visit later.” But Jesus invited them to spend the day with Him (it was 10 A.M.) and no doubt He told them something of His mission, revealed their own hearts to them, and answered their questions. They were both so impressed that they found their brothers and brought them to Jesus. Andrew found Simon and John brought James. Indeed, they were their brothers’ keepers! () Whenever you find Andrew in John’s Gospel, he is bringing somebody to Jesus: his brother, the lad with the loaves and fishes (), and the Greeks who wanted to see Jesus (). No sermons from Andrew are recorded, but he certainly preached great sermons by his actions as a personal soul winner!
“We have found the Messiah!” was the witness Andrew gave to Simon. Messiah is a Hebrew word that means “anointed,” and the Greek equivalent is “Christ.” To the Jews, it was the same as “Son of God” (see ; ; ). In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed and thereby set apart for special service. Kings were especially called “God’s anointed” (; ); so, when the Jews spoke about their Messiah, they were thinking of the king who would come to deliver them and establish the kingdom.
There was some confusion among the Jewish teachers as to what the Messiah would do. Some saw Him as a suffering sacrifice (as in Isa. 53), while others saw a splendid king (as in Isa. 9 and 11). Jesus had to explain even to His own followers that the cross had to come before the crown, that He must suffer before He could enter into His glory (). Whether or not Jesus was indeed the Messiah was a crucial problem that challenged the Jews in that day (, ; ; ).
Simon’s interview with Jesus changed his life. It also gave him a new name—Peter in the Greek, Cephas in the Aramaic that Jesus spoke—both of which mean “a rock.” It took a great deal of work for Jesus to transform weak Simon into a rock, but He did it! “Thou art … thou shalt be” is a great encouragement to all who trust Christ. Truly, He gives us the “power to become” ().
It is worth noting that Andrew and John trusted Christ through the faithful preaching of John the Baptist. Peter and James came to Christ because of the compassionate personal work of their brothers. Later on, Jesus would win Philip personally; and then Philip would witness to Nathanael and bring him to Jesus. Each man’s experience is different, because God uses various means to bring sinners to the Saviour. The important thing is that we trust Christ and then seek to bring others to Him.
Jesus called Philip personally and Philip trusted Him and followed Him. We do not know what kind of heart preparation Philip experienced, for usually God prepares a person before He calls him. We do know that Philip proved his faith by seeking to share it with his friend Nathanael.
suggests that at least seven of our Lord’s disciples were fishermen, including Nathanael. Fishermen are courageous and stick to the job, no matter how difficult it may be. But Nathanael started out a doubter: he did not believe that anything worthwhile could come out of Nazareth. Our Lord was born in Bethlehem, but He grew up in Nazareth and bore that stigma (). To be called “a Nazarene” () meant to be looked down on and rejected.
When Nathanael hesitated and argued, Philip adopted our Lord’s own words: “Come and see” (). Later on, Jesus would invite, “Come and drink!” () and, “Come and dine!” () “Come” is the great invitation of God’s grace.
When Nathanael came to Jesus, he discovered that the Lord already knew all about him! What a shock! By calling him “an Israelite in whom is no guile,” Jesus was certainly referring to Jacob, the ancestor of the Jews, a man who used guile to trick his brother, his father, and his father-in-law. Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel, a prince with God.” The reference to “Jacob’s ladder” in confirms this.
When Jesus revealed His knowledge of Nathanael, where he had been and what he had been doing, this was enough to convince the man that Jesus indeed was “the Son of God, the King of Israel.” His experience was like that of the Samaritan woman at the well. “When He [Messiah] is come, He will tell us all things … Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did” (, ). The revealing of the human heart should also take place in the ministry of local churches ().
When Philip witnessed to Nathanael, the evidence he gave was Moses and the Prophets (). Perhaps Jesus gave Philip a “quick course” in the Old Testament messianic prophecies, as He did with the Emmaus disciples (). It is always good to tie our personal witness to the Word of God.
“King of Israel” would be a title similar to “Messiah, anointed One,” for the kings were always God’s anointed (see Ps. 2, especially vv. , ). At one point in His ministry, the crowds wanted to make Jesus King, but He refused them (). He did present Himself as King (), and He affirmed to Pilate that He was born a King ().
Some students believe that Nathanael and Bartholomew are the same person. John never mentions Bartholomew in his Gospel, but the other three writers name Bartholomew and not Nathanael. Philip is linked with Bartholomew in the lists of names (; ; ), so it is possible that the two men were “paired off” and served together. It was not unusual in that day for one man to have two different names.
“Son of man” was one of our Lord’s favorite titles for Himself; it is used eighty-three times in the Gospels and at least thirteen times in John. The title speaks of both the deity and humanity of Jesus. The vision in presents the “Son of man” in a definite messianic setting; and Jesus used the title in the same way ().
As Son of man, Jesus is the “living link” between heaven and earth. This explains His reference to “Jacob’s ladder” in Genesis 28. Jacob the fugitive thought he was alone, but God had sent the angels to guard and guide him. Christ is God’s “ladder” between heaven and earth. “No man cometh to the Father, but by Me” (). Often in this Gospel, you will find Jesus reminding people that He came down from heaven. The Jewish people knew that “Son of man” was a name for their Messiah ().
At the close of that fourth day, Jesus had six believing men who were His disciples. They did not immediately “forsake all and follow Him”; that was to come later. But they had trusted Him and experienced His power. In the three years that lay ahead, they would grow in their faith, learn more about Jesus, and one day take His place on the earth so that the Word might be carried to all mankind.
Jesus of Nazareth is God come in the flesh. When Philip called Him “the son of Joseph,” he was not denying Jesus’ virgin birth or divine nature. That was merely His legal identification, for a Jewish person was identified according to who his father was (). The witness of this entire chapter is clear: Jesus of Nazareth is God come in the flesh!
God is here!
John 2
The six disciples who now trusted Jesus started on their lifelong walk with Him and from the beginning began to learn more about Him. We who read the Gospel record in its entirety are prone to take these events for granted; but to the disciples, each day and each new event brought marvels that were difficult to understand. In this chapter alone, John recorded three wonderful revelations of Jesus Christ.
“The third day” means three days after the call of Nathanael (). Since that was the fourth day of the week recorded in John (, , , ), the wedding took place on “the seventh day” of this “new creation week.” Throughout his Gospel, John makes it clear that Jesus was on a divine schedule, obeying the will of the Father.
Jewish tradition required that virgins be married on a Wednesday, while widows were married on a Thursday. Being the “seventh day” of John’s special week, Jesus would be expected to rest, just as God rested on the seventh day (). But sin had interrupted God’s Sabbath rest, and it was necessary for both the Father and the Son to work (; ). In fact, John recorded two specific miracles that Jesus deliberately performed on Sabbath days (John 5; 9).
At this wedding, we see Jesus in three different roles: the Guest, the Son, and the Host.
Jesus the Guest (vv. ). Our Lord was not a recluse, as was John the Baptist (). He accepted invitations to social events, even though His enemies used this practice to accuse Him (). Our Lord entered into the normal experiences of life and sanctified them by His presence. Wise is that couple who invite Jesus to their wedding!
He was accompanied by His mother and His six disciples. Perhaps it was the addition of seven more people that helped create the crisis; but it must have been a small wedding feast if this were the case. We have reason to believe that our Lord’s earthly family was not prosperous, and it is likely that their friends were not wealthy people. Perhaps the shortage of wine was related to a low-budget feast.
Were Jesus and His disciples invited because of Mary, or because of Nathanael? () Our Lord was not yet well known; He had performed no miracles as yet. It was not likely that He was invited because the people knew who He was. It was probably His relationship with Mary that brought about the invitation.
Jesus the Son (vv. ). Since Jewish wedding feasts lasted a week, it was necessary for the groom to have adequate provisions. For one thing, it would be embarrassing to run out of either food or wine; and a family guilty of such gaucherie could actually be fined! So, to run out of wine could be costly both financially and socially.
Why did Mary approach Jesus about the problem? Did she actually expect Him to do something special to meet the need? Certainly she knew who He was, even though she did not declare this wonderful truth to others. She must have been very close to either the bride or the bridegroom to have such a personal concern for the success of the festivities, or even to know that the supply of wine was depleted. Perhaps Mary was assisting in the preparation and serving of the meal.
Mary did not tell Jesus what to do; she simply reported the problem. (Compare the message of Mary and Martha to Jesus, when Lazarus was sick—.) Jesus’ reply seems a bit abrupt, and even harsh; but such is not the case. “Woman” was a polite way to address her (; ), and His statement merely means, “Why are you getting Me involved in this matter?” He was making it clear to His mother that He was no longer under her supervision (it is likely that Joseph was dead), but that from now on, He would be doing what the Father wanted Him to do. There had been a hint of this some years before ().
At this point, John introduced one of the key elements of his record, the idea of “the hour.” Jesus lived on a “heavenly timetable,” marked out for Him by the Father. (See ; ; ; ; ; and note also the words of Jesus as recorded in .) As you study John’s Gospel, you will observe how this concept of “the hour” is developed.
Mary’s words to the servants reveal that she was willing to let her Son do whatever He pleased, and that she trusted Him to do what was right. It would be wise for all of us to obey what she said! It is worth noting that it was Jesus, not Mary, who took command and solved the problem; and that Mary pointed, not to herself, but to Jesus.
Jesus the Host (vv. ). Our Lord’s first miracle was not a spectacular event that everybody witnessed. Mary, the disciples, and the servants knew what had happened; but nobody else at the feast had any idea that a miracle had taken place. His first miracle was a quiet event at a wedding in contrast to His last miracle recorded by John (John 11), a public event after a funeral.
Each of the six stone waterpots could contain about twenty gallons each. However, we are not told that all of the available water in the jars turned into wine. Only that which the servants drew out and served was transformed into wine. The quality of this new wine was so superior that the man in charge of the banquet highly praised it and, of course, the groom’s family basked in the glory of the compliments.
The fact that this was “the beginning of miracles” automatically declares as false the stories about the miracles performed by Jesus when He was an Infant or a young Child. They are nothing but superstitious fables and ought to be rejected by anyone who accepts the authority of the Bible.
The miracle did something for His disciples. It revealed His glory () and gave them a stronger foundation for their faith. Though miracles alone are insufficient evidence for declaring Jesus to be the Son of God (), the cumulative effect of miracle after miracle should certainly convince them of His deity. The disciples had to begin somewhere, and over the months, their faith deepened as they got to know Jesus better.
But there is certainly more to this miracle than simply meeting a human need and saving a family from social embarrassment. The Gospel of John, unlike the other three Gospels, seeks to share the inner meaning—the spiritual significance—of our Lord’s works, so that each miracle is a “sermon in action.” We must be careful not to “spiritualize” these events so that they lose their historical moorings; but, at the same time, we must not be so shackled to history that we are blind to (as A.T. Pierson used to say) “His story.”
To begin with, the word John used in his book is not dunamis, which emphasizes power, but semeion, which means “a sign.” What is a sign? Something that points beyond itself to something greater. It was not enough for people to believe in Jesus’ works; they had to believe in Him and in the Father who sent Him (). This explains why Jesus often added a sermon to the miracle and in that sermon interpreted the sign. In John 5, the healing of the paralytic on the Sabbath opened the way for a message on His deity, “the Lord of the Sabbath.” The feeding of the 5,000 (John 6) led naturally into a sermon on the Bread of Life.
If our Lord had preached a sermon after He turned the water into wine, what might He have said? For one thing, He likely would have told the people that the world’s joy always runs out and cannot be regained, but the joy He gives is ever new and ever satisfying. (In the Scriptures, wine is a symbol of joy. See and .) The world offers the best at the first, and then, once you are “hooked,” things start to get worse. But Jesus continues to offer that which is best until we one day enjoy the finest blessings in the eternal kingdom ().
But our Lord would certainly have a special message here for His people, Israel. In the Old Testament, the nation is pictured as “married” to God and unfaithful to her marriage covenant (; ; ). The wine ran out, and all Israel had left were six empty waterpots! They held water for external washings, but they could provide nothing for internal cleaning and joy. In this miracle, our Lord brought fullness where there was emptiness, joy where there was disappointment, and something internal for that which was only external (water for ceremonial washings).
When John mentioned “the third day” (), he may have been giving us a hint of our Lord’s resurrection. All of these blessings are possible because of His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection from the dead ().
Interestingly Moses’ first miracle was a plague—turning water into blood (), which speaks of judgment. Our Lord’s first miracle spoke of grace.
