The Heart of the Matter: Jesus is the Bread of Life, the only way to the Father, and the only One who can sustain us. When we receive Him, He becomes part of us. In doing so, we are gifted a spiritual and eternal life.

Remember back in John 2 where John speaks of the many who were believing in Jesus? Remember that after saying this, He immediately says that in contrast to those people who were believing in Jesus that Jesus Himself was not trusting them as we read in John 2:23–25:

²³Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

²⁴But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people

²⁵and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

We have already seen the lame man at the pool who Jesus healed turn on Jesus giving Him up to the religious Jews who persecuted Him all the more.

Here in these passages John moves us ever deeper into the greater persecution Jesus is now coming up against. This portion of the story will climax in verse 6:66 but more on that later.

John 6:41–42:

⁴¹Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.”

⁴²They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”

Here we see that the Jewish religious party is grumbling. Now this Greek word for grumble is defined as:

1 to murmur, mutter, grumble, say anything against in a low tone. 1a of the cooing of doves. 1b of those who confer secretly together. 1c of those who discontentedly complain.

James Strong, Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (Woodside Bible Fellowship, 1995).

These Jews were muttering amongst themselves complaining of Jesus and His words in a discontented manner. This is likened to a cooing of doves.

As it was not Jesus’ time yet, the Father in His sovereignty had these Jews on a short leash so-to-speak. Even those who opposed Jesus could not do anything unless it was allowed by God Himself. This should give us pause to think of how the Father is allowing and disallowing things to happen to us (both good and bad things). Nothing happens to us, good or bad, that is not under the strict supervision of God the Father. We can always be confident and at peace knowing that we are right where God has ordained us to be, even at this very moment!

Notice what these Jews were saying about Jesus in verse 41. Basically, this sentence is a simplification (or over-simplification) of the previous verses (vv 35-40) where Jesus explains that He is the bread of life that provides everlasting sustenance for eternal life. But what the Jews heard (or choose to hear) is only the part about saying that He was the bread of life and that He “came down out of heaven”.

After reading verse 42 it seems like these Jews were hanging on to the part Jesus said of Himself that He came down out of heaven. They did not refer to Him as the Son of Man or the Son of God but as the son of Joseph. As His was a miraculous birth, Jesus’ father would not have been Joseph but God. Another telling part of this verse is that they said they “knew” Jesus’ father and mother. However, we know they did not know Jesus’ actual Father. They were blind to who Jesus was.

John 6:43-47:

⁴³Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.

⁴⁴“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

⁴⁵“It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.

⁴⁶“Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.

⁴⁷“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

Jesus proceeds to rebuke these Jews for what they were saying in ignorance. He commands them to stop complaining under their breath. Then He proceeds to explain (yet again) what He means more plainly.

Essentially, we are all originally depraved and slaves to sin. We could no more believe and trust in God under our own strength than to move physical mountains with just a thought. However, the Father draws us to Jesus. What we cannot do on our own the Father does for us. We cannot break the chains of sin that we were bound by, but the Father in His great grace and mercy breaks them for us allowing us to come to Jesus and see Him for who He is…our one and only Savior. Jesus is the only way to know God the Father. Jesus is the only way to peace between us and the Father. We can get a better sense of this through reading Ephesians 1:9–11:

⁹He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him

¹⁰with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him

¹¹also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,

For those of us who know Christ, we can be assured that the Father worked out our salvation according to His perfect will before we were born on this Earth. All of this has come about to glorify God.

Jesus then proceeds (in verse 45) to paraphrase Isaiah 54:13:

¹³“All your sons will be taught of the Lord; And the well-being of your sons will be great.

Yes, God predestines, draws a person, and saves them; however, we should not think that there is nothing for us to do. We should not sit back and just let God do everything. Surely not! God has commanded us to pray and evangelize and teach and preach to others. Jesus explains what Isaiah 54:13 says, thus showing the need for our cooperation in the work of His salvation. We are to teach others because everyone who hears and has learned from God’s word comes to Jesus. So in God’s perfect will He has allowed us to partake with Him in having a small part to play in the salvation of others. But this is not for our glory, but His. It is also for our edification as working with the Spirit of God we come to know the Father as Jesus knows the Father. So you see, yes God is sovereign over all including salvation, but in His wise mercy towards us he allows us to draw nearer to Him as we teach others about Jesus, thereby helping to draw unbelievers chained to sin to our glorious savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In verse 47 again Jesus declares something important to us (as indicated by the “Truly, truly,” phrase). This is a perfect way to summarize all that Jesus had just said. To paraphrase, the person who is and continues in their belief and trust in Jesus shall have life everlasting.

John 6:48–51:

⁴⁸“I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹“Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

⁵⁰“This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

⁵¹“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

Since the Jews and, in fact, the entire crowd could not comprehend what Jesus was speaking of when He said that He was the bread of life, He uses the biblical narrative of the manna from heaven as a kind of foreshadowing of His coming as the perfect bread that gives everlasting life.

Jesus begins by describing the imperfect manna from heaven that God gave to the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. This manna was given daily by God to sustain the Israelites temporarily while they were wandering in the desert. Notice that Jesus says, “and they died.” This manna would only sustain them for a short time. The Israelites needed to go out every morning and gather more for that day. After the day was over, the manna would become rotten and could no longer nourish the people. The manna eventually ceased as it says in Joshua 5:12:

¹²The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.

Just as the law was unable to save so also was the manna. There was something more perfect and more substantial needed. What is needed is Jesus. Manna was temporary. Jesus is permanent. Manna can only sustain life for a short period. Jesus gives everlasting life. Manna succumbed to rot as would be natural for any food. Jesus will remain the same yesterday, today, and forever.

It is interesting to note that when the Israelites saw this manna for the first time they did not know what it was as it says in Exodus 16:15–19:

¹⁵When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.

Jesus was this perfect bread sent by the Father to give life and was available to all. But just as the Israelites did not know what manna was then, here too they did not know who Jesus was even as He stood before them shouting over and over that He was the bread of life.

If you are reading this right now and are not a believer in Jesus, I pray that you will consider Jesus’ message here and not be blinded as were the Jewish people of that time. Jesus gave Himself and His life for you and I. Consider this deeply as He is the only way to know God and to have everlasting life abundantly!

John 6:52–59:

⁵²Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

⁵⁴“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

⁵⁵“For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.

⁵⁶“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

⁵⁷“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.

⁵⁸“This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

The result of Jesus speaking the words found in verse 51 confused the Jews even more. Jesus drew a direct line between the fact that He was the living bread that came down from heaven (similar to the manna) and the fact that eating this bread would give everlasting life (unlike the manna) and finally that this bread is His flesh that He will give to appease God’s wrath.

The Jews began to argue amongst themselves. This word for “argue” is not just a nice debate between people but a verbal quarrel or a war of words. So these words that Jesus spoke became a fire that swept through these Jews causing them to quarrel intensely with one another. This reminds me of this verse in Matthew 10:34:

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

These Jews were taking this message from Jesus literally. Of course, the law forbade literally eating a person and drinking their blood. What they were missing was that Jesus was not speaking literally or in earthly terms. He was speaking in heavenly terms. This was an analogy. He was basically saying that when you eat earthly food it becomes part of your body. The proteins, fats, and yummy carbs function to build and sustain your body. Likewise, Jesus was stating that we are to receive Him thus making Him part of us. In doing so, we are gifted a spiritual and eternal life.

Think back to when Nicodemus came to Jesus at night and when Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus spoke in non-literal terms with them as well. The second birth was not a literal second birth but a spiritual birth. Likewise, the spiritual water that will quench all thirst is not a water that you physically drink but a spiritual water that only comes from Jesus. Now we hear Jesus speak of the bread of life that sustains eternally. This bread is Jesus. To receive this bread is to receive Jesus and eternal life with Him.

In our last study we were introduced to the Greek phrase, “ego eimi” which is translated simply: I AM. When Jesus approached the boat while walking on water, and the disciples were afraid, Jesus said, “Fear not, I AM.” Whenever Jesus uses this phrase, it is a declaration that He is God, for only God could declare Himself to be eternal. That helps us to understand why only Jesus could say, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” which we will discuss at greater length when we get to John chapter eight. For now, what we can say is that I AM speaks to the past (before Abraham); the present, and the future. Psalm 90:2 is a verse that can help us better understand the I AM declaration:

Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God.

Eternity is hard for us to comprehend. Each of us had a beginning, and physically, each of us will have an end. But God is not bound by time and space. He WAS always present, and He IS always present, and He always WILL BE present. God alone is without tense (past, present, or future).

As has been mentioned in earlier commentary, there are seven miracles that John records in his Gospel. Jesus walking on water was the fifth of the seven. Similarly, there are seven I AM claims by Jesus. These are specific claims.

Grammatically, we can classify them similes. Similes make comparisons by saying that something is like something else. In the case of Jesus, we could also call them metaphors. Metaphors make comparisons by saying that something is something else.

Let’s start with a list of the seven I AM’s recorded by John:

1. 1) I AM the Bread of Life (John 6:35)

2. 2) I AM the Light of the World (John 8:12)

3. 3) I AM the Door (John 10:9)

4. 4) I AM the Good Shepherd (John 10:11)

5. 5) I AM the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25-26)

6. 6) I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6)

7. 7) I AM the True Vine (John 15:1-26)

Jesus gives us examples of items we understand, things like bread, doors, and vines, but at the same time, He actually IS the bread. He actually is the door. He actually is the vine. With that, let’s consider the first few verses:

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

The crowd that had been fed and wanted Jesus to be their king are perplexed. They get up after a good night’s rest with their stomachs filled and they find Jesus and the disciples are gone. They talk among themselves and conclude that no one saw Jesus leave. They saw the disciples get into the boat, but Jesus was not with them. They decide to go and see if they can catch up. When they get to the other side, there’s Jesus. They ask the obvious question, “How’d you get here?”

