Jesus Walks on the Water

John 6:14-21

Our scripture today is John’s account of Jesus walking on the water, a familiar story that Matthew and Mark also record in their gospels (Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52). Like the other gospels, this miraculous sign follows the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 (John 6:1-13). John’s version is a condensed, concise eyewitness report. Matthew and Mark include more details. For example they both tell us that Jesus compelled the disciples to get into the boat without Him to cross the lake that night while Jesus sends the crowds away (Matt. 14:22, Mark 6:45). John says that Jesus “departed again to the mountain by Himself alone,” (6:15). Matthew and Mark tell us He went there alone to pray (Matt. 14:23, Mark 6:46). John leaves out that Jesus saw the disciples straining at the rowing because the wind was against them, that it was the fourth watch of the night (between 3am and 6am), and that Jesus would have passed them by (Mark 4:48). Matthew, in his account, focuses more on the reactions and experience of the disciples. He tells us that Peter asks the Lord to command him to come to Jesus on the water. Peter’s water-walking doesn’t go so well and Jesus has to save him. Matthew also records the disciples’ worshipful response, “Truly You are the Son of God” (Matt. 14:33).

Here in John 6 the whole rest of the chapter is devoted to unfolding the implications of the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. All of the dialogue in chapter 6 after this story goes back to the feeding of the 5000 and is about Jesus being the Bread of Life. So that makes me ask, “Why did John include this sign in his Gospel? What does he want us to learn from it?” More →

Feeding the 5000

John 6:1-13

Have you ever had a time when you felt overwhelmed, where you felt inadequate and your resources were too little to help the situation? Most of us have.

And it doesn’t matter how old or young we are – we all face times when who we are and what we have are inadequate for the problems we face.

It could be the first day of school
or Monday morning’s algebra class
Or it might be the stack of bills that grow and grow,
or waiting to hear from the doctor’s office to learn about the test results,
or the frustration about the job — or the fear that the job will be lost,
Or when you have lost a loved one to death.

Our lives are full of experiences that seem overwhelming and beyond our capacity to handle. In John 6 the disciples of Jesus face a situation that seemed impossible, but they find that Jesus is more than enough when they are inadequate. More →

Why People Will Not Believe in Christ

John 5:41-47

The Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was launched in 1936.  Through four decades and a World War, she served until she was retired and anchored as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, California.  During the conversion process, her three massive smoke stacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted.  But on the dock they crumbled.  Nothing was left of the 3/4 inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed.  All that remained were more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years.

Here at the end of John 5 Jesus is directing His words toward His accusers, who are standing around him in their elegant robes and with their pious countenances. And He starts chipping away at their paint! More →

The Father’s Witness to Jesus

John 5:30-40

In the fifth chapter of John’s gospel Jesus makes some amazing claims about Himself. He makes these claims in response to the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem who are accusing Him of breaking the Sabbath law and of claiming to be equal with God. In His answer, Jesus reinforces His claims to be God. We saw in verses 19-29 that Jesus claims to be equal with God in His nature as the Son of God (5:17-18), in His works which He does just as the Father (5:17, 19), in His love and knowledge (5:20), in His power to give life to whom He wishes (5:21), in His authority to judge (5:22), and in His honor in worship (5:23). Not only that, but Jesus claims to be the One who gives eternal life (5:24) and who will raise the dead (5:28-29) and judge the world (5:27,30).

People must have listened with open-mouthed amazement as Jesus made these claims. Many of them were likely thinking, “How do we know he is telling the truth? What evidence does he give? Who can corroborate his claims?” Knowing their minds and hearts, Jesus proceeds to call forth witnesses to His credentials. 

So the question we are going to answer today is: How can you know that Jesus is the Son of God? More →

Resurrection and Judgment

John 5:24-30

A few years ago, a TV AD FOR LIFE INSURANCE showed a businessman walking across a busy city street. He leaped for the curb as a car veered toward him. Somewhat ruffled, he said, “That was close! I didn’t think I was going to make it.” Suddenly two men in white suits joined him on the busy street, and one of them said, “You didn’t!”

As the three men began walking together, the businessman remarked that at least he had peace of mind because his family was covered by insurance. But the real punchline came at the end of the ad. While the man and his two escorts were riding an escalator up into the clouds, he said with relief, “I’m sure glad we’re going up!”

That last line was meant to provide some comic relief, but for the thoughtful person it raises the serious issue of heaven and hell, of resurrection and judgment. It reminds us of Jesus’ words in John 5 that indicate not all people are “going up.” He said that some would experience “the resurrection of life” and others “the resurrection of condemnation.”

Here in John 5 Jesus claims to be the one who raises the dead and judges them. Jesus’ words here in John 5 are his response to the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem after He healed the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day. This healing prompted the Jews to accuse Him not only of breaking the Sabbath, but also of claiming to be equal with God (5:19).