This miracle also presents a practical lesson in service for God. The water turned into wine because the servants cooperated with Jesus and obeyed His commands. Several of the signs in John’s Gospel involve the cooperation of man and God: the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6), the healing of the man born blind (John 9), and the raising of Lazarus (John 11). Whether we pass out bread, wash away mud, or roll away the stone, we are assisting Him in performing a miracle.
It is significant that the servants knew the source of this special wine (). When Jesus healed the nobleman’s son (), it was the servants who were in on the secret. We are not just His servants; we are also His friends, and we know what He is doing ().
Wine was the normal drink of the people in that day, and we must not use this miracle as an argument for the use of alcoholic beverages today. A man given to drink once said to me, “After all, Jesus turned water into wine!”
My reply was, “If you use Jesus as your example for drinking, why don’t you follow His example in everything else?” Then I read to him. This verse clearly states that, in heaven now, Jesus is a teetotaler!
Sincere Christians of our day consider such verses as ; , before concluding that the use of alcoholic beverages is a wise thing today. I am reminded of the story of the drunken coal miner who was converted and became a vocal witness for Christ. One of his friends tried to trap him by asking, “Do you believe that Jesus turned water into wine?”
“I certainly do!” the believer replied. “In my home, He has turned wine into furniture, decent clothes, and food for my children!”
Finally, it is worth noting that the Jews always diluted the wine with water, usually to the proportion of three parts water to one part wine. While the Bible does not command total abstinence, it certainly magnifies it and definitely warns against drunkenness.
Jesus, His family, and His disciples remained in Capernaum a few days, and then He went to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. Each Jewish man was required to attend three annual feasts at the Holy City: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (). The feasts mentioned in the Gospel of John are Passover (; ; ), Tabernacles (), and Dedication (). The unnamed feast in may have been Purim (, ).
Though He deliberately violated the man-made religious traditions of the Pharisees, our Lord obeyed the statutes of the Law and was faithful to uphold the Law. In His life and death, He fulfilled the Law so that, today, believers are not burdened by that “yoke of bondage” ().
Jesus revealed His zeal for God first of all by cleansing the temple (). The priests had established a lucrative business of exchanging foreign money for Jewish currency, and also selling the animals needed for the sacrifices. No doubt, this “religious market” began as a convenience for the Jews who came long distances to worship in the temple; but in due time the “convenience” became a business, not a ministry. The tragedy is that this business was carried on in the court of the Gentiles in the temple, the place where the Jews should have been meeting the Gentiles and telling them about the one true God. Any Gentile searching for truth would not likely find it among the religious merchants in the temple.
Our Lord suddenly appeared in the temple and cleaned house! He was careful not to destroy anyone’s property (He did not release the doves, for example); but He made it clear that He was in command. The temple was His Father’s house, and He would not have the religious leaders pollute it with their money-making enterprises.
The condition of the temple was a vivid indication of the spiritual condition of the nation. Their religion was a dull routine, presided over by worldly minded men whose main desire was to exercise authority and get rich. Not only had the wine run out at the wedding feast but the glory had departed from the temple.
When they saw His courageous zeal, the disciples remembered , “The zeal of [for] Thine house hath eaten me up.” Psalm 69 is definitely a messianic psalm that is quoted several times in the New Testament: (); (); (; ); (, ); and ().
There was still a godly remnant in Israel who loved God and revered His temple (; ), but most religious leaders were false shepherds who exploited the people. When Jesus cleansed the temple, He “declared war” on the hypocritical religious leaders (Matt. 23), and this ultimately led to His death. Indeed, His zeal for God’s house did eat Him up!
He also revealed His zeal by giving His life (). It was logical for the religious leaders to ask Him to show the source of His authority. After all, they were the guardians of the Jewish faith, and they had a right to test any new prophet who appeared. “The Jews require a sign” (). Often, during His ministry, the leaders asked Jesus to give them a sign; and He refused to do so, except for the sign of Jonah (). The “sign of Jonah” is death, burial, and resurrection.
Jesus used the image of the temple to convey this truth. “Destroy this temple [My body], and in three days I will raise it up” (). Being spiritually blind, those who heard misunderstood what He was saying. Throughout the Gospel of John, you will find people misunderstanding spiritual truth and interpreting in material or physical terms (; ; ). Herod’s temple was started in 20 B.C. and not completed until A.D. 64. How could one man “raise it up” in three days?
This statement was, of course, a prediction of His own death and resurrection; and His disciples remembered it after He was raised from the dead. But His enemies also remembered it and used it at His trial (); and some of the people mocked Him with it when He was dying on the cross ().
In writing this Gospel, John included a number of vivid pictures of the death of the Saviour. The first is the slaying of the Lamb in , indicating that His death would be that of a substitute for sinners. The destroying of the temple is the second picture (), suggesting a violent death that would end in victorious resurrection.
The third picture is that of the serpent lifted up (), a reference to . The Saviour would be made sin for us (). His death would be voluntary (): the Shepherd would lay down His life for the sheep. Finally, the planting of the seed () teaches that His death would produce fruit to the glory of God. His death and burial would look like failure, but in the end, God would bring victory.
The temple was an important element of the Jewish faith, for in it God was supposed to dwell. All of the ceremonies and sacrifices of the Jewish religion centered in the temple. When Jesus suggested that their precious building would be destroyed, their angry reaction was predictable. After all, if His body is the temple, then the Jewish temple would be needed no more. In this cryptic statement, our Lord actually predicted the end of the Jewish religious system.
But that was one of the purposes John had in mind when he wrote his Gospel: the legal system has ended, and “grace and truth” have come through Jesus Christ. He is the new sacrifice () and the new temple (). John will tell us later, that the new worship will depend on inward integrity, not outward geography ().
While in Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus performed miracles that are not given in detail in any of the Gospels. It must have been these signs that especially attracted Nicodemus (). Because of the miracles, many people professed to believe in Him; but Jesus did not accept their profession. No matter what the people themselves said, or others said about them, He did not accept human testimony. Why? Because, being God, He knew what was in each person’s heart and mind.
The words believed in and commit in are the same Greek word. These people believed in Jesus, but He did not believe in them! They were “unsaved believers”! It was one thing to respond to a miracle but quite something else to commit oneself to Jesus Christ and continue in His Word ().
John was not discrediting the importance of our Lord’s signs, because he wrote his book to record these signs and to encourage his readers to trust Jesus Christ and receive eternal life (). However, throughout the book, John makes it clear that it takes more than believing in miracles for a person to be saved. Seeing the signs and believing in them would be a great beginning; in fact, even the disciples started that way and had to grow in their faith (compare and v. ).
Throughout the Gospel of John, you see the Jewish people divided over the meaning of these miracles (; ). The same miracles that attracted Nicodemus to Jesus caused some of the other religious leaders to want to kill Him! They even asserted that His miracles were done in the power of Satan! Our Lord’s miracles were testimonies (), giving evidence of His divine sonship; but they were also tests, exposing the hearts of the people (). The same events that opened some eyes only made other eyes that much more blind ().
It is important to see that Jesus tied His miracles to the truth of His message. He knew that the human heart is attracted to the sensational. The 5,000 that He fed wanted to make Him King—until He preached a sermon on the Bread of Life, and then they left Him in droves! “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (). In grace, Jesus fed the hungry; in truth, He taught the Word. The people wanted the physical food but not the spiritual truth, so they abandoned Him.
“He knew what was in man” is a statement that is proved several times in John’s Gospel. Jesus knew the character of Simon (). He knew what Nathanael was like (), and He told the Samaritan woman “all things” that she had ever done (). He knew that the Jewish leaders did not have God’s love in their hearts (), and that one of His disciples was not truly a believer (). He saw the repentance in the heart of the adulteress () and the murder in the hearts of His enemies (). Several times in the Upper Room message, Jesus revealed to His disciples their own inner feelings and questions.
As you follow our Lord’s ministry in John’s Gospel, you see Him moving gradually out of the bright light of popularity and into the dark shadows of rejection. At the beginning, it was easy for people to follow the crowd and watch His miracles. But then, His words began to penetrate hearts, with conviction following; and conviction leads either to conversion or opposition. It is impossible to be neutral. People had to decide, and most of them decided against Him.
Yes, Jesus knows the human heart. “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (). People who want His works but not His Word can never share His life. “Seeing is believing” is not the Christian approach (; ). First we believe; then we see. Miracles can only lead us to the Word (), and the Word generates saving faith ().
Our Lord’s accurate knowledge of the human heart is another evidence of His deity, for only God can see the inner person. This brief paragraph prepares us for the important interview with Nicodemus recorded in the next chapter. Note the repetition of the word man from to . Nicodemus wanted to learn more about Jesus, but he ended up learning more about himself!
John 3
Not only was Benjamin Franklin a great statesman and inventor, but he was also a great correspondent and received letters from famous people from all over the world. One day he received what could well have been the most important letter ever to come to his desk. It was from the well-known British preacher George Whitefield.
“I find that you grow more and more famous in the learned world,” Whitefield wrote. “As you have made such progress in investigating the mysteries of electricity, I now humbly urge you to give diligent heed to the mystery of the new birth. It is a most important and interesting study and, when mastered, will richly repay you for your pains.”
The new birth is one of the key topics in John 3. In addition, in this chapter we see Jesus Christ in three different roles: the Teacher (), the Bridegroom (), and the Witness ().
We have already noted the connection between and . Nicodemus was initially attracted to Jesus because of the miracles He did. He wanted to know more about Jesus and the doctrines that He taught. Nicodemus himself was “the teacher of the Jews” (, literal translation) and he had great respect for the Teacher from Galilee.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, which meant he lived by the strictest possible religious rules. Not all of the Pharisees were hypocrites (as one may infer from Jesus’ comments recorded in Matt. 23), and evidence indicates that Nicodemus was deeply sincere in his quest for truth. He came to Jesus by night, not because he was afraid of being seen, but most likely because he wanted to have a quiet uninterrupted conversation with the new Teacher “come from God.” The fact that Nicodemus used the plural pronoun “we,” and Jesus responded with the plural “ye” () may indicate that Nicodemus was representing the religious leaders. He was a man of high moral character, deep religious hunger, and yet profound spiritual blindness.
In order to instruct Nicodemus in the basics of salvation, our Lord used four quite different illustrations.
Birth (vv. ). Our Lord began with that which was familiar, birth being a universal experience. The word translated “again” also means “from above.” Though all human beings have experienced natural birth on earth, if they expect to go to heaven, they must experience a supernatural spiritual birth from above.
Once again, we meet with the blindness of sinners: this well-educated religious leader, Nicodemus, did not understand what the Saviour was talking about! Jesus was speaking about a spiritual birth, but Nicodemus thought only of a physical birth. The situation is no different today. When you talk with people about being born again, they often begin to discuss their family’s religious heritage, their church membership, religious ceremonies, and so on.
Being a patient teacher, our Lord picked up on Nicodemus’ words and further explained the new birth. To be “born of water” is to be born physically (“enter a second time into his mother’s womb”) but to be born again means to be born of the Spirit. Just as there are two parents for physical birth, so there are two “parents” for spiritual birth: the Spirit of God () and the Word of God (; ). The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and, when the sinner believes, imparts the life of God.
Jesus was not teaching that the new birth comes through water baptism. In the New Testament, baptism is connected with death, not birth; and no amount of physical water can effect a spiritual change in a person. The emphasis in is on believing, because salvation comes through faith (). The evidence of salvation is the witness of the Spirit within (), and the Spirit enters your life when you believe (; ).
Water baptism is certainly a part of our obedience to Christ and our witness for Christ (; ). But it must not be made an essential for salvation; otherwise, none of the Old Testament saints was ever saved, nor was the thief on the cross (). In every age, there has been but one way of salvation—faith in God’s promise—though the outward evidence of that faith has changed from age to age.
Human birth involves travail (), and so does the birth from above. Our Saviour had to travail on the cross so that we might become members of the family of God (). Concerned believers have to travail in prayer and witness as they seek to lead sinners to Christ (; ).
The child inherits the nature of the parents, and so does the child of God. We become “partakers of the divine nature” (). Nature determines appetite, which explains why the Christian has an appetite for the things of God (). He has no desire to go back to the foul things of the world that once appealed to him (). He feeds on the Word of God and grows into spiritual maturity ().
Of course, birth involves life; and spiritual birth from above involves God’s life. John uses the word life thirty-six times in his Gospel. The opposite of life is death, and the person who has not believed on Jesus Christ does not have God’s life, eternal life, abundant life. You do not manufacture Christians any more than you manufacture babies! The only way to enter God’s family is through the new birth ().