Jesus skips right over their question, and get’s to the heart of the matter: their motive for following him. Jesus wants followers. Remember, He asked James, John, Peter, and Andrew to follow Him. But He wants people to follow Him for the right reasons, so motive matters.

Jesus corrects their faulty motivation. Instead of pursuing food that doesn’t last, they should pursue eternal food. Just as Jesus promised the woman at the well (John 4) eternal water, here He promises those assembled that He can provide eternal food. Sadly, as we shall see later in chapter six, many (most?) of the people do not get it. Why?

Man, as the offspring of Adam, is greedy by nature. The Bible makes it clear that it takes a true change of heart to place the spiritual and serving God over and above the physical and serving ourselves. It begins with our recognizing the need we have for a new heart, and the understanding that we cannot change our heart. Jerimiah says that the (Adamic) heart is “desperately wicked.” Apart from God, our hearts are like stone. Only God can soften and change our heart. Ezekiel 36:26-27 says it this way:

26 And I (God) will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

We are not told how many of “the crowd” made their way to Capernaum, but it stands to reason that it is a smaller group that is standing before Jesus; representing the crowd at large. These representatives do not understand that Jesus is offering to change their hearts. They default to a “works mentality.” They ask, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

If you compare the forty major religions of the world, you will find that Christianity is the ONLY one that proposes salvation by faith. Every other religion is works oriented; if I do enough good the scales will tilt in my favor and God will have to accept me. The world says, “Don’t just stand there, do something.” Christianity says, “Don’t just do something, stand there.” (Ephesians 6:13-14)

Jesus responds to the crowd’s human desire to do something. He tells them the only thing they need to do, the only thing they can do, is to believe in Him, the One God has sent to redeem them.

It becomes obvious that Jesus’ words fly right over their heads based on their next question:

30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?

31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.

37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

The Jews were continuously looking for signs from Jesus in order to validate that He was true. As so many times before, they incorrectly default to Moses. Jesus understands that they are giving Moses credit for producing the manna their forefathers ate to survive in the desert. By inference, they are saying, “Moses performed many signs, including giving the people manna. We believe Moses, but you haven’t done signs like him, so how can we believe you?”

Two problems with their argument. The first is that the people who ate the manna were rebellious and seldom listened to Moses as he led them. Most of them were so hard-hearted and stubborn that they died before entering the promised land. Second, they had forgotten yesterday’s lunch. Apparently, feeding ten to twenty thousand people with five barley loaves and two small fish didn’t qualify as a miracle.

John 12:37-40 sums it up:

37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.

38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.”

For a brief moment it seems like the crowd finally understands when they ask Jesus to give them this bread He is talking about, but it becomes all to apparent that they are still thinking physically, not spiritually.

Jesus responds with his first of seven I AM’s: I AM the Bread of Life. This closely parallels what Jesus told the woman at the well back in chapter four. He told her that there was water that was eternal, “You will never thirst.” Here Jesus says, “You will never go hungry.”

There is a promise of the security of the believer in Jesus’ response. When, by faith, we come to Jesus for reconciliation with God, we will NEVER go hungry. But it begins with genuine belief. The crowd seems to be saying, “When we see it, we will believe it.” Jesus says, “When you believe, then you’ll see it.”

When Jesus fed them the day before they all had “their fill.” Think of the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Most of us leave the table knowing we could not eat another bite. Then about four or five hours later, a turkey sandwich and a cold glass of milk sound so good. What happened to the, “I can’t eat another bite”?

Yesterday’s feeding is now a distant memory. The crowd is getting hungry again. Food is something we need every day. If we don’t tend to this need, the hunger will grow stronger and stronger to the point where we can think of nothing else. It is probably the strongest of human desires.

Jesus is saying that God has put inside all humans a need for relationship with Him. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has put eternity in the heart of mankind. Whether acknowledged or not, everyone has a desire for eternity. Sadly, many have either suppressed this desire or filled the hole in their hearts with all kinds of things including money, entertainment, career, and friends. The more religious have manufactured some method of working their way to eternity with God.

Jesus refutes this thinking with the clear response that the ONLY way to God is through belief in Jesus, the Son who He sent to redeem mankind. Like the food we must have to survive, Jesus declares that He alone can raise us to eternity with God. We don’t have to work for it. We just need to believe. Have you accepted His free gift? The gift has already been paid for. It cost Jesus His very life, which He gave willingly out of love. Verse 40 makes it clear: ANYONE who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life. Before I became a Christian, I was continually searching for something to fill that void in my heart. I didn’t understand why I was restless and seeking something bigger than myself. When I found Christ (yes, He actually found me!), my searching ended. My hunger, spiritually speaking, was completely satisfied.

You will never hunger or thirst again. That’s the promise that Jesus makes to ALL who will believe.

As we continue our ongoing journey through the Gospel of John, we come to a familiar passage we could simply title: “Jesus Walks on Water.”

This is the fifth of seven signs that John records to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. As we ended our study last week, Jesus had just fed ten to twenty thousand people, multiplying five small barley loaves of bread and two “tiny” fish. The thousands, now with their bellies filled, immediately decide to make Jesus their earthly king. “If He can produce enough food to feed all of us, surely, He can now lead us and overthrow the Romans.”

Let’s pick up John’s gospel following the miraculous feeding, in chapter 6, beginning with verse 15:

15Jesus, knowing that they (the crowd) intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.

16When evening came, His disciples went down to the lake,

17where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them.

18A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.

19When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified.

20But He said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”

21Then they were willing to take Him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

As the crowd plots His future, Jesus dismisses them and withdraws to the mountain by Himself. Jesus is not running away. The Father was drawing the Son away from the crowd to renew His Spirit after a physically exhausting day. We must not forget that Jesus was fully man, with all of the same physical needs as each of us including rest and renewal.

It’s an incredible event, told briefly by John. Fortunately, we get some additional information from two of the other Gospel writers. John says that when it got dark, the disciples got into a boat and set off for Capernaum, but he skips an important detail.

Mark and Matthew both say that Jesus “made” His disciples get into the boat. The Greek word for made used here is anankazö, which means compelled, or even forced. Clearly, the disciples got into the boat at Jesus’ insistence.

Matthew and Mark add another detail to the scene; Jesus went up the mountain to pray. As He goes off to pray, the disciples make their way to the boat. John gives us a little detail we don’t want to miss. It’s evening and it’s dark. Darkness can change one’s perspective.

In the dark, they get into the boat and begin rowing. This was familiar ground for at least four of the disciples who were fisherman from Capernaum. Matthew records that when John the Baptist was imprisoned, Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum. He was walking beside the Sea of Galilee and saw two fishermen who He invited to follow Him; Peter and Andrew. Shortly after, He invites two more, the sons of Zebedee; James and John. At the least, these four disciples knew these waters, but this night was different.

The Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberius) is the lowest fresh water lake in the world, almost 680 feet below sea level. It is about 13 miles long, and 8 miles wide. From the north, the mountains form a wind tunnel into the Sea of Galilee. When the warm temperatures off the water rise and meet the cold air from the sharply rising hills these north winds can create extremely rough seas. That’s a good physical explanation for the rough seas, but it’s just as likely that Jesus raised the wind and stirred the waters from His vantage point on the mountain overlooking the Sea.

The disciples could have walked around the Sea and avoided the rough waters, but Jesus ordered them into the boat. Can we learn something from this?

James 1:2 says that we should consider it pure joy when we face trials or tests. Are you serious James? Trials are tough and hard. Why should we think of them as joy? He then us gives the answer: the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Trials and tests help to mature you. They perfect your faith.

So, the disciples are all in the boat rowing for all they are worth, but making little headway. They are facing a real trial. They need to go about seven or eight miles. John measures their progress in terms of distance; they were about half way to their destination: Capernaum. Mark and Matthew both measure their progress in time; it was about the fourth watch when Jesus decided to walk out to them. The fourth watch, a Roman standard for measuring time, would be around three o’clock in the morning. These guys had been rowing for at least five hours. Mark says that Jesus saw the disciples “straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.”

How amazing. Jesus sees this boat out about three to four miles from shore. I’m not sure I could do that with the best binoculars I own. Then again, Jesus created the eagle with its incredible eye sight. A miracle within a miracle.

He went out to them, walking on the water. Mark says He was about to walk right past them. When they saw Him walking on the water, their first thought was that He was a ghost. Isn’t it funny, in our fear what our first thoughts are? We can even start seeing ghosts.

Immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” To understand the significance of Jesus’ words, we need to go back in time.

Around 280 to 250 BC, three centuries before Christ, seventy Greek and Hebrew scholars translated the Hebrew Old Testament to Greek. Septuagint means seventy. I mention this because the words that Jesus spoke, recorded literally in transliterated Greek were, “But He says to them, I am, not fear ye.”

Jesus was giving another of His ‘I AM’ deity claims. There are many recorded in the New Testament: I am the Light, I am the Door, I am the Way, I am the Truth, and others. Next week we will consider another one of the I AM’s, I am the Bread of Life. Here, He simply says, I am; Ego eimi.

The Septuagint records the same Hebrew to Greek phrase when Moses is standing at the burning bush and God is giving him his assignment to lead the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt.

In Exodus 3:13-14, Moses, the reluctant one, questions God.

13Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

14God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

God answers Moses, “You tell them that I AM (ego eimi) sent you.”