Jesus answers their charge by reinforcing His claims to be God. More →

From Death to Life

John 5:24-30

Here in John 5 Jesus is replying to the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem after He healed the man at the pool of Bethesda. This healing prompted the Jews to accuse Him not only of breaking the Sabbath, but also of claiming to be equal with God (5:19). And Jesus, rather than recoiling from such a charge with shock and backing off, Jesus intensified His claims to be God. We saw this last time in verses 19-23. Jesus claimed to be equal with God in His nature (5:17-18), His works (5:17, 19), His love and knowledge (5:20), His power to give life (5:21), His authority to judge (5:22), and His honor in worship (5:23). No mere man and no created being could make these claims and back them up. But Jesus clearly made those claims and His miraculous signs validated them.

Now in this next section (5:24-30) Jesus expands on His power as the Son of God to give life and on His authority as the Son of God to judge. In these verses we will find that there are two types of resurrection. There is a spiritual resurrection and there is a physical resurrection. The first may happen now to bring spiritually dead people to eternal life. The second happens at the end of the age when all the dead are raised physically from the grave and judged, some to the resurrection of life others to the resurrection of condemnation. More →

Jesus Claimed to Be Equal with God (part 2)

John 5:16-23

In his book, “Loving God,” Charles Colson tells the true story about Boris Nicholayevich Kornfeld, a Russian Jewish doctor who was sentenced to a most inhuman Russian prison for a minor political crime in the 1950s. Because he was a physician he did receive some privileges in the prison in return for treating other prisoners. Still he suffered much abuse. His treatment would have in fact been unbearable except that he developed a friendship with another prisoner who through the quality of his witness brought Kornfeld to a commitment to Christ.

Having been saved by Jesus, Kornfeld felt a great inner freedom. He had a patient, a cancer patient, who was awaiting surgery. Kornfeld shared with him what Christ had done in his own life. Kornfeld was so enthusiastic about this change in his own life, that he caught the patient’s attention in spite of his brief lapses brought on by the medicine. Late into the night, the doctor stayed with his patient, sharing with him the unsearchable riches of Christ. Later that night someone slipped into the doctor’s quarters and brutally beat him to death. From a human standpoint that should be the end of the story, but, it is not.

The patient recovered from his surgery, but he was a changed man. Writing about that experience the former patient said,

And now with measuring cup returned to me,
Scooping up the living water,
God of the Universe! I believe again!
Though I renounced You, You were with me!

Because of Kornfeld’s testimony, he became a Christian–and what a Christian he became. His name–Alexander Solzhenitszyn, who not only won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1970, but even more importantly became one of the world’s most influential Christian voices.

Kornfeld and Solzhenitsyn both learned that the claims of Christ were never meant to merely become another piece of jewelry or become something to adorn our car bumpers. The claims of Christ were always meant to make radical changes in the lives of those around us; changes as radical as the claims of Christ themselves. More →

Did Jesus Claim to Be Equal with God?

John 5:16-23

As Christians, we worship Jesus Christ as God. We believe that the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the trinity who deserves honor just as God the Father. We know that John, the writer of the fourth Gospel clearly believes that Jesus is God. He made that clear in his opening statement about Jesus. John called Jesus Christ the Word made flesh and said about Him, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” (John 1:1).

And studying through the Gospel of John we have seen the works of Jesus and the testimony of others to His identity. In chapter 1, John the Baptist declared that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the Messiah, and the Son of God. The early disciples testify that He is the Christ, the Son of God and the King of Israel. In chapter 2, His authority over the Temple was a declaration that He is divine.  His miracles are proof that He is divine: He turned water in to wine, healed the nobleman’s son, and most notably healed the man at the pool who had been an invalid for 38 years.  We have witnessed his omniscience, the fact that He knows what people think and He knows their history, never having met them. We have heard the testimony of the Samaritans who heard His word in chapter 4: “this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

But as we come to this part of chapter 5, we will now hear it from the very lips of Jesus Himself.

More →

The Sign at the Pool

John 5:1-15

When you look around at the people who attend church on Sunday, what do you see? Do you see remarkable people, dressed in fine clothes who have it all together? Do you see moral people who have overcome the weaknesses that plague the rest of the world? Do you see clever people who have figured out life and its mysteries?  Or do you see hurting people in need of comfort. Do you see troubled people in need of peace? Do you see sick people who need healing? Do you see sinful people in need of a Savior?

All of us here this morning come in need. And the good news is that Jesus is always sufficient for every need that any one of us may have. But there are times when our need is so great, and the situation is so miserable, that – humanly speaking – it seems utterly hopeless. More →