Birth involves a future, and we are “born again to a living hope” (, NASB). A newborn baby cannot be arrested because he or she has no past! When you are born again into God’s family, your sins are forgiven and forgotten, and your future is bright with a living hope.
Nicodemus must have had a surprised and yet bewildered look on his face, for the Lord had to say, “You must not be surprised that I told you that all of you must be born again” (, PH). But Nicodemus was born a Jew! He was a part of God’s covenant people! () Certainly his birth was better than that of a Gentile or a Samaritan! And his life was exemplary, for he was a faithful Pharisee! He could well understand Jesus telling the Romans that they had to be born again, but certainly not the Jews!
The wind (vv. ). It is likely that the evening wind was blowing just then as Nicodemus and Jesus sat on the housetop conversing. The word wind in both Hebrew and Greek can also be translated “spirit.” One of the symbols of the Spirit of God in the Bible is the wind or breath (; ; ). Like the wind, the Spirit is invisible but powerful; and you cannot explain or predict the movements of the wind.
When Jesus used this symbol, Nicodemus should have readily remembered . The prophet saw a valley full of dead bones; but when he prophesied to the wind, the Spirit came and gave the bones life. Again, it was the combination of the Spirit of God and the Word of God that gave life. The nation of Israel (including Nicodemus and his fellow council members) was dead and hopeless; but in spite of the morality and religion of the people, they needed the life of the Spirit.
The new birth from above is a necessity (“Ye must be born again”), but it is also a mystery. Everyone who is born of the Spirit is like the wind: you cannot fully explain or predict either the wind or the child of God! For that matter, human birth is still a mystery, in spite of all that we know about anatomy and physiology. Each new life is exciting and different.
Nicodemus came “by night,” and he was still in the dark! He could not understand the new birth even after Jesus had explained it to him. Our Lord stated clearly that Nicodemus’ knowledge of the Old Testament should have given him the light he needed (). Alas, “the teacher of the Jews” knew the facts recorded in the Scriptures, but he could not understand the truths.
What was the problem? For one thing, the religious leaders would not submit to the authority of Christ’s witness (). We will see this “authority conflict” increase as we continue in our studies. The religious leaders claimed to believe Moses, yet they could not believe Jesus (). The Pharisees were more concerned about the praise of men than the praise of God ().
“I have used earthly illustrations,” said Jesus, “and you cannot understand. If I began to share the deep spiritual truths, you still would not believe” ().
The serpent on the pole (vv. ). The story in was certainly familiar to Nicodemus. It is a story of sin, for the nation rebelled against God and had to be punished. God sent fiery serpents that bit the people so that many died. It is also a story of grace, for Moses interceded for the people and God provided a remedy. He told Moses to make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole for all to see. Any stricken person who looked at the serpent would immediately be healed. So, it is also a story of faith: when the people looked by faith, they were saved.
The verb lifted up has a dual meaning: to be crucified (; ) and to be glorified and exalted. In his Gospel, John points out that our Lord’s crucifixion was actually the means of His glorification (). The cross was not the end of His glory; it was the means of His glory ().
Much as the serpent was lifted up on that pole, so the Son of God would be lifted up on a cross. Why? To save us from sin and death. In the camp of Israel, the solution to the “serpent problem” was not in killing the serpents, making medicine, pretending they were not there, passing antiserpent laws, or climbing the pole. The answer was in looking by faith at the uplifted serpent.
The whole world has been bitten by sin, and “the wages of sin is death” (). God sent His Son to die, not only for Israel, but for a whole world. How is a person born from above? How is he or she saved from eternal perishing? By believing on Jesus Christ; by looking to Him in faith.
On January 6, 1850, a snowstorm almost crippled the city of Colchester, England; and a teenage boy was unable to get to the church he usually attended. So he made his way to a nearby Primitive Methodist chapel, where an ill-prepared layman was substituting for the absent preacher. His text was —“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” For many months this young teenager had been miserable and under deep conviction; but though he had been reared in church (both his father and grandfather were preachers), he did not have the assurance of salvation.
The unprepared substitute minister did not have much to say, so he kept repeating the text. “A man need not go to college to learn to look,” he shouted. “Anyone can look—a child can look!” About that time, he saw the visitor sitting to one side, and he pointed at him and said, “Young man, you look very miserable. Young man, look to Jesus Christ!”
The young man did look by faith, and that was how the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted.
The difference between perishing and living, and between condemnation and salvation, is faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus could well have come to this world as a Judge and destroyed every rebellious sinner; but in love, He came to this world as our Saviour, and He died for us on the cross! He became the “uplifted serpent.” The serpent in Moses’ day brought physical life to dying Jews; but Jesus Christ gives eternal life to anyone who trusts Him. He has salvation for a whole world!
Light and darkness (vv. ). This is one of the major images used in this Gospel (). Why will sinners not come into the “light of life”? Because they love the darkness! They want to persist in their evil deeds, and this keeps them from coming to the light; for the closer the sinner gets to the light, the more his sins are exposed. It is not “intellectual problems” that keep people from trusting Christ; it is the moral and spiritual blindness that keeps them loving the darkness and hating the light.
Please note that Nicodemus finally did “come to the light.” He was in the “midnight of confusion” (), but eventually he came out into the “sunlight of confession” when he identified with Christ at Calvary (). He realized that the uplifted Saviour was indeed the Son of God.
Until John the Baptist was arrested by Herod and put into prison, his ministry overlapped that of the Lord Jesus. John did not want anyone to follow him; his ministry was to point to the Lamb of God and urge people to trust Him. But when two popular preachers are involved in similar work, it is easy for both friends and enemies to get caught up in competition and comparison.
It appears that some of John’s disciples started the argument. It began on doctrinal grounds—the matter of purifying—but soon moved to personal grounds. In , some manuscripts read “a Jew” instead of “the Jews.” Could this unnamed Jew have possibly been Nicodemus? We cannot say, but it is a possibility.
The matter of purifying was important to the Jews (). Under the Old Testament Law, it was necessary for them to keep themselves ceremonially clean if they were to serve God and please Him. Unfortunately, the Pharisees added so many extra traditions to the Law that the observing of it became a burden.
Without realizing it, John’s disciples were putting him into a situation of competing against the Lord Jesus! “All men come to Him!” () sounds like a wail of despair. It is interesting to note that four of the greatest men in the Bible faced this problem of comparison and competition: Moses (), John the Baptist (), Jesus (), and Paul (). A leader often suffers more from his zealous disciples than from his critics!
How did John the Baptist handle this controversy? To begin with, he stated a conviction: all ministry and blessing come from God, so there can be no competition (). Paul would have agreed with this (; ). Our gifts and opportunities come from God, and He alone must get the glory.
Then John used a beautiful illustration. He compared Jesus to the bridegroom and himself only to the best man (). Once the bridegroom and bride had been brought together, the work of the best man was completed. What a foolish thing it would be for the best man to try to “upstage” the bridegroom and take his place. John’s joy was to hear the voice of the Bridegroom and know that He had claimed His bride.
Even before his birth, John the Baptist rejoiced in the Lord (). John was content to be the voice announcing Jesus to be the Word (). Jesus was the Light, and John the Baptist was the witness pointing to the Light ().
Often press releases and book reviews cross my desk, along with conference folders; and at times I am perturbed by what I read. Very few speakers and writers are ordinary people. They are “world travelers” or “noted lecturers” who have addressed “huge audiences.” They are always in “great demand,” and their ministries are described in such ways that they make the Apostle Paul a midget by comparison.
A Presbyterian pastor in Melbourne, Australia introduced J. Hudson Taylor by using many superlatives, especially the word great. Taylor stepped to the pulpit and quietly said, “Dear friends, I am the little servant of an illustrious Master.” If John the Baptist in heaven heard that statement, he must have shouted “Hallelujah!”
The image of the Bridegroom would have been significant to the Jewish people, for Jehovah had a “marriage covenant” with the nation (; ; ; ; ; ). Alas, Israel had been unfaithful to her vows, and God had to put her away temporarily. Today, God is calling out a people for His name, the church, the bride of Christ (; ). One day the Bridegroom will come to claim His bride and take her to her home in heaven (; ).
The word must is used in three significant ways in this chapter. There is the “must” of the sinner (), the “must” of the Saviour (), and the “must” of the servant ().
Bible scholars do not agree as to who is speaking in , John the apostle or John the Baptist. For that matter, some students believe that came from the Apostle John and not the Lord Jesus. There were no quotation marks in early manuscripts, but since all Scripture is inspired, it really makes little difference who said the words.
The emphasis in this paragraph is on witness (“testimony”), one of the key subjects in John’s Gospel. The Greek word translated “witness” or “testimony” is used forty-seven times. John bore witness to Jesus (; ), but Jesus was also a witness to the truth. Why should we heed His witness? For several reasons.
He came from heaven (v. ). He was not simply called from heaven, or empowered by heaven; He came from heaven. It was this claim that the Jews disputed, because they knew it was His claim that He was God (). John the Baptist certainly was not “from above,” nor did he claim to be. No earthly messenger of God came “from above.” Only Jesus Christ can make that claim and prove it to be true.
Since Jesus came from heaven, He represents the Father; and to reject His witness is to reject the Father (). We know that His witness is true because He is the true God. We can trust it and rely on it.
It comes from Him firsthand (vv. ). He shares what He has seen and heard from the Father (). Those who receive His witness and act on it know by personal experience that His witness is true (). Our Lord’s teachings are not to be studied intellectually, separated from everyday life. It is when we obey His Word and put it into practice that we see its truth and experience its power.
The Father has authorized His Son (vv. ). God sent Him (another key theme in John’s Gospel); God gave Him the Word; God gave Him the Spirit; and God gave Him all things (). What a commissioning! To reject the Son’s witness is to rebel against the highest authority in the universe.
We usually think of God’s love for a lost world (), but John reminds us of the Father’s love for His Son. Jesus is the Father’s “beloved Son” (; ; ). Because the Father loves the Son, He has given Him all things, and He shows Him all things (). It is a love that can hold nothing back.
Therefore, when we receive His witness, we share in His love and His wealth. To reject Christ’s witness is to sin against love and light. No wonder our Lord wept over the city of Jerusalem (). They had rejected His witness—both His messages and His miracles—and their rejection led to judgment.
We might escape the wrath of God (v. ). This is the only place in any of John’s epistles or his Gospel that he uses the word wrath. (He uses it six times in the Book of Revelation.) This verse parallels and makes it clear that there can be no neutrality when it comes to the witness of Jesus Christ: we either trust Him or we reject Him.
“Everlasting life” does not simply mean eternity in heaven. The believer possesses that life right now! It is the life of God in the believer. The opposite of eternal life is eternal death, the wrath of God. A person does not have to die and go to hell to be under the wrath of God. “He that believeth not is condemned already” (). The verdict has already been given, but the sentence has not yet been executed. Why? Because God is patient and long-suffering, and continues to call sinners to repentance ().
As you review John 3, you can see that the Apostle John is emphasizing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
It is a living relationship that begins with the new birth, the birth from above. When we receive Jesus Christ into our lives, we share His very life and become children in the family of God.
It is also a loving relationship, for He is the Bridegroom and we are a part of the bride. Like John the Baptist, we desire that Jesus Christ increase as we decrease. He must receive all the honor and glory.
It is a learning relationship, for He is the faithful Witness who shares God’s truth with us. What a delight it is to receive His Word, meditate on it, and make it part of our very lives.
But we must never forget the cost of these blessings. For us to be born into God’s family, Jesus Christ had to die. For us to enter into the loving relationship of salvation, He had to endure the hatred and condemnation of men. He had to be lifted up on the cross so that we might experience forgiveness and eternal life.
May we never take this for granted!
“He must increase, but I must decrease” ().
John 4
In John 4, our Lord ministers to a variety of people: the sinful Samaritan woman, His own disciples, the many Samaritans who trusted in Him, and finally, a nobleman and his household. What did these have in common? Faith in Jesus Christ. John was fulfilling the purpose of his Gospel in showing his readers how various kinds and classes of people came to believe in Jesus as the Son of God.
Let’s meet these various persons and discover how their faith began, how it grew, and what it did for them and for others.
Because the Pharisees were trying to incite competition between Jesus and John the Baptist (), Jesus left Judea and started north for Galilee. He could have taken one of three possible routes: along the coast, across the Jordan and up through Perea, or straight through Samaria. Orthodox Jews avoided Samaria because there was a long-standing, deep-seated hatred between them and the Samaritans.