Jesus declares, “I AM,” climbs into the boat, probably dragging the soaking wet Peter in with Him, and IMMEDIATELY the boat reaches the shore. Don’t miss it; they just went three or four miles in an instant. This is a transporter Captain Kirk would envy. Zero to four miles in one second.

So that’s our study this week; a boat ride in the rough seas and God walking on water. Good story, but life changing? Yet, that’s what God wants; for His word to change our lives, for each of us to know Him more.

The problem is that we hear or read a story a few times and it becomes familiar and ordinary. In so doing, we morph the heavenly into the temporal. We minimize it; shrink it down for easy digesting, and in the midst, we lose the divine spark.

In these seven verses there are at least three incommunicable attributes of God. Incommunicable denotes attributes that are unique to God only: His omniscience, His omnipotence, and His omnipresence. Omni simply means all. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present.

God’s attributes are the qualities or characteristics that belong to Him. They are not parts of God that can be separated, they are altogether interconnected. They are present in the entire Godhead; possessed by all three persons of the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Imagine a God who can feed thousands with no more than what can fit in a small boy’s hands. Imagine a God that can, in one moment, cause the waves to roar, and in the next, bring complete calm. Imagine a God who can see you from four miles away and know exactly what you need. Imagine a God that loves you so much, He is willing to die for you. Have these glimpses lost their luster? Have they become so familiar that you almost skip over them.

We sing the songs, and we read the words, but do we allow them to change our hearts?Don’t let the familiar rob you of the majestic. We worship and serve a mighty and a splendid God. If you don’t know this God personally, you can. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Invite Him into your life. You don’t have to clean yourself up or perform any acts of service. You simply need to accept His free gift. He loves you so much, He’ll walk on water to save you.

Last week we saw Jesus declare His divinity, as He repeated that He and the Father are always in perfect step with one another. As a man, Jesus yielded fully to the Father’s leading, even as He declared equality with the Father. So enraged were the Jewish leaders they wanted to kill Him, but it was not His time.

John 6:1-4

1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius.

2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.

4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

If this were a play, we might envision the curtain coming down as Jesus stands, looks intently at His critics, letting His words soak into their souls as chapter five comes to a conclusion. When the curtain rises and we notice that the scenery has changed, and because of the change we know that the story is taking a significant turn. We’ve moved from Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple to the Sea of Galilee. John, always mindful of his readers and the potential for misunderstanding lets us know that this sea is also known as the Sea of Tiberius. This little detail is important because it helps us date the writing of John’s gospel.

Tiberias was named after the Roman emperor. It was a small city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, founded by Herod Antipas. In Jesus’ time it was a relatively small and unimportant city. Tiberias didn’t become important until after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Thus, we can conclude that John’s gospel was written after 70 AD, probably a decade or more after the other three gospels were written.

We’re not told the exact amount of time that elapsed, but considering that chapter five began with a Jewish festival having just taken place in Jerusalem which was probably the Feast of Tabernacles (October), and the opening verses of chapter six indicate that the Passover feast was at hand (April), it is likely that about six months have passed.

Over these months Jesus’ reputation has continued to grow and He now has a large following. In today’s vernacular, we might categorize Jesus as an “influencer,” as He gains more and more “followers.” The difference, as we shall see later in chapter six, is that Jesus isn’t looking for followers, He’s seeking true believers, those who will leave everything to trust Him fully. As the crowd grows in number, Jesus will do the unexpected, parsing and significantly reducing its size, but we’ll save that discussion until our study at the end of chapter six.

John gives us a clue to the nature of these “followers” in verse two when he identifies their motivation: they saw the signs that He was performing on the sick. They were curious and marveled at what He could do. Due to poor medical care, it is possible that as much as twenty-five percent (one in four) of the population in the first century was sick and diseased. There were many that needed healing. No doubt, many in the crowd longed for the same healing for themselves. Some, starved for entertainment, were probably just enjoying the show revealing that the need to be entertained predates Netflix by several thousand years.

Even at church we can observe the same phenomena; people who attend for the entertainment, the music, or simply to hear an inspiring motivational speaker. Some attend because it makes them feel good, and others because of the hope that God will do something good for them. In other words, many were following Jesus, which was good, but they were following Him for the wrong reasons.

With all the sickness that was present in that day, Jesus could have spent all of His time healing, but verse three shows us that while He had great compassion for the masses, He still found time for the intimate circle of Disciples He was training and preparing to lead the church after His death and resurrection. We too, in all of our busyness, must make time to teach and mold our future leaders; our children, grandchildren, and other young people God puts in our path.

John 5:5-15

5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii[a] worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”

8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,

9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”

10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”

13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Jesus knew that many were following Him just because of the signs and the healings, and even though their motives may not have been very good, He did not turn them away. In His empathy He knew they were hungry, perhaps because He was hungry Himself. Yes, Jesus got hungry and tired just like each of us. It proves He was fully man, even as He was fully God.

A lesson here is that we cannot separate the physical and the spiritual. James 2:15-16 makes this abundantly clear.

15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,

16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good[a] is that?

It is possible that we can become hardened to the needs of others, even while we are acting spiritual. We can say things like, “Be blessed,” and completely ignore obvious physical needs. When we do so, we may be saying to others that God is not a practical and compassionate God. But Jesus showed compassion. He met their physical need by feeding them, even though He knew many would leave him after their bellies were full.

Jesus turns to Philip and asks where they will buy bread to feed such a large crowd. Put yourself in Philip’s place. “Why is Jesus asking me this? I gave up everything to follow Him. I don’t have any money. Where’s Judas? He’s the one keeping the money bag.”

So, why did Jesus ask Philip this question? Well, we don’t have to wonder. The next verse answers the why question; Jesus asked Philip because He was testing him. Jesus knew what He was going to do.

The word “test” in the Greek is peirazö which means to tempt or to try to trap. We know this is not in line with God’s character. Strong’s Concordance helps by offering this explanation: The difference between a test and a temptation is found in the tester’s motivations and expectations; the devil tempts that the believer might fail God’s standards of faith and so sin; God tests that He might determine and sharpen true character, with no focus on making the believer fail.

We don’t know a lot about Philip or Andrew, but both are present in this exchange. I would say that Philip was a detail guy. He quickly does the math: “5,000 men plus women and children. Even we spent two hundred denarii (about eight months wages!) which we don’t have, at best each person would get what? Maybe, one bite? That won’t satisfy anyone’s hunger.”

Of course, I’m speculating what Philip was thinking. We’re not told his every thought, but Scripture makes it clear that God will test each of us in the areas that we need to be stronger. Jesus was helping Philip grow his faith, to trust God more fully. Thankfully, in the book of Acts we see that Philip learned well. In Acts chapter 8, verse 26 we read that Philip was told to by an angel of the Lord to get up and go south from Jerusalem to Gaza. Verse 27 says that, “he got up and went.” Notice that he didn’t calculate the mileage or question why he should go south and not north. He simply went.

The next character in our story is Andrew. Even though there is no other Andrew mentioned in the New Testament, it seems like he’s always identified as Peter’s brother. Recall from chapter one of John’s gospel that when Jesus asked Andrew to follow Him, the first thing he did was to go find his brother, Peter announcing that they had found the Messiah. Though it seems he was often in Peter’s shadow, there is no evidence that he complained. That’s admirable.

Andrew offers Philip some relief by suggesting that there is a boy who has five loaves of bread and two fish, but just as quickly adds—”but what are they for so many?” Jesus does not correct Andrew for his small pragmatic thinking. Instead, He takes the loaves and the fish, tells the people to sit, blesses what has been given, and begins the distribution. I think of the magician that starts pulling a scarf out of a black hat and the scarf grows longer and longer and longer. Jesus keeps breaking the bread, handing it out, reaching into the basket and pulling out more; again, and again, and again. He does the same with the fish.

The lesson here is probably obvious: He asks us to trust Him with what we have and allow Him to bless and multiply it. He never asks for what we do not have. Mark, in his gospel, gives the account of a widow who only had a single coin to offer when the offering plate was being passed. Everyone else gave more, but Jesus commended her because she gave all she had. It’s not simply a matter of money. Jesus asks us to trust Him with our time and talents, remembering that whatever we give to Him, we are returning since it all comes from Him in the first place.

The bread and fish just kept coming until “they were full” (verse 12). But Jesus is not done. He tells the Disciples to go pick up the left-overs. Twelve baskets full of bread are gathered (one basket per disciple?). Remember, there were only five loaves, not five baskets of loaves when they started. The people’s eyes are glazed over. They know they have seen and been part of a miracle.

We don’t know whether Jesus intended to give a sermon that day because when He looked out on the crowd, He could see that now that they were full, they intended to take Him by force and make Him king. Jesus will come as king one day, but not at this time. His warned that He came to be offered as a sacrifice like a lamb. Remember John the Baptist’s words from chapter one of John’s gospel: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” But the people were not looking for a lamb, they were looking for a king.

Jesus wasn’t going to have any of that. He had no interest in any earthly kingdom. In His omniscience, Jesus knew that this is exactly how they would respond, yet He fed them. In the same way, we should not be surprised when people respond in the wrong way, but that should not stop us from doing what is right.

Jesus does what we see find Him doing again and again during His earthly ministry, He goes off to spend time with God the Father in prayer. What a good place to end our study; with a reminder of the importance of spending one-on-one time with God. Our ministries and other obligations are important, but we must continually remember that our personal relationship with God is the most important thing we do. That relationship gives us the energy and stamina to fulfill the promise of Philippians 4:3 –“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

The Heart of the Matter:

God’s will is exercised through Jesus with whom we have three credible witness testimonies (as required by OT law):

• The testimony of John the Baptist

• The testimony of God’s power working through Jesus

• The testimony of God the Father throughout scripture

The triad of testimonies from man, works, and God through scripture proves Jesus’ own testimony of Himself is trustworthy.