The Samaritans were a mixed race, part Jew and part Gentile, that grew out of the Assyrian captivity of the ten northern tribes in 727 B.C. Rejected by the Jews because they could not prove their genealogy, the Samaritans established their own temple and religious services on Mt. Gerizim. This only fanned the fires of prejudice. So intense was their dislike of the Samaritans that some of the Pharisees prayed that no Samaritan would be raised in the resurrection! When His enemies wanted to call Jesus an insulting name, they called Him a Samaritan ().
Because He was on a divinely appointed schedule, it was necessary that Jesus go through Samaria. Why? Because He would meet a woman there and lead her into saving faith, the kind of true faith that would affect an entire village. Our Lord was no respecter of persons. Earlier, He counseled a moral Jewish man (John 3), and now He would witness to an immoral Samaritan woman!
He arrived at Jacob’s well at six o’clock in the evening, the usual time for women to come for water. The disciples went to the nearby town for food while Jesus deliberately waited at the well. He was weary, hungry, and thirsty. John not only presents Jesus as the Son of God but also as true man. Our Lord entered into all the normal experiences of our lives and is able to identify with us in each of them.
As you read our Lord’s interview with this woman, notice how her knowledge of Jesus increases until she acknowledges that He is the Christ. There were four stages in this experience.
He is “a Jew” (vv. ). In that day, it was not considered proper for any man, especially a rabbi, to speak in public to a strange woman (). But our Lord set social customs aside because a soul’s eternal salvation was at stake. It certainly surprised her when He asked for a drink of water. She surmised that He was a Jewish rabbi, and perhaps she tried to “read between the lines” to find another meaning to His request. What was He really seeking?
The information in John’s parenthesis at the end of was for the benefit of his Gentile readers. Since the disciples had gone into the city to purchase food, it is obvious that the Jews did have some “dealings” with the Samaritans; so John was not trying to exaggerate. The phrase can be translated “ask no favors from the Samaritans” or “use no vessels in common with the Samaritans.” Why would Jesus, a Jew, want to use her “polluted” vessel to get a drink of water?
Of course, our Lord’s request was simply a way to open the conversation and share with her the truth about “living water.” Whenever He witnessed to people, Jesus did not use a “sales talk” that He adapted to meet every situation. To Nicodemus, He spoke about new birth; but to this woman, He spoke about living water.
Jesus pointed out to her that she was ignorant of three important facts: Who He was, what He had to offer, and how she could receive it. Here was eternal God speaking to her, offering her eternal life! The Samaritans were as blind as the Jews (). But our Lord’s words had aroused her interest, so she pursued the conversation.
“Greater than Jacob” (vv. ). Jesus was speaking about spiritual water, but she interpreted His words to mean literal water. Again, we see how easily people confuse the material and the spiritual. Furthermore, this woman was concerned about how He would obtain this water, instead of simply asking Him to give her a drink of it.
Of course Jesus is greater than Jacob—and greater than the well itself! To paraphrase His reply: “Whosoever continues to drink of this material water (or anything the world has to offer) will thirst again. But whosoever takes one drink of the water I give will never thirst again!” (see ) How true it is that the things of this world never completely satisfy. In hell today, people are crying, “I thirst!”
We have noted before that life is one of John’s key concepts. He uses the word at least thirty-six times. Campbell Morgan has pointed out that mankind needs air, water, and food in order to have life. (We might also add that he needs light.) All of these are provided in Jesus Christ. He provides the “breath” (Spirit) of God (; ). He is the Bread of Life () and the Light of Life (), and He gives us the water of life.
The woman’s immediate response was to ask for this gift, but she did not know what she was saying. The seed of the Word fell on shallow soil, and the shoots that sprang up had no root (). She had made progress, but she still had a long way to go; so Jesus patiently dealt with her.
“A prophet” (vv. ). The only way to prepare the soil of the heart for the seed is to plow it up with conviction. That was why Jesus told her to go get her husband: He forced her to admit her sin. There can be no conversion without conviction. There must first be conviction and repentance, and then there can be saving faith. Jesus had aroused her mind and stirred her emotions, but He also had to touch her conscience, and that meant dealing with her sin.
“I have no husband” was the shortest statement she made during the entire conversation! Why? Because now she was under conviction and her “mouth was stopped” (). But this was the best thing that could have happened to her!
However, instead of listening to Jesus, she tried to get Him on a “detour” by discussing the differences between the Jewish and the Samaritan religions. It is much more comfortable to discuss religion than to face one’s sins! However, Jesus once again revealed her spiritual ignorance: she did not know who to worship, where to worship, or how to worship! He made it clear that all religions are not equally acceptable before God, that some worshipers act in ignorance and unbelief.
The only faith that God will accept is that which came through the Jews. The Bible is of Jewish origin, and our Saviour was a Jew. The first Christians were Jews. A religious worker in an airport told me that the world’s deliverer came from Korea, but Jesus said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” Only those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and who obey the truth, can worship God acceptably.
It was a devastating statement to say that worship would no longer be limited to the Jewish temple. This ties in with and also Stephen’s statement in . John’s Gospel clearly reveals that there is a new sacrifice (), a new temple (; ), a new birth (), and a new water (). Jews reading this Gospel should realize that God has established in Jesus Christ a whole new economy. The Old Covenant Law has been fulfilled and set aside.
“The Christ” (vv. ). In spite of her ignorance, there was one truth this woman did know: the Messiah was coming and would reveal the secrets of hearts. Where did she learn this truth? We do not know, but that seed had lain buried in her heart until that very hour, and now it was going to bear fruit. Our Lord’s response to her statement was, literally: “I that speak to thee, I am!” He dared to utter the holy name of God!
At this point, the woman put her faith in Jesus Christ and was converted. Immediately she wanted to share her faith with others, so she went into the village and told the men she had met the Christ. When you consider how little spiritual truth this woman knew, her zeal and witness put us to shame. But God used her simple testimony, and many of the people came out to the well to meet Jesus. The rabbis said, “It is better that the words of the Law be burned than be delivered to a woman!” But Jesus did not agree with that narrow prejudice.
Why did she leave her waterpot when she hurried into the city? For one thing, she had the living water within and was now satisfied. Also, she intended to come back; and perhaps in the interim, the disciples and Jesus could use the vessel to satisfy their thirst. Gone were the racial barriers and battles that had existed before! They were all one in faith and love!
This woman did not come to faith in Christ immediately. Jesus was patient with her, and in this, He sets a good example for us in our own personal work. Certainly she was the least likely prospect for salvation, yet God used her to win almost an entire village!
When the disciples returned from obtaining food, they were shocked that Jesus was conversing with a woman, and especially a Samaritan; but they did not interrupt. They were learning that their Master knew what He was doing and did not need their counsel. But, after the woman left, they urged Jesus to share the meal with them, because they knew that He was hungry.
“I have food to eat that ye know not of” was His reply and, as usual, they did not understand it. They thought He was speaking of literal food, and they wondered where He got it. Then He explained that doing the Father’s will—in this case, leading the woman to salvation—was true nourishment for His soul. The disciples were satisfied with bread, but He was satisfied with accomplishing the Father’s work.
“Seek your life’s nourishment in your life’s work,” said Phillips Brooks. The will of God ought to be a source of strength and satisfaction to the child of God, just as if he sat down to a sumptuous feast. If what we are doing tears us down instead of builds us up, then we may well question whether it is the will of God for us.
Our Lord did not look on the Father’s will as a heavy burden or a distasteful task. He viewed His work as the very nourishment of His soul. Doing the Father’s will fed Him and satisfied Him inwardly. “I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy Law is within my heart” (). The Samaritan woman was now doing the Father’s will and finding excitement and enrichment in it.
Jesus then changed the image from that of food to that of the harvest, which is the source of the food. He quoted the familiar Jewish proverb about waiting for the harvest, and then pointed to the villagers even then coming out to the well to meet Him, thanks to the witness of the woman. The disciples went into the village to get food for themselves, but they did no evangelizing. The woman took their place!
The image of the harvest is a familiar one in the Bible and is often applied to the ministry of winning lost souls. Both the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Tares () relate to this theme, and Paul used it in his letters (; ; ). We plant the seed of God’s Word in the hearts of people who hear it, and we seek to cultivate that seed by our love and prayers. In due time, that seed may bear fruit to the glory of God.
No doubt the disciples had said, as they approached the city of Sychar, “There can be no harvest here! These people despise us Jews and would have no use for our message.” But just the opposite was true: the harvest was ready and only needed faithful workers to claim it. For some reason, when it comes to witnessing for Christ, it is always the wrong time and the wrong place! It takes faith to sow the seed, and we must do it even when the circumstances look discouraging. Read and take it to heart!
There is no competition in the Lord’s harvest. Each of us has an assigned task and we are all a part of each other’s labors (). One sows, one reaps; but each worker gets his honest reward for the work he has done.
indicates that others had labored in Samaria and had prepared the way for this harvest. We do not know who these faithful workers were, nor do we need to know; for God will reward them. Perhaps some of these people had heard John the Baptist preach, or perhaps some of John’s followers had reached into this difficult field. Some archeologists have located “Aenon near Salim” where John baptized () near the biblical Shechem, which is close to Sychar and Jacob’s well. If this is the case, then John the Baptist prepared the soil and planted the seed, and Jesus and the disciples reaped the harvest. Of course, the woman herself planted some of the seed through her witness to the men.
The disciples were learning a valuable lesson that would encourage them in the years to come. They were not alone in the work of the Lord, and they must never look on any opportunity for witness as wasted time and energy. It takes faith to plow the soil and plant the seed, but God has promised a harvest (; ). In a few years, Peter and John would participate in another harvest among the Samaritans (). Those who sow may not see the harvest, but those who reap will see it and give thanks for the faithful labors of the sowers.
The Greek word translated “labor” in is translated “wearied” in . Sowing, cultivating, and harvesting are difficult tasks, not only in the physical realm, but also in the spiritual. There is no place in the harvest for lazy people. The work is too difficult and the laborers are too few.
Many of the Samaritans believed because of the testimony of the woman, and then many more believed when they heard Jesus personally. So excited were they about Him that they begged Him to stay with them; and He stayed for two days. During that short time, His word produced fruit in their lives.
It is important that new converts be grounded in the Word—the Bible. These Samaritans began their spiritual walk by trusting in what the woman said, but they soon learned to trust the Word taught by the Saviour. Theirs was no “secondhand” salvation. They knew that they were saved because they had believed His message. “Now we know!” was their happy testimony.
You would have thought that these Samaritans would have been narrow in their faith, seeing Jesus as the Saviour of the Jews and the Samaritans. But they declared that He was “the Saviour of the world” (). They had been converted only a few days, but they already had a missionary vision! In fact, their vision was wider than that of the Apostles!
It is interesting to trace our Lord’s movements that brought Him to Samaria. He was in Jerusalem () and then came into Judea (). From Judea He went into Samaria (), and the Samaritans declared Him to be “the Saviour of the world.” This is a perfect parallel to —“And ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Our Lord has set the example. If we follow, He will give us the harvest.
This unnamed Samaritan woman was a fruitful believer: she bore fruit (“many believed”), more fruit (“many more believed”), and today continues to bear “much fruit” to the glory of God (see ). Nobody knows how many lost sinners have come to the Saviour because of the witness of this woman recorded in John 4.
Our Lord continued His journey to Galilee () and came again to Cana. Galilee was known as “Galil ha goyim—Galilee of the Gentiles.” Apparently Jesus had detected in Judea (His own country) the increasing hostility of the religious leaders, though the real opposition would not yet appear for some months. Our Lord was really never identified with Judea even though He had been born in Bethlehem. He was known as the Prophet from Galilee (; ). Jesus knew that the public response to His ministry in Jerusalem had been insincere and shallow (), and that it was not honoring to Him at all.
Why did Jesus return to Cana? Perhaps He wanted to cultivate the “seed” He had planted there when He attended the wedding feast. Nathanael came from Cana, so perhaps there was a personal reason for this visit. Jesus was met at Cana by a nobleman from Capernaum, some twenty miles away. The man had heard about His miracles and came all that distance to intercede for his son who was dying. The first miracle at Cana came at the request of His mother (), and this second miracle at Cana at the request of a father ().