Digging Deeper

The Heart of the Matter

Truly Jesus is God. In order to honor and worship God, we must also honor and worship the Son. Jesus our perfect judge is the only One capable of reconciling us to the Father resulting in no condemnation but eternal life in Him.

The Heart of the Matter

Jesus truly is the Word who was with God and who was God. As such, He is not subject to man’s laws. All things occur in His due time.

Digging Deeper

After healing the official’s son, Jesus proceeds to Jerusalem to a feast.

John 5:1–4:

¹After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.

³In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters;

⁴for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]

In this passage, we are not told what specific feast Jesus went up to, only that He was going to one. The feast itself isn’t as important as who would have been there, a large gathering of Jews including the religious elite. We shall see why this is important later.

Jesus was walking past the pool at the sheep gate in Jerusalem. At this pool there were five porticoes or covered patios. In these porticoes were a great number of people (i.e., a multitude as it states in the text) who were sick or afflicted with infirmities such as blindness or lameness.

Now verses 3b through 4 do not appear in the most preserved copies of the ancient manuscripts for the gospel of John. They may have been inserted at a later date. This is the reason that you will sometimes see verses such as these identified by surrounding square brackets as in the NASB (in some translations they are simply removed as with the ESV). These verses basically add a little more information to verse 7 (below). However, it is not necessary to include these words in order to understand this passage.

John 5:5–9a:

⁵A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”

⁷The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”

^9aImmediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. …

Here’s where Jesus encounters a man who had been ill (some translations use the word disabled or an invalid) for 38 years. Maybe “encounters” is the wrong word to use here as this was no mere chance encounter. Jesus did everything with a specific purpose; nothing was wasted effort nor just a coincidence. Jesus saw this man and perceived that he had been in this state a very long time. As Jesus was both God and man he knew all about this man and his plight.

But why pick out this man from so many others that were possibly equally or even worse off? The answer may be in the way that Jesus asked the next question, “Do you wish to get well?” The Greek word for “wish” is thelies. This word translates to a strong desire or wish for something. In this case the man strongly desired to be healed. Possibly, this man had been there longer than anyone else (for why else would John have told us the amount of time he had been there). His desire to be healed, to be whole again, was probably stronger than others’.

In verse 7 we see the struggle that he has gone through to be healed on his own accord and the frustration it has lead to. You see, when the water was stirred up people would walk into the water and the first to walk in was healed. Since this man was unable to walk on his own into the water he had to rely on others to carry him into the water. Seeing as how this man was still not healed, we can only assume those that “helped” him weren’t very good at getting him to the front of the line.

Now we don’t know what was going on at this pool, if it was just a superstition or real. However, one commentator that I read indicated that this would have been a very strange way for God to work. Plus, why only heal the first one that can step into the pool? God could have healed all of them or perhaps just the most diseased or crippled. Either way this is not an important part of John’s narrative here.

This man, like many others, was looking for healing from what he could see, feel, and touch as being real. He believed these pools had the power to heal (could this man have seen a real miracle take place here or perhaps a charlatan only using the superstition surrounding this pool to their advantage, we just don’t know). Regardless, Jesus brings to this man (and us) something new, something more powerful. We don’t need to be the fastest or the first in line in order to receive healing (salvation). It is there as a free gift that only needs acceptance on faith.

Jesus was about to ask the question that all unbelievers have been waiting to hear. If you do not yet believe, this is the most important question Jesus will ask of you. If you already believe, then you answered this question with an exuberant, “Yes!” What is that question? It is, “Do you wish to get well?” Some translations say, “Do you want to be healed?” Or “Do you want to be made well?” It is the same question…”Do you want only the best and most eternal healing that Jesus can offer…salvation?”

But look at this man’s response. He doesn’t understand the full meaning of Jesus’ question. He responds with his plight and with his frustration. He states that no one is able to get him into the pool quick enough. The one means of healing that he knows of is so far away from him it’s as if he is miles away from it. However, now salvation is standing right in front of him mere inches away. But we also need to look at how this man says these words. He begins by saying that, “I have no man to put me into the pool…”. In the Greek an emphasis is placed on “I have”. This man is still focused on himself and what he has available to him.

In verse 8 Jesus shows the man that he hasn’t been waiting all these years just for a physical healing but for a full physical and spiritual healing. Jesus commands the crippled man to get up and walk. The use of the present tense when Jesus commands the man to “get up” and “walk” along with the word “immediately” in the next verse indicates that this was an instantaneous act. The man was lying on the ground unable to walk and in the blink of an eye he got up, picked up his mat, and began walking. All this happened because Jesus spoke it.

Consider the atrophied limbs of this man. He needed others to pick him up and move him so neither his legs nor arms were strong enough to move him. Yet, in the blink of an eye, Jesus’ words changed this man physically so that he could easily support himself and walk unaided. That is a full and complete physical healing. (Hmmm, but what about the spiritual healing…did you see it?)

John 5:9b–13:

^9b… Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

¹⁰So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.”

¹¹But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’ ”

¹²They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?”

¹³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.

Uh oh! The second half of verse 9 introduces the conflict (and it’s a doozie…well, for the religious elite at least). Jesus healed on the Sabbath day. Now the Sabbath was supposed to be a day of rest that God commanded us to keep holy as God says in Ex 20:8:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

However, the Jewish religious party added many rules of their own making as to what it meant to adhere to the Sabbath day. Of course, one rule was that you could not carry anything from one location to another. According to the Jewish law (not the Old Testament law) this healed man was carrying his mat from the pool where he had just met Christ. This was a clear violation of their man-made laws.

So these Jews confronted the man who was healed and chastised him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath day. In response to this, the healed man answered that the One who made him well was the very same One who told him to carry his mat and walk. Notice the Jew’s response. They didn’t ask him anything about his healing; rather, they focused on their own man-made law that was broken in their sight. Who cares that this man was healed; he broke one of our laws! Interestingly, the ire of these Jews was now directed towards that One who told this man to pick up his mat and walk. This was untenable in their eyes. No one could tell someone to break one of their own laws!

Now Jesus had slipped away while a crowd gathered at that place by the pool. Most likely everyone around this crippled man had seen this miracle and word spread fast as to what had happened. This would have drawn a crowd, probably consisting of some religious leaders as well. But Jesus’ time had not yet come for Him to directly confront the religious leaders.

(Note the fact that Jesus did attend the Jewish feasts, but He did not observe the Jewish, man-made, laws. This shows Jesus’ delight to worship the Father through the feasts but His disdain for anything that worshiped man. Those man-made laws were only useful for drawing attention to the ones enforcing that law.)

John 5:14-15:

¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

¹⁵The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Whoa, wait just a minute. Was I wrong about this man’s salvation? All along I’ve been writing as if this man had been saved during this miracle. I mean, we’ve seen Nicodemus who came to Jesus and later became a believer, the Samaritan woman who was saved, the multitude of Samaritans that came to a saving faith (after the woman), and the official and his household. They all were saved. But was this crippled man who was now physically healed also saved?

These two verses stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. They made me go back and reassess the spiritual state of this man. Indeed he had been healed of his physical infirmities, but had his spiritual state also been made whole or was he just happy that he could walk around again not having to lean on anyone else?

In these verses John says nothing of whether the crippled man came to a saving belief (trust) in Jesus. When Jesus healed him, John simply states that he got up and walked away. Was there more to that story? Surely the man at least thanked Jesus. But in the previous narratives John leaves us with no uncertainty of the main character’s state of salvation (well, except Nicodemus, who we know later came to a saving belief). But we do know that this man never gave it a second thought to ask Jesus His name, for in verse 11 we see that this man does not know who Jesus is. It seems like everyone else in the previous narrations knew who Jesus was…Messiah, Prophet, Savior of the world.

Now in verse 14 Jesus finds this man in the temple, probably worshiping God for his healing miracle. This man still did not know that the path to God was through Jesus. This man was still going straight to God and not to Jesus (the irony being that God the Son was right there beside him). Also in this verse Jesus states that this man has become well (hygies in the Greek) which means to have a healthy body and become free of disease or infirmities. It doesn’t say anything about his spiritual state. However, Jesus does warn him not to sin anymore lest something even worse happens to him. This implies that his infirmity was due to some ongoing sin in his life. Of course, we know that it isn’t always the case that a person becomes sick just because of a sin in their life. There can be other reasons. But this statement that Jesus makes in verse 14 seems to indicate that it is on the man to obey and not to sin. We know that we have the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and a Savior who covers us in grace when we do fall prey to sin. Was Jesus leaving it up to this man to keep the law under his own strength?

Then we get to verse 15 which shows the man going straight to the Jews that he had met back in verses 10-13. Here he tells the Jews exactly who it was that healed him. I greatly doubt that the man was telling these Jews in order to present his testimony to them thereby glorifying God; rather, it seems like he was trying to get the blame off of himself and put it on Jesus so he wouldn’t have the Jews also persecuting him.

As I read this I wondered if this was the “sin” Jesus referred to in verse 14. Was there a sin of selfishness, pride, or something else in him that he just couldn’t let go of. If so, we can infer that something worse did indeed happen to him. But John does not tell us anymore about this man.