Was this man a Jew or a Gentile? We do not know. Nor do we know his exact position in the government. He may have been a member of Herod’s court; but whatever his national or social standing, he was clearly at his wit’s end and desperately needed the help of the Saviour. He “kept beseeching Him” to travel to Capernaum to heal his son.
was not a rebuke of this nobleman. Rather, it was our Lord’s lament at the spiritual condition of the people in general, both in Judea and Galilee. “Seeing is believing” has always been the “pragmatic” philosophy of the lost world, even the religious world. The nobleman believed that Jesus could heal his son, but he made two mistakes in his thinking: that Jesus had to go to Capernaum to save the lad, and that if the boy died meanwhile, it was too late.
We must admire this man’s faith. Jesus simply said, “Go thy way; thy son liveth” (). And the man believed Jesus and started to return home! Both the Samaritan woman and this anonymous nobleman must have rejoiced the heart of Jesus as they believed the word and acted on it.
The boy was healed the instant Jesus spoke those words; so the man’s servants started out to find him so they could share the good news. (Again, it is the servants who know what is going on. See ; .) The boy had been healed at the seventh hour, which, in Roman time, would be 7 o’clock in the evening. The father certainly would not have traveled at night, for that would have been dangerous; nor would the servants have taken that risk. The father’s faith was so strong that he was willing to delay going home, even though his heart yearned to see his beloved son.
When the father and the servants met the next day, their report confirmed his faith. Note that the father thought the healing would be gradual (“began to improve”); but the servants reported a complete, instant recovery.
This man began with crisis faith. He was about to lose his son and he had no other recourse but the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people came to Jesus with their crises, and He did not turn them away. The nobleman’s crisis faith became confident faith: he believed the Word and had peace in his heart. He was even able to delay his trip home, knowing that the boy was out of danger.
His confident faith became confirmed faith. Indeed, the boy had been completely healed! And the healing took place at the very time when Jesus spoke the Word. It was this fact that made a believer out of the nobleman and his household. He believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God; and he shared this faith with his family. He had contagious faith and shared his experience with others.
This is one of several miracles that Jesus performed “at a distance.” He healed the centurion’s servant from a distance (, and note that he too lived in Capernaum), and He healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman in the same manner (). These two were Gentiles and, spiritually speaking, were “at a distance” (). Perhaps this nobleman was also a Gentile. We do not know.
does not state that this healing was the second miracle that Jesus ever performed, for that would contradict and . This was the second miracle He performed in Cana of Galilee (see , ). He certainly gave those people special privileges.
But we must note that both miracles were “private” rather than public. Mary, the disciples, and the servants knew where the excellent wine had come from, but the guests did not. (Of course, it is possible that the servants told the story to others.) The nobleman’s son was healed at Capernaum, not Cana; but news traveled rapidly in those days and certainly the word got out.
Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding revealed His power over time. The Father is always making water into wine, but He takes a season or two to finish the work. Jesus made the wine instantly. In this sense, our Lord’s miracles were only instantaneous copies of what the Father is always doing. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (). The Father is constantly multiplying bread, season after season, but the Son multiplied it instantly.
In the second recorded miracle, Jesus showed His power over space. He was not limited simply because He was in Cana and the sick boy was in Capernaum. The fact that the father believed the word and did not know the results until the next day is evidence that he had confident faith. He trusted the word that Jesus spoke, and so should we.
John 5
Our Lord’s first two miracles recorded by John were somewhat private in nature. The servants and the disciples knew that He transformed the water into wine, and the servants and the nobleman’s family knew that He had healed the sick son. The miracle recorded in John 5 was not only public, but it was performed on the Sabbath Day and incited the opposition of the religious leaders. We see here the beginning of “official persecution” against the Saviour.
There are three exciting “acts” in this drama.
When you visit St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem, they will show you the deep excavation that has revealed the ancient Pool of Bethesda. The Hebrew name Bethesda has been spelled various ways and given differing meanings. Some say it means “house of mercy” or “house of grace,” but others say it means “place of the two outpourings.” There is historical and archeological evidence that two adjacent pools of water served this area in ancient times.
The pool is situated near the northeast corner of the Old City, close to the Sheep Gate (; ). Perhaps John saw some spiritual significance to this location, for he had already told his readers that Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of God” ().
We do not know which feast Jesus was observing when He went to Jerusalem, and it is not important that we know. His main purpose for going was not to maintain a religious tradition but to heal a man and use the miracle as the basis for a message to the people. The miracle illustrated what He said in —the power of His Word and the gift of life.
While it is true that some manuscripts omit the end of and all of verse 4, it is also true that the event (and the man’s words in ) would make little sense if these words are eliminated. Why would anybody, especially a man sick for so many years, remain in one place if nothing special were occurring? You would think that after thirty-eight years of nothing happening to anybody, the man would go elsewhere and stop hoping! It seems wisest for us to accept the fact that something extraordinary kept all these handicapped people at this pool, hoping for a cure.
John described these people as “impotent, blind, lame, paralyzed.” What havoc sin has wrought in this world! But the healing of these infirmities was one of the prophesied ministries of the Messiah (). Had the religious leaders known their own Scriptures, they would have recognized their Redeemer; but they were spiritually blind.
No matter how you look at this miracle, it is an illustration of the grace of God. It was grace that brought Jesus to the Pool of Bethesda, for who would want to mingle with a crowd of helpless people! Jesus did not heal all of them; He singled out one man and healed him. The fact that Jesus came to the man, spoke to him, healed him, and then met him later in the temple is proof of His wonderful grace and mercy.
John noted that the man had been ill for thirty-eight years. Perhaps he saw in this a picture of his own Jewish nation that had wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years (). Spiritually speaking, Israel was a nation of impotent people, waiting hopelessly for something to happen.
Jesus knew about the man (see ) and asked him if he wanted to be healed. You would think that the man would have responded with an enthusiastic, “Yes! I want to be healed!” But, instead, he began to give excuses! He had been in that sad condition for so long that his will was as paralyzed as his body. But if you compare with verse , you will see that Jesus had a spiritual lesson in mind as well. Indeed, this man did illustrate the tragic spiritual state of the nation.
The Lord healed him through the power of His spoken word. He commanded the man to do the very thing he was unable to do, but in His command was the power of fulfillment (see ; ). The cure was immediate and certainly some of the many people at the pool must have witnessed it. Jesus did not pause to heal anyone else; instead, He “moved away” () so as not to create a problem. (The Greek word means “to dodge.”)
The miracle would have caused no problem except that it occurred on the Sabbath Day. Our Lord certainly could have come a day earlier, or even waited a day; but He wanted to get the attention of the religious leaders. Later, He would deliberately heal a blind man on the Sabbath (). The scribes had listed thirty-nine tasks that were prohibited on the Sabbath, and carrying a burden was one of them. Instead of rejoicing at the wonderful deliverance of the man, the religious leaders condemned him for carrying his bed and thereby breaking the law.
It is not easy to understand the relationship between this man and Jesus. There is no evidence that he believed on Christ and was converted, yet we cannot say that he was opposed to the Saviour. In fact, he did not even know who it was that healed him until Jesus met him in the temple. No doubt the man went there to give thanks to God and to offer the appropriate sacrifices. It seems strange that the man did not actively seek a closer relationship with the One who healed him, but more than one person has gratefully accepted the gift and ignored the Giver.
Did the man “inform” on Jesus because of fear? We do not know. The Jewish leaders at least turned from him and aimed their accusations at Jesus Christ; and, unlike the healed blind man in John 9, this man was not excommunicated. The Lord’s words () suggest that the man’s physical plight had been the result of sin; but Jesus did not say that the man’s sins had been forgiven as He did in dealing with the sick man lowered through the roof (see ). It is possible to experience an exciting miracle and still not be saved and go to heaven!
The Jewish leaders did not prosecute the man who was healed, even though he had broken the law; but they did begin to persecute the Lord Jesus. As the guardians of the faith, the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin (the religious ruling council) had the responsibility of investigating new preachers and teachers who appeared in the land, lest some false prophet come along and lead the people astray. They had looked into the ministry of John the Baptist () and more recently had been scrutinizing the ministry of Jesus.
Jesus had healed a demoniac on the Sabbath (), so the Sanhedrin was already suspicious. In the days following the miracle recorded in John 5, Jesus would defend His disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath (), and would heal a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath (). He deliberately challenged the legalistic traditions of the scribes and Pharisees. They had taken the Sabbath—God’s gift to man—and had transformed it into a prison house of regulations and restrictions.
When they confronted Jesus with His unlawful conduct, He simply replied that He was doing only what His Father was doing! God’s Sabbath rest had been broken by man’s sin (see Gen. 3); and ever since the fall of man, God has been seeking lost sinners and saving them. But when Jesus said “My Father” instead of the usual “our Father,” used by the Jews, He claimed to be equal with God.
The Jewish leaders instantly understood His claim, and they changed their accusation from that of Sabbath-breaking to blasphemy, because Jesus claimed to be God. Liberal theologians who say that Jesus never claimed to be God have a difficult time with this passage.
Of course, the penalty for such blasphemy was death. It is here that the “official persecution” of Jesus began, culminating in His crucifixion. In the days that followed, our Lord often confronted His enemies with their evil desire to kill Him (, ; , ). They hated Him without a cause (). They ignored the good deeds that He performed for the helpless and hopeless, and centered their attention on destroying Him.
Jesus made Himself equal with God because He is God. This is the theme of John’s Gospel. The Jewish leaders could not disprove His claims, so they tried to destroy Him and get Him out of the way. Both in His crucifixion and His resurrection, Jesus openly affirmed His deity and turned His enemies’ weapons against them.
British writer George MacDonald pointed out that gives us a profound insight into our Lord’s miracles. Jesus did instantly what the Father is always doing slowly. For example, in nature, as mentioned earlier, the Father is slowly turning water into wine; but Jesus did it instantly. Through the powers in nature, the Father is healing broken bodies; but Jesus healed them immediately. Nature is repeatedly multiplying bread, from sowing to harvest; but Jesus multiplied it instantly in His own hands.
In response to their accusations, Jesus made three significant claims that proved His sonship.
He claimed to be equal with God (vv. ). Instead of denying their accusation, He endorsed it! If today a man made this kind of a claim, we would conclude that he was joking or mentally disturbed. Jesus was certainly not insane, and there is every evidence that He was deadly serious when He spoke these words. Either He is what He claims to be, or He is a liar; and if He is a liar, how do you explain all the good He has done in the lives of needy people? Nobody wants to trust a liar; Jesus’ disciples were willing to die for Him.
Jesus claimed to be one with His Father in His works. If healing a man on the Sabbath was a sin, then the Father was to blame! Jesus did nothing “of Himself” but only that which the Father was doing. The Father and the Son worked together, doing the same deeds in the same way. “I and the Father are One” ().
When our Lord came to earth as man, He submitted Himself to the Father in everything. “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (). He veiled His glory and laid aside the independent exercise of His divine attributes. In the wilderness, Satan tempted Him to use His divine powers for Himself; but He refused to act independently. He was totally dependent on the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
Not only did the Father show the Son His works and enable Him to do them, but the Father also shared His love (). The first three Gospels open with the Father calling Jesus “My beloved Son,” and John echoed this statement in . We usually think of the Father’s love for the lost world, as in ; but we must also remember the Father’s love for His dear Son.
Because the Father loves the Son, the Father shows Him His works. The blind religious leaders could not see what Jesus was doing, because they did not know the Father or the Son. In fact, even greater works were in the Father’s plan, works that would cause them to marvel. Perhaps He had in mind the healing of Lazarus; for in , He mentioned the raising of the dead.
For Jesus to claim to have power to raise the dead was a blasphemous thing in the eyes of the Jewish leaders; they gave that power to God alone. They said that Jehovah held the three great keys: the key to open the heavens and give rain (); the key to open the womb and give conception (); and the key to open the grave and raise the dead (). As far as the Gospel records are concerned, Jesus had not yet raised anyone from the dead; so to make this claim was to invite even more opposition.
certainly can mean much more than the physical raising of people from the dead, for certainly Jesus was referring to His gift of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. He amplified this truth further as recorded in .
So, Jesus claimed to be equal with the Father in His works, but He also claimed to be equal with the Father in executing judgment (). To the orthodox Jew, Jehovah God was “the Judge of all the earth” (); and no one dared to apply that august title to himself. But Jesus did! By claiming to be the Judge, He claimed to be God. “Because He [God] hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained” ().
Our Lord claimed equality in another area, namely, equal honor with the Father (). The fact that He is the appointed Judge should cause men to honor Him. What a tremendous claim: if you do not honor the Son, you are not honoring the Father! The “religious” people who say that they worship God, but who deny the deity of Christ, have neither the Father nor the Son! Apart from Jesus Christ, we cannot know the Father, worship the Father, or serve the Father.
He claimed to have authority to raise the dead (vv. ). For a second time, Jesus introduced His words with the solemn “verily, verily” (see , ). More than twenty times in John’s Gospel you will find Jesus using this solemn form of address. It is as though He was saying, “Pay attention to this! What I am about to say is important!”
In this fascinating paragraph, Jesus spoke about four different resurrections. He described the resurrection of lost sinners into eternal life (see ; ). The lost sinner is as lifeless and helpless as a corpse. No matter how an undertaker may prepare a corpse, it is still dead; and no corpse is “deader” than any other corpse. If you are dead, you are dead! The lost sinner is helpless to save himself and he certainly cannot give himself life.
How are dead sinners raised from the dead? By hearing God’s Word and believing on God’s Son. Jesus healed the paralyzed man at the pool by His word (). Each time He raised somebody from the dead, He spoke the word (; ; ). His Word is “living and powerful” () and can raise sinners from spiritual death. “Everlasting life” means that they can never die spiritually again, nor can they ever come into judgment (). To hear His Word and believe means salvation; to reject His Word means condemnation ().
The second resurrection mentioned is the resurrection of our Lord Himself (). Our life is derived, but His life is original, “in Himself.” “In Him was life” (). The grave could not hold Him because He is “the Prince of Life” (; ). Jesus laid down His life and then took it up again (). Because He has life in Himself, He can share that life with all who will trust Him.
The third resurrection named is the future resurrection of life, when believers are raised from the dead (). This wonderful truth is explained in and 1 Corinthians 15. Keep in mind that resurrection is not reconstruction. It does not imply that God “puts the pieces back together again.” The resurrection body is a new body, a glorified body, suited to the new heavenly environment. Death is not the end for the believer, nor will he live in heaven as a disembodied spirit. God saves the whole person, and this includes the body (; ). This resurrection of life will take place when Jesus Christ returns in the air and calls His people to Himself.
The fourth resurrection He mentioned is the resurrection of condemnation (). This resurrection involves only the lost, and it will take place just before Jesus Christ ushers in the new heaven and the new earth (). What an awesome event that will be, when the dead “small and great” stand before Jesus Christ! The Father has committed all judgment to the Son () and has given Him the authority to execute judgment (). Today Jesus Christ is the Saviour, but one day He shall sit as the Judge.
The title “Son of man” used in refers to and is a definite messianic title. It is used twelve times in John’s Gospel and over eighty times in all four Gospels. The Jews would know this title from their reading of the Book of Daniel; and they would know that, by using it, Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah, and the Judge.
Believers will be given resurrection bodies so that they might reign with Christ in glory. Unbelievers will be given resurrection bodies—but not glorified bodies—that they might be judged and then suffer punishment in those bodies. Bodies that were used for sin will suffer the consequences of that sin.
The fact that Jesus has the authority to raise the dead is proof that He is equal with the Father, and therefore He is God.
He claimed that there are valid witnesses who support His claim to deity (vv. ). The word witness is a key word in John’s Gospel; it is used forty-seven times. Jesus did bear witness to Himself, but He knew they would not accept it; so He called in three other witnesses.
The first was John the Baptist (), whom the religious leaders had interrogated carefully (). In fact, at the very end of His ministry, our Lord pointed the rulers back to the witness of John the Baptist (). John knew who Jesus was and faithfully declared what he knew to the people of Israel. John told the people that Jesus was the Lord (), the Lamb of God (, ), and the Son of God ().
John was a “burning and a shining lamp” (Jesus is the Light, ), and the Jewish people were excited about his ministry. However, their enthusiasm cooled; and nobody lifted a finger to try to deliver John when he was arrested by Herod. The leaders looked on John as a “local celebrity” (), but they did not want to receive his message of repentance. The publicans and sinners accepted John’s message and were converted, but the religious leaders refused to submit ().
Whenever God raises up a spiritual leader who commands attention, there is always the danger of attracting people who want to bask in his popularity but not submit to his authority. A “mixed multitude” followed Moses and Israel out of Egypt, people who were impressed with the miracles but not yielded to the Lord. The prophets and Apostles, as well as the great leaders in church history, all had to put up with shallow people who followed the crowd but refused to obey the truth. We have them in churches today.
Our Lord’s second witness was the witness of His miracles (). You will remember that John selected seven of these “signs” to include in his Gospel as proof that Jesus is the Son of God (). Jesus made it clear that His works were the works of the Father (; ). Even Nicodemus had to admit that our Lord’s miracles identified Him as “sent from God” ().
But the Bible also records miracles performed by ordinary men, such as Moses, Elijah, and Paul. Do these miracles prove that they are also sent of God? Yes, they do (see ), but none of these men ever claimed to be the very Son of God. No servant of God able to perform God’s mighty works would ever claim to be God Himself. The fact that Jesus made this claim, backed up by His mighty works and perfect life, is evidence that His claim is true.
Jesus indicated that the Father gave Him a specific ministry to finish while He was here on earth. “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (). He was not only on a divine timetable, but He followed a divine agenda. He had specific works to accomplish in the Father’s will.
Since the Old Testament Law required the testimony of two or three witnesses (; ), the Lord met that requirement by giving three trustworthy witnesses.
The third and final witness our Lord summoned was the Word of the Father (). The Jewish people highly revered the written Word of God, particularly the Law that was given through Moses. Moses heard God’s voice and saw God’s glory; but we have that same voice and glory in the inspired Word of God (see ). The Old Testament Scriptures bear witness to Jesus Christ, yet the people who received and preserved that Word were blind to their own Messiah. Why?
For one thing, they did not permit that Word to generate faith in their hearts (). is probably a statement of fact and not a command and could be rendered: “Ye search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life.” The Jewish scribes sought to know the Word of God, but they did not know the God of the Word! They counted the very letters of the text, but they missed the spiritual truths that the text contained.
Because of my radio ministry, I often receive letters from people who disagree with my interpretations or applications of Scripture; and sometimes these letters are quite angry. (I will not quote here the language I have seen in letters from professed Christians!) It is unfortunate when our “study” of the Bible makes us arrogant and militant instead of humble and anxious to serve others, even those who disagree with us. The mark of true Bible study is not knowledge that puffs up, but love that builds up ().
So, there was something wrong with the minds of these Jewish leaders: they did not see Christ in their own Scriptures (see ; ). But there was also something wrong with their wills: they would not trust in the Saviour. Because they did not have the Word in their hearts, they did not want Christ in their hearts. They were religious and self-righteous, but they were not saved.
These leaders had a third problem, and this was the lack of love in their hearts. “Ye have not the love of God in you” (). This means the experience of God’s love for them as well as their expression of love for God. They claimed to love God, but their attitude toward Jesus Christ proved that their love was counterfeit.
Their attitude toward God’s Word hindered their faith, but so also did their attitude toward themselves and one another. The Pharisees enjoyed being honored by men (see ) and they did not seek for the honor that comes from God alone. They did not honor the Son () because He did not honor them! Because they rejected the true Son of God who came in the Father’s name, they would one day accept a false messiah, the Antichrist, who would come in his own name (; and see 2 Thes. 2; Rev. 13). If we reject that which is true, we will ultimately receive that which is false.
Our Lord closed this penetrating sermon by warning the Jewish leaders that Moses, whom they honored, would be their judge, not their savior. The very Scriptures that they used to defend their religion would one day bear witness against them. The Jews knew what Moses wrote, but they did not really believe what he wrote. It is one thing to have the Word in our hands or our heads, but quite another thing to have it in our hearts. Jesus is the Word made flesh (), and the written Word bears witness to the Incarnate Word. “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” ().
The witness of John the Baptist, the witness of the divine miracles, and the witness of the Word of God all unite to declare that Jesus Christ is indeed One with the Father and the very Son of God.
Our Lord was not intimidated by the accusations of the religious leaders. If you check a harmony of the Gospels, you will see that after the events recorded in John 5, Jesus deliberately violated the Sabbath again! He permitted His disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath, and He healed a man with a withered hand (). These events probably took place in Galilee, but the news would certainly reach the leaders in Jerusalem and Judea.
The healing of the man on the Sabbath would come up again (). The leaders would persist in protecting tradition instead of understanding truth (see ). But before we judge them, perhaps we ought to examine our own lives and churches. Are we permitting religious tradition to blind us to the truth of God’s Word? Are we so involved in “Bible study” that we fail to see Jesus Christ in the Word? Does our knowledge of the Bible give us a “big head” or a “burning heart”?
John 6
Since John’s Gospel is selective (), he does not record events in the life of Jesus that do not help him fulfill his purpose. Between the healing of the paralytic (John 5) and the feeding of the 5,000, you have many events taking place, some of which are mentioned in Luke 6:1–9:10 and Mark 3:1–6:30. During this period our Lord preached “the Sermon on the Mount” (Matt. 5–7) and gave the parables of the kingdom (Matt. 13).
The feeding of the 5,000 was a miracle of such magnitude that it is recorded in all four Gospels. A great multitude had been following Jesus for several days, listening to His teaching and beholding His miracles. Jesus had tried to “get away” to rest, but the needs of the crowd pressed on Him (). Because of His compassion, He ministered to the multitude in three different ways.
The problem, of course, was how to meet the needs of such a vast crowd of people. Four solutions were proposed.
First, the disciples suggested that Jesus send the people away (). Get rid of the problem (see ). But Jesus knew that the hungry people would faint on the way if somebody did not feed them. It was evening (), and that was no time for travel.
The second solution came from Philip in response to our Lord’s “test question” (): raise enough money to buy food for the people. Philip “counted the cost” and decided they would need the equivalent of 200 days’ wages! And even that would not provide bread enough to satisfy the hunger of all the men, women, and children (). Too often, we think that money is the answer to every need. Of course, Jesus was simply testing the strength of Philip’s faith.
The third solution came from Andrew, but he was not quite sure how the problem would be solved. He found a little boy who had a small lunch: two little fish and five barley cakes. Once again, Andrew is busy bringing somebody to Jesus (see ; ). We do not know how Andrew met this lad, but we are glad he did! Though Andrew does not have a prominent place in the Gospels, he was apparently a “people person” who helped solve problems.
The fourth solution came from our Lord, and it was the true solution. He took the little boy’s lunch, blessed it, broke it, handed it out to His disciples, and they fed the whole crowd! The miracle took place in the hands of the Saviour, not in the hands of the disciples. He multiplied the food; they only had the joyful privilege of passing it out. Not only were the people fed and satisfied, but the disciples salvaged twelve baskets of fragments for future use. The Lord wasted nothing.
The practical lesson is clear: whenever there is a need, give all that you have to Jesus and let Him do the rest. Begin with what you have, but be sure you give it all to Him. That little lad is to be commended for sharing his lunch with Christ, and his mother is to be commended for giving him something to give to Jesus. The gift of that little snack meant as much to Jesus as the pouring out of the expensive ointment ().
But did Jesus really perform a miracle? Perhaps the generosity of the boy only embarrassed the other people so that they brought out their hidden lunches and shared them all around. Nonsense! Jesus knows the hearts of men (; , , ) and He declared that the people were hungry. Surely He would have known of the existence of hidden food! Furthermore, the people themselves declared that this was a miracle and even wanted to crown Him King! () Had this event been only the result of mass psychology, the crowd would not have responded that way. John would never have selected this as one of the “signs” if it were not an authentic miracle.
It is significant that twice John mentioned the fact that Jesus gave thanks (, ). Matthew, Mark, and Luke all state that Jesus looked up to heaven when He gave thanks. By that act, He reminded the hungry people that God is the source of all good and needful gifts. This is a good lesson for us: instead of complaining about what we do not have, we should give thanks to God for what we do have, and He will make it go farther.
Jesus compelled the disciples to get into the boat (; ) because He knew they were in danger. The crowd was now aroused and there was a movement to make Him King. Of course, some of the disciples would have rejoiced at the opportunity to become famous and powerful! Judas would have become treasurer of the kingdom, and perhaps Peter would have been named prime minister! But this was not in the plan of God, and Jesus broke up the meeting immediately. Certainly the Roman government would have stepped in had a movement begun.
Did Jesus know that a storm was coming? Of course. Then why did He deliberately send His friends into danger? Quite the opposite is true: He was rescuing them from greater danger, the danger of being swept along by a fanatical crowd. But there was another reason for that storm: the Lord has to balance our lives; otherwise we will become proud and then fall. The disciples had experienced great joy in being part of a thrilling miracle. Now they had to face a storm and learn to trust the Lord more. The feeding of the 5,000 was the lesson, but the storm was the examination after the lesson.