Certainly, this man’s story has ended, but why? To what end? If we try to understand if the man was saved or not (perhaps he was saved later during the Acts timeframe when many came to believe in Christ, maybe not) then we lose sight of why this story exists in John. We need to read on…

John 5:16–18:

¹⁶For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

¹⁸For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

Ah-ha! Verse 16 is the reasoning behind this story. You see, the very act of breaking the man-made Sabbath laws was inciting the Jews against Jesus as Jesus was basically saying that their laws were not God’s laws and therefore useless. If we look at the Greek verbs “persecuting” and “was doing” in this verse, we see that they are in the imperfect tense indicating an ongoing action that had begun in the past. Therefore, we can read this as the Jews were continually persecuting Jesus because He was continually healing and breaking the man-made laws on the Sabbath.

John doesn’t want us to focus exclusively on the healed man, although we can learn some lessons there. Rather, John is showing Jesus directly confronting the hypocrisy of the Jews. Matthew eloquently expresses this confrontation in his gospel in Mt 23:1-7:

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.

In verse 17 Jesus goes a step further and reveals that not only has the Father continued to work up til now, but Jesus also has continued to work. There are two important things that this verse reveals that will inform us as to why the Jews became even more enraged in verse 18 (and indeed, verse 18 does a good job of explaining verse 17). First, Jesus says that God the Father has been working and adds “until now”. The Father has continued to work throughout each and every day of history. God did rest on that seventh day in Genesis but as an example as to how we should uphold the Sabbath day as holy, dedicated to the Lord. But since our Lord holds all things together at all times, wouldn’t that mean He has to do work on the Sabbath? What about answered prayer on the Sabbath or a child that is born on the Sabbath? God intervenes daily in our lives as He does not need or wish to rest from His Holy work. We, on the other hand, are finite and weak and need that weekly rest in our Lord to revitalize us.

So God the Father is at work on the Sabbath day. But Jesus adds to this statement. Jesus uses a word here that is translated as “and” in the English in verse 17. The typical Greek word for “and” is usually kai (a connective conjunction), but in this case the word is kago. This word kago is translated a little differently as: “and I Myself” or “and I too”. Examining this word in a Bible dictionary shows that this word can mean “I likewise” or “in like manner I”. This word gives a little more indication as to the connection between the Father’s work and Jesus’ work, essentially saying that both are doing the same work and their work continues in unison.

Now how does Jesus equating His work with the Father’s work relate to the Sabbath? Well, if God is all powerful and needs no rest on the Sabbath and Jesus is saying the same, then Jesus is saying that He too, like the Father, is all powerful and does not need to rest on the Sabbath. God was Jesus’ Father and their work was equal, just as Jesus was equal to the Father. Just as we read back in John 1:1, Jesus is God.

Now at this public statement of His equality with His Father, the Jews were much more enraged and continued to more fervently seek to kill Him. True, Jesus had broken the Sabbath, but more importantly Jesus had declared Himself God. This was a heresy that would have immediate retribution (death) for any other person making such a claim. However, as Jesus truly is the Word who was with God and who was God, no one laid a hand on Him. Notice that this narrative only shows the Jews more and more angry but, as under God’s sovereignty, unable to do anything to Jesus as it was not yet His time.

Let us remember that Jesus always obeyed the Father out of a deep love and trust. So to should we take Jesus’ example and let our light shine into the world as we are the salt left to preserve others for eternal life through Jesus. No matter what the world says or does, we can be assured, as Jesus was, that the Father is sovereign over all and knows right where we are at all times. He won’t overlook us or forget about us. He works each and every day (even through each Sabbath) to sanctify us and bring glory to His name!

The Heart of the Matter

Even today, many selfishly seek Jesus only to ask for the miracles He performs such as the hard hearted Galileans did during His ministry on earth. Few seek Jesus as the lowly Samaritans did…humbly and contritely knowing their desperate need for the Savior. However, Jesus still proves full of grace and mercy towards the most stubborn, hardened, and faithless heart just as he did for the official back then. Christ’s grace and mercy continues to know no bounds and is of such a nature that we can never fully comprehend…infinite and available piercing the most hardened, stubborn, and faithless heart. This is truly the grace of Jesus at work…in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us.

Last week we studied the results of Jesus revealing Himself as Messiah to the Samaritan woman at the well and the great spiritual harvest that resulted. Now Jesus has left Samaria after teaching there for two days.

Digging Deeper

John 4:43–46:

⁴³After the two days He went forth from there into Galilee.

⁴⁴For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

⁴⁵So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.

⁴⁶Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum.

After His stay in Samaria, Jesus travels to Galilee. Remember at the beginning of chapter 4 (in verse 3) Jesus and His disciples left where they were baptizing and traveled to Galilee. However, His stop at Samaria (before arriving at Galilee) ended up being about 2 days in length. This is a testament that the brief detours we can take are under the sovereignty of our Lord and Savior. Temporary detours can be of eternal significance if only we look for where Jesus is working and join Him.

Now Jesus is arriving at His intended destination of Galilee. By the way, I wonder how they knew Jesus was arriving. Had He been there for a short while and they just noticed He was there or maybe they had heard news of the revival going on in the Samaritan city (something to ponder). However, this is where it gets a little weird. Jesus testified (in verse 44) that a prophet has no honor in his own country. Jesus was considered a Galilean since His home in Nazareth would have been within the province of Galilee, John 1:45:

⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

So if Jesus was going to Galilee knowing that the people would not honor and revere Him, why go at all? The answer is rooted in who Jesus is. Jesus would not be the type to just go wherever the harvest was ripe, such as with the Samaritan city. Rather, Jesus went to all places that His Father directed Him to go. In the case of Galilee, it was most likely to cultivate the soil in order for seed to be planted and take root and grow into maturity at a later time.

Note the differences between this passage and the previous one about the Samaritan city. The Samaritan city was ripe and ready for the harvest, the sowing had already been accomplished. But here in Galilee the city was not ripe for the harvest and the harvest as we see in verse 53 was very small, almost inconsequential in relation to the massive haul in the Samaritan city.

It seems as though Jesus is tilling the land and sowing seeds that will be harvested later by His Apostles. As sowers of the Word, we don’t typically see a harvest (we may, but that is not the sower’s unique calling). Here in Galilee there was only a very small harvest.

Now here in verse 45 it gets super weird. Verse 45 begins with “So”, which you can think of as consequentially, accordingly, or then. So Jesus said something like, “I will not receive honor in Galilee.” in verse 44 followed immediately by verse 45 where John narrates that the Galileans did receive Him. Not only did they receive Him but a royal official from Galilee came out to great Him. What is going on here? I thought Jesus said that He would not be honored in Galilee, but it looks like the Galilean’s sent out a royal welcoming party for Him. Isn’t this honoring Jesus? Isn’t this the respect and reverence due to the One who graciously gives living waters to all that might believe resulting in everlasting life?

Nope!

This was all pomp and circumstance. Nothing of real worth was at this “welcoming” of Jesus into Galilee. The key to unlocking the question of the odd phrasing between verses 44 and 45 is buried in the second half of verse 45. These people “received” Jesus because they saw His miracles at the Passover feast in Jerusalem. We know this because John tells us that these “receivers” were also at that feast. Another clue is in the Greek. The verb tense for “having seen” in verse 45 is in the perfect tense. This means that these people had observed Jesus’ miracles in the past during the feast, but this observation resulted in a particular state for these people. That is, they were in awe of the miracles themselves and not Jesus Himself!

Here we see the irony (or maybe it’s sarcasm) from John between verses 44 and 45. It’s almost as if he’s saying, “No one will honor Jesus in Galilee.” And in the very next breath, “Oh look at the fake honorers coming out to greet Jesus.”

Do you remember Jesus performing miracles for the Samaritans? No, yet they came to Jesus in droves and believed. Here we get the sense that the Galileans were more interested in getting something from Jesus. And indeed the next verse (v47) confirms this.

John 4:47–48:

⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.

⁴⁸So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.”

In verse 47 we see that the royal official came to see Jesus not as the Samaritans did asking questions and wanting to know who He was. Rather, this official came and begged Jesus to heal his sick son. In fact, this verb “imploring” is in the imperfect tense indicating that he persisted in his begging for Jesus to heal his son.

So let’s go back to John 4:44:

⁴⁴For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

Was this official truly honoring Jesus or did he just want something from this person who seemed to be a prophet sent from God? Jesus knew what was truly in this official’s heart and, like the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus, Jesus spoke objective truth to his heart. But note that both “you” words here in this verse are plural, signifying Jesus is not only talking to the official but also to all the Galileans. Jesus stated in no uncertain terms that none of them (neither Galileans nor the official) would believe unless they “see” (i.e., that they perceive with their eyes in a physical manner) signs and wonders. Therefore, the Galileans could not truly honor Jesus until they saw His miracles. Remember a couple of weeks ago when we studied the miracles at the Passover feast where people came to a type of belief in Jesus that did not result (at that time) in the saving faith of belief in Jesus? They believed in Jesus, but Jesus was not believing (trusting) in them because He knew their hearts. Likewise, Jesus is exposing the sin in these people’s hearts just like He did with the Samaritan woman at the well.

But the exposing of the people’s sinful hearts did not result in salvation as it did for the Samaritans just two days ago. However, there is a glimmer of hope in the official’s heart. We see in verse 47 that he continuously begged Jesus for help. This continuous action of begging means that there is something going on in this official’s heart. Let’s read on to see what happens to his heart.

John 4:49–50:

⁴⁹The royal official said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.

The official asks Jesus to come to his home and save his sick child. Jesus does not comply; rather, he tells the official to “Go now to your son” because he “presently lives and will continue to live”. Both “Go” and “lives” in verse 50 in Jesus’ statement are in the present tense. This gives us the sense of importance with “Go”…in a sense, “Go now and see your son.” The present tense of the word “lives” lets the official know that his son will continue to live. For we know and the official knew that his son still lived as he told Jesus earlier that his son was not dead but close to death. Here Jesus is telling the official to go and see the miracle that has happened. Indeed this miracle occurred just as Jesus was speaking these very words to the official.

Notice something important in the response of the official to these words Jesus spoke. John says that the man believed the word that Jesus spoke, not that this man believed in Jesus. This is important; essentially, this was not a saving faith (not yet at least). The man did not believe in Jesus. He merely believed (maybe trusted is a better word here) that the words Jesus spoke were true. In fact, the NIV says it more precisely as, “the man took Jesus at His word”.

How many people are there in churches today that only take Jesus for His word, looking for miracles and signs? How many have not put their full faith in Jesus and have said that they will believe (or have some type of belief, which is no true belief at all) once they see a miracle? Belief involves trust, not just a short lived trust of things other than Jesus but a total commitment to trust and obey Jesus.

John 4:51–53:

⁵¹As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living.

⁵²So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”

⁵³So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives”; and he himself believed and his whole household.

As the official was going back to his home as Jesus had commanded him, he ran into his servants who told him of the miraculous recovery of his son. The official asked when this happened, and the servants informed him of the exact timing of the miracle. It was when Jesus told him that his son lives.

Look at the final result of this miracle in verse 53. Not only did the official come to a saving faith (“he himself believed”), but his whole household believed (including his servants that he met when going home). Why do I say that this word “believed” in verse 53 indicates a saving faith while in verse 50 it did not? First, I’ve already explained that the object of the verb “believed” in verse 50 is the word that Jesus spoke to him. This official took Jesus at His word.

Secondly, what Jesus speaks in verse 48 is also pertinent. Jesus says, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” The Galilean’s hearts were all very hardened. They needed to see signs and wonders. Note that signs and wonders are plural so it’s possible that just one or even a few signs and wonders won’t do. This is a testament to the hardness of their hearts.

John 4:54:

⁵⁴This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

So Jesus, nevertheless, miraculously healed the sick son (from afar). This brought about a small harvest of a single household. We are not told if others believed due to this miracle. Maybe we don’t need to be told. Most likely due to the hardness of their hearts, the people of Galilee wouldn’t have believed in that miracle since they didn’t see it with their own eyes (maybe they thought the official was lying about his sick son to get some sympathy). Whatever the reason, there was no massive harvest as there was just two days ago in Samaria.

Yet, Jesus proved full of grace and mercy acquiesced and performed the miracle for this official…a stubborn, hard hearted, and faithless man. Christ’s grace and mercy knows no bounds and is of such a nature that we can never fully comprehend…infinite and available piercing the most hardened, stubborn, and faithless heart. This is truly the grace of Jesus at work…in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us.

The Heart of the Matter

Even today Jesus’ words still spring forth like living water in people’s lives. We just need to look and see where Jesus is working and come along side Him to become sowers (like the Samaritan woman at the well) and reapers (like the disciples) of His harvest. Where Jesus is working there will certainly be a harvest in His due time. This harvest produces fruit, and the fruit of every harvest glorifies God!

Digging Deeper

Last week we saw Jesus masterfully lead the Samaritan woman to true salvation culminating in Jesus revealing that He is the Messiah of which all have been waiting expectantly, both glorifying Himself and drawing the woman into true belief.

This week we are looking at the far reaching results of Jesus’ act of kindness and grace towards this woman. Remember last week what the woman did in response to her belief in Jesus? She went and told others of Jesus. So let’s take a look at what happens when we see Jesus working and we come alongside Jesus and work with Him.

John 4:31–33:

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

³²But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

³³So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?”

Now, while the Samaritan woman was out telling those in the city of what she had just experienced and that she had met the Messiah, the disciples were probably eating the food that they had just bought and were trying to persuade Jesus to eat (since they knew He was tired and hungry). In fact, this word “urge” is in the imperfect tense giving us the sense that they were persistent in their urging of Jesus to eat. Yet He had a more important task, which was to do the will of the Father. This would include a lesson that He would teach His disciples. Eating would have to wait.

I want to interject a quick observation here. Did you notice that the disciples went into the city, which was the same city that the Samaritan woman came from. These are the very disciples who have seen the signs that Jesus performed and had beheld Him and talked with Him and learned from Him. Yet when they went into the city, they brought back food to eat. However, as we have seen and shall see later in this section, the woman brought back a harvest of people ready for salvation. The disciples didn’t run to the city to tell everyone of Jesus, but the woman did.

Now let’s get back to the disciples who were continuing to urge Jesus to eat. Jesus responded to the disciples’ persistence by stating that he already has food to eat. But Jesus adds that they do not know of this particular type of food. Now this puzzled the disciples who responded in a very matter-of-fact way saying, “Ok, who brought Jesus food and didn’t tell us?” But the disciples didn’t say this directly to Jesus. They were asking this of each other. This fact along with the way they addressed Jesus as Rabbi in verse 31 and that they did not interrupt Him as He was talking to the Samaritan woman show that His disciples had the utmost respect for Jesus and His words. They just didn’t understand what He was really talking about.

John 4:34–38:

³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

³⁵“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.

³⁶“Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

³⁷“For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’

³⁸“I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

Knowing that His disciples were oblivious to what He meant by “food”, Jesus proceeds to teach them another truth about Himself and His relationship to the Father. Jesus’ “food” or sustenance is to do the will of the Father (the One who sent Him). This is interesting because we just finished the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well last week where He told her of living water that once you drink of it you will never thirst again. Now Jesus is telling His disciples of the necessity of spiritual food. And this spiritual food is to obey the will of the Father. Remember how Jesus responded to the devil when He was being tempted in the wilderness in Matthew 4:4:

⁴But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ”

So living water (i.e., the faith that leads to salvation) and spiritual food (i.e., to do the will of God) go hand-in-hand. You cannot have one without the other. We could say that saving faith leads to obedience to God. For us today this obedience is to live on each and every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In other words, we have the Bible which is God’s word that speaks to us today; therefore, our lives must live out these words that God gave us in the Bible.

Notice that Jesus says that His spiritual food is to do the will of God and to accomplish His work. This conjunction “and” is a connective word in the Greek so obedience to God is directly connected to accomplishing His work. But what is God’s “work”?

In verse 35 Jesus begins to explain what this “work” is. He uses the idea of laborers going out to gather the harvest which was ready to be picked. It is interesting that Jesus moves from spiritual food to a spiritual harvest since food comes directly from the harvest. Working the spiritual field to harvest our spiritual food is the sustenance of the believer.

In the second half of verse 35, Jesus tells His disciples to “behold” the spiritual fields as they are ready to be harvested. Why start with the word “behold”? Well, at this point the Samaritan woman would have already told many of the people of the city about Jesus. You could almost picture in your mind a mass of people walking towards Jesus at the very moment He utters the word “behold”. The spiritual fields that were walking towards Jesus and His disciples were ripe and ready for harvest.

In verse 36 Jesus tells His disciples and us that the person that reaps receives a reward. This reward is part of the spiritual food that Jesus was describing earlier. Our reward is guiding others to Christ so that He might change their hearts and thus grow the body of Christ (i.e., the church). This reward is no financial reward but a spiritual one. One that we may all rejoice together over, sower and reaper alike.

In verse 37 Jesus delineates the two types of workers in the spiritual fields, the sower and the reaper. It’s always wonderful to be the one who reaps a harvest as you get to see the immediate impact of the gospel of Christ on a person’s heart. However, we must not belittle or ignore those who sow the fields. Neither is greater or lesser than the other. For how can one reap if there is no one to sow and what good is the sower without someone to reap in due time lest the harvest rot in the fields?

In verse 38 Jesus explains that they are the reapers of this harvest. Yet they were not the ones that sowed. Who were the sowers? One of the sowers surely had to be John the Baptist as he was known far and wide. It’s easy to think that the Samaritans in this city knew of John the Baptist and were probably baptized by him. And we cannot forget the Samaritan woman who after believing began to sow right away. I imagine there were others. But we are not told of who they might have been nor for this lesson do we need to know.

John 4:39–42:

³⁹From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.”

⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

⁴¹Many more believed because of His word;

⁴²and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”

After Jesus’ “behold” statement I can imagine His disciples going to the people and leading them to faith in their rabbi Jesus. I would believe that Jesus’ disciples led the charge to reap the harvest as, if you remember, last week we read that when Jesus was baptizing it was really His disciples that were baptizing. You see, this was also on-the-job-training for His disciples. It would have been easy for Jesus to do all the work, but the disciples would not have learned as much unless they did the harvesting themselves under the gracious watch of Jesus.

From this harvest we are told that many came to saving faith in Jesus. We are told by John the Apostle that they believed because of the testimony of the Samaritan woman. Her testimony was of a supernatural nature, that is, “He told me all the things that I have done.” Likewise, our testimony of how we came to know Christ is also of a supernatural nature. We can always say with confidence that when we met Christ (although not physically) He knew our heart, our innermost nature, and He revealed the inferiority of our own righteousness. But Christ did not stop there. He gave us His righteousness so that we would become children of God. Just as the Samaritan woman expressed her testimony so we can also express ours to others.

But notice that this harvest did not stop with the Samaritan woman’s reaping. Sensing something much deeper about Jesus and being drawn to Him, the people went out to see Him…to behold Him. They asked that He stay for a couple of days so that they may learn more from Him. Because of this, in verse 41, even more believed in Jesus as Messiah. Judging by the Greek word “many” in verse 39 and “many more” in verse 40 we get the sense that this was no small gathering but a very large number of people. In verse 39 “many” signifies a multitude or a great number of people who believed. However, when Jesus spoke to the people in verse 40, a significantly greater number (“many more”) of people believed in comparison to the previous number. From this we know that our testimony is powerful but the word of God is significantly more powerful indeed. This is why it is crucial to bring new believers to church and to Bible studies so they can say to us, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”

The words of Jesus sprang forth like living water in these people. Today Jesus’ words still spring forth like living water in people’s lives. We just need to look and see where Jesus is working and come alongside Him to become sowers and reapers of His harvest.