Sometimes we are caught in a storm because we have disobeyed the Lord. Jonah is a good example. But sometimes the storm comes because we have obeyed the Lord. When that happens, we can be sure that our Saviour will pray for us, come to us, and deliver us. In writing the account of this event years later, perhaps John saw in it a picture of Christ and His church. Christ is in heaven interceding for us, but we are in the midst of the storms of life, trying to reach the shore. One day, He will come for us and we shall reach the port safely, the storms all past.
Actually, there were several miracles involved in this event. Jesus walked on the water, and so did Peter (). Jesus stilled the storm, and instantly the boat was on the other shore. Of course, all of this happened at night so that only Jesus and His disciples knew what had occurred. Jesus had led His people into the green pastures (), and now He brought them into the still waters (). What a wonderful Shepherd He is!
As you read the Gospel records, note that our Lord was never impressed by the great crowds. He knew that their motives were not pure and that most of them followed Him in order to watch His miracles of healing. “Bread and circuses” was Rome’s formula for keeping the people happy, and people today are satisfied with that kind of diet. Give them food and entertainment and they are happy. Rome set aside ninety-three days each year for public games at government expense. It was cheaper to entertain the crowds than to fight them or jail them.
We must never be deceived by the “popularity” of Jesus Christ among certain kinds of people today. Very few want Him as Saviour and Lord. Many want Him only as Healer or Provider, or the One who rescues them from problems they have made for themselves. “And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” ().
Jesus Teaches the Multitude ()
The purpose of the sign was that He might preach the sermon. Again, it was a ministry of “grace and truth” (). In grace, our Lord fed the hungry people; but in truth, He gave them the Word of God. They wanted the food but they did not want the truth; and, in the end, most of them abandoned Jesus and refused to walk with Him. He lost His crowd with one sermon!
The next day began with a mystery: how did Jesus get to Capernaum? The crowd saw the disciples embark to go across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, and then the men were lost in the storm. The crowd also saw Jesus leave the place and go by Himself to a mountain. But the next morning, here were Jesus and His disciples together in Capernaum! Certainly He had not walked around the lake, and there was no evidence that He had taken another boat. Other boats had arrived, no doubt driven in by the storm; but Jesus had not been in any of them.
No doubt some of the people who had been fed simply went away to their homes, while others stayed to see what Jesus would do next. Our Lord’s sermon probably began outdoors, and then the discussion moved into the synagogue (). It would be impossible for a huge crowd to participate in the synagogue service, though the overflow could remain outside and hear what was being said.
This sermon on “the bread of life” is actually a dialogue between Christ and the people, especially the religious leaders (“the Jews”). We see four responses of the crowd to the Lord Jesus in John 6: seeking (vv. ), murmuring (vv. ), striving (vv. ), and departing (vv. ).
Seeking (vv. ). The disciples may have been impressed that so many people stayed through a storm in order to seek their Master, but Jesus was not impressed. He knows the human heart. He knew that the people originally followed Him because of His miracles (), but now their motive was to get fed! Even if they were attracted only by the miracles, at least there was still a possibility they might be saved. After all, that is where Nicodemus started (). But now their interest had degenerated to the level of food.
Jesus pointed out that there are two kinds of food: food for the body, which is necessary but not the most important; and food for the inner man, the spirit, which is essential. What the people needed was not food but life, and life is a gift. Food only sustains life, but Jesus gives eternal life. The words of Isaiah come to mind: “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?” (, NASB)
The people picked up the word labor and misinterpreted it to mean they had to work for salvation. They completely missed the word give. Steeped in legalistic religion, they thought they had to “do something” to merit eternal life. Jesus made it clear that only one “work” was necessary—to believe on the Saviour. When a person believes on Christ, he is not performing a good work that earns him salvation. There is certainly no credit in believing, for it is what God does in response to our faith that is important (see ).
The crowd began by seeking Christ, but then started to seek a sign from Him. “For the Jews require a sign” (). The rabbis taught that, when Messiah came, He would duplicate the miracle of the manna (see Ex. 16). If Jesus was truly sent by God (see , , ), then let Him prove it by causing manna to fall from heaven. They wanted to “see and believe.” But faith that is based on signs alone, and not on the truth of the Word, can lead a person astray; for even Satan is able to perform “lying wonders” (). note also ; .
The quotation in is from , a psalm that records the unbelief and rebellion of the nation of Israel.
In His reply, our Lord sought to deepen the people’s understanding of the truth. It was God, not Moses, who gave the manna; so they must take their eyes off Moses and focus them on God. Also, God gave the manna in the past, but the Father is now giving the true bread in the person of Jesus Christ. The past event is finished, but the present spiritual experience goes on!
Then Jesus clearly identified what the bread is: He is the true Living Bread that came down from heaven. But He came, not only for Israel but for the whole world. And He came, not just to sustain life, but to give life! Seven times in this sermon, our Lord referred to His “coming down from heaven” (, , , , ), a statement that declared Him to be God. The Old Testament manna was but a type of the “true bread,” the Lord Jesus Christ.
This dialogue began with the crowd seeking Christ and then seeking a sign, but listeners soon began to seek the “true bread” that Jesus talked about. However, like the woman of Samaria, they were not ready for salvation (see ). She wanted the living water so she would not have to keep going to the well. The crowd wanted the bread so they would not have to toil to maintain life. People today still want Jesus Christ only for the benefits He is able to give.
In His reply to their impetuous request, Jesus used two key words that often appear in this sermon: come and believe. To come to Jesus means to believe on Him, and to believe on Him means to come to Him. Believing is not merely an intellectual thing, giving mental assent to some doctrine. It means to come to Christ and yield yourself to Him. At the close of His sermon, Jesus illustrated coming and believing by speaking about eating and drinking. To come to Christ and believe on Him means to receive Him within, just as you receive food and drink.
contains the first of seven great I AM statements recorded by John, statements that are found nowhere else in the Gospels. (For the other six, see ; , ; ; ; , .) God revealed Himself to Moses by the name I AM (Jehovah) (). God is the self-existent One who “is, and … was, and … is to come” (). When Jesus used the name I AM, He was definitely claiming to be God.
contains Jesus’ explanation of the process of personal salvation. These are among the most profound words He ever spoke, and we cannot hope to plumb their depths completely. He explained that salvation involves both divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The Father gives men and women to the Son (, ; , , , , ), but these men and women must come to Him, that is, believe on Him. He assured them that nobody who came to Him would ever be lost but would be raised at the last day. Even death cannot rob us of salvation! (In regard to the “last day,” see , , . Jesus was referring to His return and the final events that climax God’s program for mankind.)
From our human and limited perspective, we cannot see how divine sovereignty and human responsibility can work together; but from God’s perspective, there is no conflict. When a church member asked Charles Spurgeon how he reconciled these two, he replied, “I never try to reconcile friends.” It is the Father’s will that sinners be saved (; ) and that those who trust Christ be secure in their salvation. Believers receive eternal life and Jesus can never lose them.
Murmuring (vv. ). Our Lord’s statement “For I came down from heaven” (), disturbed the religious leaders, for they knew it was a claim of deity. They thought they knew Jesus, who He was and where He came from (see ; ). Jesus, of course, was the legal son of Joseph but not his natural son, for He was born of a virgin (). The leaders identified Jesus with Nazareth in Galilee, not Bethlehem in Judea; and they thought that Joseph was His natural father. Had they investigated the matter, they would have learned who Jesus really is.
Even in the days of Moses, the Jews were known for their murmuring (; ; ). Perhaps the leaders and some of the crowd had now moved into the synagogue to continue the discussion. The main issue was, “Where did He come from?” Five times Jesus used the phrase “came down from heaven,” but they would not accept it.
Jesus further explained how the sinner can come to God: it is through the truth of the Word (). The Father draws the sinner by His Word. Jesus quoted (or perhaps ) to prove His point: “And they shall all be taught of God.” It is through the teaching of the Word that God draws people to the Saviour. (note and its emphasis on hearing the Word.) The sinner hears, learns, and comes as the Father draws him. A mystery? Yes! A blessed reality? Yes!
This was basically the same message He gave after He had healed the paralytic (see ). The crowd wanted to see something, but their real need was to learn something. It is by the Word that we “see” God and receive the faith to come to Christ and trust Him ().
When Jesus called Himself “the Living Bread,” He was not claiming to be exactly like the manna. He was claiming to be even greater! The manna only sustained life for the Jews, but Jesus gives life to the whole world. The Jews ate the daily manna and eventually died; but when you receive Jesus Christ within, you live forever. When God gave the manna, He gave only a gift; but when Jesus came, He gave Himself. There was no cost to God in sending the manna each day, but He gave His Son at great cost. The Jews had to eat the manna every day, but the sinner who trusts Christ once is given eternal life.
It is not difficult to see in the manna a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. The manna was a mysterious thing to the Jews; in fact, the word manna means “What is it?” (see ) Jesus was a mystery to those who saw Him. The manna came at night from heaven, and Jesus came to this earth when sinners were in moral and spiritual darkness. The manna was small (His humility), round (His eternality), and white (His purity). It was sweet to the taste () and it met the needs of the people adequately.
The manna was given to a rebellious people; it was the gracious gift of God. All they had to do was stoop and pick it up. If they failed to pick it up, they walked on it. The Lord is not far from any sinner. All the sinner has to do is humble himself and take the gift that God offers.
Jesus closed this part of His message by referring to His flesh, a word that will be used six more times before the dialogue is concluded. is a declaration that the Son of God will give Himself as a sacrifice “for the life of the world.” The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ is a key doctrine in John’s Gospel. Jesus would die for the world (; ), for His sheep (, ), for the nation (), and for His friends (). Paul made it personal, and so should we: “Who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (). We must not limit the work of Christ on the cross. He is the sacrifice not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world ().
Striving (vv. ). The word striving means “to fight and quarrel.” Being orthodox Jews, the listeners knew the divine prohibition against eating human flesh or any kind of blood (; ; ). Here we have another example in John’s Gospel of the people misunderstanding a spiritual truth by treating it literally (see ; ; ). All Jesus said was, “Just as you take food and drink within your body and it becomes a part of you, so you must receive Me within your innermost being so that I can give you life.”
Some interpreters tell us that Jesus was speaking about the Lord’s Supper, and that we eat His flesh and drink His blood when we partake of the elements at the table, the bread and the cup. I do not believe that Jesus had the Communion (or eucharist) in mind when He spoke these words.
For one thing, why would He discuss the Lord’s Supper with a group of disagreeable unbelievers? He had not even shared that truth with His own disciples! Why would He cast this precious pearl before the swine?
Second, He made it clear that He was not speaking in literal terms (). He was using a human analogy to convey a spiritual truth, just as He did with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman.
Third, Jesus made it plain that this eating and drinking were absolutely essential for eternal life. He made no exceptions. If, then, He was speaking about a church ordinance (or sacrament), then everybody who has never shared in that experience is spiritually dead and is going to hell. This would include all the Old Testament saints, the thief on the cross, and a host of people who have trusted Christ in emergency situations (hospitals, accidents, foxholes, etc.). I personally cannot believe that our gracious God has excluded from salvation all who cannot participate in a church ceremony.
Another factor is the tense of the Greek verbs in , and . It is the aorist tense which signifies a once-for-all action. The Communion service is a repeated thing; in fact, it is likely that the early church observed the Lord’s Supper daily ().
It is significant that the word flesh is never used in any of the reports of the Lord’s Supper, either in the Gospels or in . The word used is “body.”
If a person holds that our Lord was speaking about the Communion service, then he must believe that somehow the two elements, the bread and the fruit of the vine, turn into the very body and blood of Christ; for He said, “So he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me” (, italics mine). How does this “miracle” take place? What is the secret of accomplishing it? Why is it not apparent?
Our Lord’s messages recorded in the Gospel of John are filled with symbolism and imagery. To take them literally is to make the same mistake the people made who first heard them.
Departing (vv. ). Our Lord’s teaching was not hard to understand but hard to accept once you understood it. The Jewish religious leaders both misunderstood His words and rejected them. They were “offended” by what He taught. (The Greek word is “scandalized.”) They stumbled over the fact that He claimed to come down from heaven. They also stumbled over the idea that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to be saved. But if they stumbled over these two matters, what would they do if they saw Him ascend back into heaven? ()
Jesus explained that His language was figurative and spiritual, not literal. There is no salvation in “flesh.” In fact, the New Testament has nothing good to say about “the flesh.” There is nothing good in it () and we must not have confidence in it ().
How, then, do we “eat His flesh and drink His blood”? Through the Word. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (). “And the Word became flesh” (). Our Lord said the same thing: “He that heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life” (). The scribes who knew would have understood the concept of receiving God’s Word into one’s inner being.
The result of this message was the loss of most of our Lord’s disciples. They went back to the old life, the old religion, and the old hopeless situation. Jesus Christ is “the way” (), but they would not walk with Him. This was no surprise to the Lord, because He knows the hearts of all people.
When Jesus asked His 12 Apostles if they planned to desert Him too, it was Peter who spoke up and declared their faith. Where else could they go? “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Peter got the message! He knew that Jesus was speaking about the Word and not about literal flesh and blood.
Peter was one of several people who declared their belief that Jesus is the Son of God (see , ; ; ; ; ; , ; ; ). The only mistake he made was to bear witness for the entire group. Peter was sure that all of the Apostles were believers, which shows how convincing Judas was. Even Peter did not know that Judas was an unbeliever!
The preaching of the Word of God always leads to a sifting of the hearts of the listeners. God draws sinners to the Saviour through the power of truth, His Word. Those who reject the Word will reject the Saviour. Those who receive the Word will receive the Saviour and experience the new birth, eternal life.
Do you feel your need because there is a spiritual hunger within? Are you willing to admit that need and come to the Saviour? If you will, He will save you and satisfy you forever!
John 7
The Feast of Tabernacles looked back to Israel’s journey through the wilderness, and looked forward to the promised kingdom of Messiah. The Jews lived in booths made of branches to remind them of God’s providential care of the nation for nearly forty years ().
Following the Feast of Trumpets and the solemn Day of Atonement, Tabernacles was a festive time for the people. The temple area was illumined by large candlesticks that reminded the people of the guiding pillar of fire; and each day the priests would carry water from the Pool of Siloam and pour it out from a golden vessel, reminding the Jews of the miraculous provision of water from the rock.
The feast may have been a jubilant time for the people, but it was a difficult time for Jesus, for it marked the beginning of open and militant opposition to Him and His ministry. Ever since He had healed the paralytic on the Sabbath Day, Jesus had been targeted by the Jewish leaders who wanted to kill Him (, , , , , ; and note , ). He remained in Galilee, where He would be safer, but He could not remain in Galilee and also observe the feast.
John 7 has three time divisions: before the feast (vv. ), in the midst of the feast (vv. ), and on the last day of the feast (vv. ). The responses during each of those periods can be characterized by three words: disbelief, debate, and division.
Before the Feast: Disbelief ()
Mary bore other children, with Joseph as their natural father (; ); so Jesus would have been their half brother. It seems incredible that His brothers could have lived with Him all those years and not realized the uniqueness of His person. Certainly they knew about His miracles (see ) since everybody else did. Having been in the closest contact with Him, they had the best opportunity to watch Him and test Him; yet they were still unbelievers.
Here were men going up to a religious feast, yet rejecting their own Messiah! How easy it is to follow tradition and miss eternal truth. The publicans and sinners were rejoicing at His message, but His own half brothers were making fun of Him.
These men certainly had the world’s point of view: if you want to get a following, use your opportunities to do something spectacular. Jerusalem would be crowded with pilgrims and this would give Jesus the ideal “platform” to present Himself and win disciples. No doubt the brothers knew that the multitude of disciples had deserted Jesus (). This was His opportunity to recoup His losses. Satan had offered a similar suggestion three years before ().
Jesus had already turned down the crowd’s offer to make Him King (), and He was not about to yield to them in any way. Celebrities might ride to success on the applause of the crowd, but God’s servants know better. By doing miracles during the feast, at the “official city,” Jesus could muster a crowd, reveal Himself as Messiah, and overcome the enemy. The suggestion, of course, came from hearts and minds blinded by unbelief. This unbelief had been prophesied in —“I am become a stranger unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother’s children.” (Since Jesus was not Joseph’s natural son, He could not say “My father’s children.”)
It was not the right time for Jesus to show Himself to the world (). One day He shall return, and “every eye shall see Him” (). We have noticed that our Lord lived on a “divine timetable” that was marked out by the Father (; , , ; ; ; ; ).
Jesus was exercising caution because He knew that the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Him. Though they were “religious” leaders, they were a part of “the world” that hated Jesus because He exposed their evil works. By His character and His ministry, He revealed the shallowness and emptiness of their futile religious system; He called the people back to the reality of life in God. History reveals that the “religious system” often persecutes the very prophets of God who are sent to save it!
Some manuscripts do not have the word yet in , but its absence does not alter the thrust of the statement. Jesus was certainly not lying or being evasive; rather, He was exercising sensible caution. Suppose He told His brothers His plans, and they told somebody else? Could the information possibly get to the leaders? “I am going to the feast when the right time comes,” is what He said. After His family had gone, Jesus went to Jerusalem “under cover,” so as not to call attention to Himself.
In our Lord’s actions, we see a beautiful illustration of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The Father had a plan for His Son, and nothing could spoil that plan. Jesus did not tempt the Father by rushing to the feast, nor did He lag behind when the proper time had come for Him to attend the feast. It requires spiritual discernment to know God’s timing.
In the Midst of the Feast: Debate ()
Note that this public debate about the Lord Jesus involved three different groups of people. First, of course, were the Jewish leaders (“the Jews”) who lived in Jerusalem and were attached to the temple ministry. This would include the Pharisees and the chief priests (most of whom were Sadducees) as well as the scribes. These men differed theologically, but they agreed on one thing: their opposition to Jesus Christ and their determination to get rid of Him. The exceptions would be Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea ().
The second group would be “the people” (, , ). This would be the festival crowd that had come to Jerusalem to worship. Many of them would not be influenced by the attitude of the religious leaders at Jerusalem. You will note in that “the people” were amazed that anybody would want to kill Jesus! They were not up to date on all the gossip in the city and had to learn the hard way that Jesus was considered a law-breaker by the officials.
The third group was composed of the Jews who resided in Jerusalem (). They, of course, would have likely sided with the religious leaders.
The debate began before Jesus even arrived at the city, and it centered on His character (). The religious leaders “kept seeking” Jesus, while the crowd kept arguing whether He was a good man or a deceiver. He would have to be one or the other, because a truly good man would not deceive anybody. Yes, Jesus is either what He claims to be, or He is a liar.
But when Jesus began to teach openly in the temple, the debate shifted to His doctrine (). Character and doctrine go together, of course. It would be foolish to trust the teachings of a liar! The Jews were amazed at what He taught because He did not have any credentials from their approved rabbinical schools. But since He lacked this “proper accreditation,” His enemies said that His teachings were nothing but private opinions and not worth much. It has often been said that Jesus taught with authority, while the scribes and Pharisees taught from authorities, quoting all the famous rabbis.
Jesus explained that His doctrine came from the Father. He had already made it clear that He and the Father were one in the works that He performed () and in the judgment that He executed (). Now He claimed that His teachings also came from the Father, and He would make that astounding claim again (, ). When I teach the Word of God, I can claim authority for the Bible but not for all of my interpretations of the Bible. Jesus rightly could claim absolute authority for everything that He taught!
But does not every religious teacher make a similar claim? How, then, can we know that Jesus is teaching us the truth? By obeying what He tells us to do. God’s Word proves itself true to those who will sincerely do it. The British preacher F.W. Robertson said that “obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge.” literally reads, “If any man is willing to do His [God’s] will, he shall know.” This explains why the Jewish leaders did not understand Jesus’ teachings: they had stubborn wills and would not submit to Him ().
Is our Lord suggesting here a “pragmatic test” for divine truth? Is He saying, “Try it! If it works, it must be true!” and thus suggesting that if it does not work it must be false? This kind of a test would lead to confusion, for almost any cultist could say, “I tried what the cult teaches, and it works!”
No, our Lord’s statement goes much deeper. He was not suggesting a shallow “taste test” but rather the deep personal commitment of the person to truth. The Jews depended on education and authorities and received their doctrine secondhand, but Jesus insisted that we experience the authority of truth personally. The Jewish leaders were attempting to kill Jesus, yet at the same time they claimed to understand God’s truth and obey it. This proves that an enlightened and educated mind is no guarantee of a pure heart or a sanctified will. Some of the world’s worst criminals have been highly intelligent and well-educated people.
Satan offered Adam and Eve knowledge, but it was knowledge based on disobedience (). Jesus offered knowledge as the result of obedience: first the yoke of responsibility, then the joy of knowing God’s truth. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan said it perfectly: “When men are wholly, completely consecrated to the will of God and want to do that above everything else, then they find out that Christ’s teaching is divine, that it is the teaching of God.”
If we really seek God’s will, then we will not worry over who gets the glory. All truth is God’s truth and God alone deserves the glory for what He has taught us. No teacher or preacher can take the credit for what only can come from God. If he does go after the glory, then it is proof that his teaching is self-generated and not received from God. This is the origin of many cults and church splits: somebody “invents” a doctrine, takes credit for it, and uses it to divide God’s people.
The first “debate” was with the Jews: but the visitors to the city entered into the discussion (). Jesus had boldly announced that the leaders wanted to kill Him because He had violated the Sabbath and then claimed to be God (see ). The orthodox Jews broke the Sabbath laws when they had their sons circumcised on the Sabbath, so why could He not heal a man on the Sabbath? “Why go ye about to kill Me?”
The visitors, of course, did not know that their leaders were out to kill Jesus; so they challenged His statement. But their reply contained a serious accusation—that Jesus had a demon. This was not a new accusation, for the leaders had said it before (; ; ; ). “You must be crazy to think that anybody wants to kill You!”
Our Lord used the very Law of Moses to refute the enemy’s argument; but He knew that they would not give in. Why? Because their standard of judgment was not honest. They evaluated things on the basis of superficial examination of the facts. They judged on the basis of “seems” and not “is.” Unfortunately, too many people make that same mistake today. is the opposite of verse , where Jesus called for sincere devotion to truth.
The residents of Jerusalem entered the conversation (). They knew that the rulers wanted to kill Jesus, and they were amazed that He was teaching openly and getting away with it! Perhaps the rulers had been convinced that indeed He is the Messiah, sent from God! Then why were they not worshiping Him and leading others to worship Him?
Their question () suggested a negative answer: “No, the rulers do not believe that He is the Christ, do they?” They were able to defend their conclusion with logic:
1.Nobody knows where the Christ comes from.
2.We know where Jesus of Nazareth came from.
3.Conclusion: Jesus cannot be the Messiah.
Once again, the people could not see the truth because they were blinded by what they thought were dependable facts. Jesus had met this same kind of resistance in the synagogue in Capernaum (). Even the learned teachers—the “expert builders”—would not be able to identify the Chief Cornerstone, even though they had studied the God-given “blueprints” for centuries! ()
At this point, our Lord raised His voice so that everybody could hear (note also ). He was probably speaking in a tone revealing irony: “Yes, you think you know Me and where I came from! But really, you do not!” Then He explained why they did not know Him: they did not know the Father! This was a serious accusation to make against an orthodox Jew, for the Jews prided themselves in knowing the true God, the God of Israel.
But Jesus went even further: He boldly asserted that He not only knew the Father, but was sent by Him! He was once again claiming to be God! He was not simply born into this world like any other human; He was sent to earth by the Father. This means that He existed before He was born on the earth.
This was certainly a crisis hour in His ministry, and some of the leaders tried to have Him arrested; but “His hour was not yet come.” Many of the pilgrims put their faith in Him. It was a faith based on miracles, but at least it was a beginning (see ; , ). Nicodemus first became interested in Jesus because of His miracles (), and eventually he openly professed faith in Christ.
The Pharisees and chief priests, who presided over the Jewish religious establishment, resented the fact that the people were trusting in Jesus. Apparently these “believers” were not afraid to tell what they had done (, ). This time, the rulers sent members of the temple guard to arrest Jesus, but it was Jesus who “arrested” them! He warned them that they had but “a little while” to hear the truth, believe, and be saved (see ). It was not Jesus who was in danger, but those who wanted to arrest Him!
As in previous messages, the people misunderstood what Jesus was saying. Within six months, Jesus would go back to the Father in heaven, and the unsaved Jews would not be able to follow Him. What a contrast between “where I am, there ye cannot come” () and “that where I am, there ye may be also”! ()
Had these men been willing to do God’s will, they would have known the truth. Soon it would be too late.