I always wondered if Jesus would have stayed longer would more have believed. Surely there would have been an even greater number. But God is all knowing and His ways are far above our ways. But the story of Samaria doesn’t end there. God, not willing for any of His flock to be lost, sends Philip to preach Christ to the Samaritans to finish the work started by Jesus, the Samaritan woman, and His disciples in Acts 8:4–13:

⁴Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

⁵Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.

⁶The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.

⁷For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.

⁸So there was much rejoicing in that city.

⁹Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great;

¹⁰and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.”

¹¹And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts.

¹²But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.

¹³Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.

The Heart of the Matter
Jesus masterfully teaches us evangelism.

Digging Deeper

As I read through John’s gospel I notice how well he teaches us how to evangelize. Have you noticed this too? First, he teaches us through John the Baptist to call out to others to “Behold the Lamb of God”. Next, he teaches us through the followers of Jesus to tell others to “Come and see for yourself the Messiah.” Then in the study covering John 3:16 he shows us that the bad news (i.e., we are wretches and have no righteousness of our own that can save) must be presented along with the good news (i.e., but while we were still sinners Jesus sacrifices Himself that we may become children of God).

Now we arrive at another masterclass where Jesus demonstrates evangelism in action.

John 4:1–6:

¹Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John

²(although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were),

³He left Judea and went away again into Galilee.

⁴And He had to pass through Samaria.

⁵So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;

⁶and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

John sets for us the scene for the following verses. Have you been noticing how John usually begins with setting the scene for us and then proceeds to present a problem or conflict? This problem or conflict reaches a climax and then is resolved. Typically after the resolution, John presents the main point of that narrative.

Here we see Jesus and his disciples leaving Judea because the Pharisees were hearing that Jesus was becoming more popular than John the Baptist. Now if the Pharisees were indignant that John the Baptist was so popular with the people then just imagine what they thought of Jesus as He was becoming more popular than John the Baptist. Assuredly, the Pharisees were planning on moving against Jesus. But it was not the Father’s time for the Pharisees to attack Jesus. So Jesus, following the Father’s leading, moved on to Galilee.

However, His travels took Him and His disciples through Samaria, specifically through the Samaritan city of Sychar. The Jews did not care at all for the Samaritans. There are many issues between the two groups but suffice to say that the Jews believed the Samaritans were heretics and would not even give them the time of day. One important point to know is that the Samaritans stopped their worship of God in Jerusalem and began to worship God at Mt. Gerizim in Samaria. This information will help when we get to verses 20-22.

Now Jesus was very tired from the trip and was sitting by the well and it was noon. (There is some discrepancy here on whether this time was according to Jewish timekeeping or Roman timekeeping. Noon would be according to Jewish timekeeping and would fit into this story better as we will see.)

John 4:7–8:

⁷There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

⁸For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

A woman showed up at the well where Jesus was sitting. Jesus asked her for a drink of water since He had no jug with which to collect water from the well for Himself. Also, we see that His disciples had all gone into town to buy food. The Father has seemed to work out this situation so that Jesus could converse with the woman without interruption. We see how the disciples reacted when they returned and Jesus was still talking to the woman in John 4:27:

²⁷At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?”

Not only were the disciples amazed (astonished, marveled, surprised) that Jesus was not only talking to a woman but that He was talking to a Samaritan woman. Jesus’ disciples declined to even recognize the Samaritan woman. Jesus, however, not only recognized her and talked with her but also offered her everlasting life. Had the disciples been there, they might have rushed her off before Jesus had a chance to talk with her or perhaps she would have waited for all the men to leave before she approached the well. We don’t know exactly, but we do know that the Father was working things out for His glory.

John 4:9–10:

⁹Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

In response to Jesus’ request for a drink of water, the Samaritan woman acts astonished (amazed similar to how the disciples will be in verse 27 later on). However, as with Nicodemus, Jesus doesn’t answer her immediate question but the real question of her heart…that is, how must I be saved.

Notice how this story can compare to the story of Nicodemus that we just studied. Both came to Jesus alone and had uninterrupted time together. Both asked a question that Jesus did not answer. Rather, knowing their hearts He answered the question they most deeply longed to have answered.

However, we need to understand the differences between these two stories too. Nicodemus was a teacher of the law and knew the law (or rather he thought he knew the law). The Samaritan woman, on the other hand, was not a student of the law. But in both cases Jesus answered them directly and in relation to who they were and what they knew. Jesus didn’t try to teach the law to the Samaritan woman. That would not be an ideal strategy. Consider if the two responses that Jesus gave were swapped. Just try inserting the response to Nicodemus here. The Samaritan woman would have been as confused as I would be in reading that.

To put it simply, Jesus met them both as they were. He didn’t talk over their heads with complex ideas. He talked directly to their hearts. And every non-believer has the same question…how must I be saved.

Jesus answers this question (and the woman’s) with the introduction of “living water”. Now in the Greek this phrase is more akin to “flowing water”, which is the opposite of stagnant water. Flowing water was thought of as clean and sustaining life, whereas stagnant water would have poisoned the drinker if not properly sanitized.

John 4:11–12:

¹¹She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?

¹²“You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”

The woman seems a little confused as to the living water that Jesus is talking about here. In her reply she, possibly sarcastically, taunts Jesus by saying, “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You…”. She doesn’t see Jesus for who He is and she doesn’t understand the living water that He wants to give her (the gift in verse 10). But herein also lies the faint glimmer of hope for her. She asks in verse 11, “where then do You get that living water?”

John 4:13–14:

¹³Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;

¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Jesus explains the concept of living water to her. Drinking of the water at this well will sustain life but for only a short time. You need to come back to this well often to refill your water jugs in order to quench your thirst again and again. However, the water that Jesus provides will sustain life eternally. It’s interesting to note in verse 13 the verb “drinks” is a present participle indicating continuous action. However, in verse 14 the verb “drinks” is an aorist indicating punctiliar action or a one-time action. This is the one-time gift of living water that will never run dry and never leave anyone parched wanting more. This is the living water that results in eternal life!

Surely the Samaritan woman gets it now, right?

John 4:15:

¹⁵The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”

Nope, she wants this living water so that she not only won’t be thirsty anymore but, perhaps more importantly to her, so she won’t have to keep coming to this well day after day. Why doesn’t she want to come to this well everyday? Obviously there is the long walk and effort in pulling up the water out of the well, but maybe there’s more to her story…

John 4:16–19:

¹⁶He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”

¹⁷The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;

¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”

¹⁹The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

Jesus knows what her situation is and asks her to do something (i.e., bring her husband here), which she cannot do. You see, she has had five husbands. Not only that but the one she is living with is not her husband. So let’s consider her situation. She’s a woman…strike one. She’s a Samaritan…strike two. She’s living with a man in sin (strike three). This woman is considered by even other women as the lowest of the low. She doesn’t want to come to this well anymore so that she doesn’t have to run into others that will look down on her.

Did you see what Jesus masterfully did here? He caused her to expose her own sin and her lowly situation. Now she better sees herself as she truly is, a sinner in need of the Savior.

Remember the time of day it was (either 6pm according to Roman time or noon according to Jewish time). It seems that noon might be a better estimate of the time of day since most would come to draw water during the cool of the evening (i.e., 6pm). Noon would be the hottest part of the day when no one would be drawing water from the well. Again, she didn’t want to be around others since she was shunned.

Now (in verse 19) she’s finally getting it. She is starting to see that Jesus is no ordinary man but something more. She calls Him a prophet, which is someone who speaks for God and interprets the will of God. Of course, Jesus is more than just a prophet. He is the Lamb of God…the Son of God, God Himself!

John 4:20–24:

²⁰“Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

²²“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

²³“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

²⁴“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Here the Samaritan woman is revealing her confusion about worship, something we almost take for granted. She says that her predecessors worshiped on a particular mountain, but the Jews say that the only place to worship is in Jerusalem. Thinking that Jesus is a prophet she asks a question that must have been concerning her and the other Samaritans greatly…”Where shall we worship?”

Jesus replies with an answer that must have thrown everything that she believes on its head. He states that soon no one will need to worship God in a single place or physical temple. A time is coming (which we see fulfilled in Acts) where true believers will worship God in spirit and truth. Spirit and truth are the two essential ingredients to worship that pleases God. Those who worship in spirit do not need a physical place to worship. Having a physical building to worship in, such as our church, is wonderful and good but not an absolute necessity to please God. We can worship God at all times wherever we are. This allows us to let our light shine on the lost as we can be beacons for Jesus in a dark world.

To worship in truth is to worship God knowing fully who He is and He knowing us. The object of our faith, belief, and worship is Jesus Christ our Lord who said in John 14:6:

⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Worship of God requires directing our worship towards Jesus. Jesus is the truth and has given us many examples of how to properly worship God the Father in truth. As Jesus worshiped in truth and is the truth, so we must follow that example of worship.

John 4:25–26:

²⁵The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”

²⁶Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Now the Samaritans, like the Jews, believed in the Messiah and His coming. Indeed she states that she is expectantly waiting for Him. Jesus responds with (literally) “I am the one speaking to you.” However, there is more to this in the Greek. The Greek used here for “I am” (ego eimi) is the more intensive form of “I am” than the normal way it was expressed in Greek, that is as just eimi. When the more intensive form of ego eimi is used, it typically refers to Yahweh translated to Greek. We will see this in John 8:58:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”

These and other intensive “I am” statements that Jesus makes later in John (about 23 of them) clearly point to Jesus’ identity as God.

But here, the translators (and many translators agree) that this is not necessarily Jesus pointing to Himself as the great I AM. Rather, the translators add a “He” that is not in the original Greek. I believe that most translators do not translate this phrase as “I AM” due to the immediate context, which is the Samaritan woman speaking of the Messiah. Jesus, in answering her, simply says “I am the Messiah” with a strong emphasis on the fact that He is the Messiah. That is why the original Greek uses the ego eimi phrasing in this verse.

But there is more to speak about this “ego eimi” construct when we get into John 8:58.

John 4:27–30:

²⁷At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?”

²⁸So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men,

²⁹“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”

³⁰They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

Now we see the disciples return, and we see that they are aghast at Jesus speaking not only to a woman but a Samaritan woman. The disciples did not say anything. They only observed, possibly out of respect for Jesus. This is the sovereignty of God at work. The disciples needed to see that Jesus was offering salvation to a person that was so beneath them and despised by them. This would be an example and a lesson for the disciples (even if they didn’t quite get it right away) that salvation would be for all.

Finally, notice what the Samaritan woman did right after Jesus revealed He was the Messiah. She ran to tell the men of the town what had transpired at the well and that the Messiah had arrived. In fact, she took off so quickly she left her waterpot at the well. She had finally understood that Jesus had the living water and she had accepted that living water. Now there was (metaphorically) no need for a waterpot. Physically she would thirst again, but spiritually she would never thirst again.

The response of the Samaritan woman shows another special effect to believing and accepting the living water that Jesus offers, that of her going and telling others of what she experienced and to implore them to “come and see”, which we heard the disciples saying to others after they began following Jesus.

When you first believe in Jesus you simply want to tell others what happened and lead them to Him. This is the effect of evangelism on our hearts when we first believe. I remember in college when I first became a believer that I had an incredible desire to tell others. I didn’t understand all of the Bible, actually, not much of it at the time. Nevertheless, I desired to tell others of Jesus.

The Heart of the Matter:

We have a clear and deep picture of who we are in relation to Jesus and what it means to follow Him by way of John the Baptist’s example in this passage of scripture.

• Jesus is above all.
• Only Jesus knows the heavenly things.
• Believing in Jesus is believing in the Father.
• God gave the Spirit to Jesus without limits.
• All authority has been given to Jesus.

Jesus truly is the superior in that He is the only one having come from heaven to bring the truth of God to the world. This truth no other person possesses. No one but Jesus has the full authority of heaven given to Him by God the Father.

Just as John the Baptist decreased so that Jesus might increase, so should we lower ourselves in humble submission to Jesus. Our response should be that of a true belief, trust, and reliance in Him as our Master, Lord, and Savior desiring to obey His will.

Digging Deeper: John 3:22-24:

22After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing.

23John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized—

24for John had not yet been thrown into prison.

John is again setting the scene for us. Jesus and His followers had stationed themselves in the rural area of Judea. John the Baptist (remember John the Apostle never mentions himself by name in his gospel) and his followers had stationed themselves in Aenon. Notice that both ministries were at separate locations; however, they were separated by only a few miles (at best guess possibly 6 miles, although the exact distance is somewhat disputed). Regardless, since they were so close it’s obvious that each of them knew what was going on in the other’s camp. This sets us up for the “Therefore” in verse 25, which I’ll get to in a second.

The curious thing is verse 24. It seems out-of-place here. Why would John (the Apostle) comment here on John the Baptist’s situation? Well, we first need to remember that John’s gospel was written roughly 50 years after these events and the gospels of Matthew and Mark were written before John. In Matthew and Mark, John the Baptist is placed in jail immediately after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Nothing is mentioned of the time in between. However, John the Apostle is filling in that gap here. But again, why do we need this gap filled in? Part of the answer is that Jesus began His ministry alongside John the Baptist and not after he was placed in jail. Matthew and Mark seem to indicate that Jesus’ ministry began afterwards, Mark 1:14:

14Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,

We see here that Jesus’ ministry did indeed begin alongside John the Baptist.

So our next question is why does it matter when Jesus’ ministry began? Well, the next sections offer an answer as to how John the Baptist ministered in relation to Jesus. He decreased so that Jesus might increase. This is always a foundational part of all our ministries. We need to get out of the way so that the spotlight falls on Jesus, the only One who matters in our ministry. As we read through these next sections we will see how John the Baptist ministered in this way and what his reasons were.

John 3:24–36:

25Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification.

26And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”

27John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.

28“You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’

29“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.

30“He must increase, but I must decrease.

Isn’t it almost always the case that when two people that are held in very high regard come within one another’s orbits that envy, pride, and an unhealthy competition flare up. Here too we see that because (the “therefore” that begins verse 24) of the close proximity of the two ministries that we hear of a “discussion” brought up between John the Baptist’s disciples and a Jew. The Greek word for “discussion” (zetesis) gives us the sense that this was more than a simple friendly debate. Rather, this was an argument over a controversial matter.

Now I’m sure that both John and Jesus would have taught their disciples well concerning matters of purification. In fact, the text even states that Jesus was spending time with His disciples (verse 22). Surely this was not just idle time but intentional time spent building up His disciples. Plus there were the scriptures that taught of purification. So what was the heart of the matter here? Well, verse 26 betrays the minds of those disputing these matters and gives us some explanation.

In verse 26 we see envy, pride, and unhealthy competition. Basically, these disputers came to John asking, “Why did you build up this Jesus so much just to have Him take away all your disciples?” Didn’t these people recognize who Jesus was, especially after John’s emphatic witness? No! In fact, they seem to be rejecting John’s witness that the Lamb of God had appeared. If we recall John 3:11:

11“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.

We see that indeed at least some were still not believing in the Lamb of God.

John the Baptist recognized what was happening here. Look closely at his response. This is the graceful response of a humble man. John knew that he had been given a duty to proclaim Jesus and to prepare those to follow Him. John was not preparing those to continue to stay with him and follow him. This responsibility had been given to him from heaven and was ordained by God. Likewise, we too only receive our Christian duties from heaven.

In verse 28 John the Baptist says that he has already witnessed that he is not the Christ. Rather, John the Baptist witnessed that he was sent ahead to prepare the way (this was his holy responsibility given to him from heaven). He gently reminded these followers of his that what was happening was not a competition for followers but a plan laid out in heaven from all eternity.

In verse 29 John the Baptist explains this from his own point-of-view as the friend of the bridegroom (this might be best understood in our contemporary world as the “best man”). He is rejoicing but not simply rejoicing, greatly rejoicing. His joy is so great that he states at the end of verse 29 that his joy has been made full. Some translations say that his joy was complete. Either way, John the Baptist’s joy was filled up to the brim. You couldn’t have put an ounce more of joy into him. That is how joyful he was.

Now as the metaphorical best man for Jesus, he would have naturally been overjoyed at being near the bridegroom. Not only did he know the bridegroom personally and deeply, but his duties were coming to an end. The best man prepares for the bridegroom. The best man rejoices when the bridegroom arrives and he hears his voice. Now that the bridegroom is on the scene and calling His church to Him, the best man can step aside and allow the full spotlight to be placed on the bridegroom. You see, the best man isn’t the reason for this celebration, it’s the bridegroom and as such when the bridegroom arrives, the best man steps aside.

Verse 30 succinctly sums up what John the Baptist has been revealing to his followers. They were not to continue to follow him, but they were to follow Jesus. Why else was he witnessing to all to “behold” this Lamb of God? He wanted his followers to stop looking at him and instead look deeply at Jesus, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

Verse 30 is a verse we must all meditate on deeply. Let’s look at this phrase from other perspectives based on the biblical definitions of these two words “increase” and “decrease”:

He must become superior and I must become inferior

He must be made greater and I must be made lower

He must be glorified and I must be humble

Do not overlook the use of the word “must” in this verse. This word “must” gives us a sense not only of duty for John the Baptist but also one of necessity. John must fade away so that the superior will (must) take over. Just as the superior has arrived (i.e., the bridegroom) so must the inferior or lower (i.e., the best man) step aside so that the superior is magnified and glorified in all.

Through this logical flow of thought John the Baptist has ended this argument amongst his followers with a fullness of grace. He didn’t chastise or berate his followers; conversely, he lowered himself in humble submission to his master and Lord. But John the Baptist has not finished his explanation. Read on…

John 3:31–36:

31“He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

32“What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.

33“He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true.

34“For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.

35“The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.

36“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Remember back when we studied Colossians? The overarching theme in that letter was the full supremacy and sufficiency of Christ. Here John the Baptist is reiterating the supremacy or superiority of Jesus over himself (or anyone, for that matter). John the Baptist gives 5 distinct reasons for Jesus’ superiority in verses 31-35 and ends with an interesting repeat of John 3:16 in verse 36.

He Who is Above All

In verse 31 notice the chiastic structure (ABA) where the author speaks of Jesus as above all (i.e., the first and last “A”s in this structure) and the phrase about John the Baptist (the “B”) sandwiched in between. Essentially, you can read this as:

Jesus is above all.

John the Baptist is from the earth.

Jesus is above all.

This pattern emphasizes Jesus’ status as superior, but the point here is that John the Baptist is showing himself as lower in status to Jesus. John the Baptist is speaking of himself as from the earth, which implies that he is not from heaven as Jesus clearly is (the second “A” in this structure explicitly states that Jesus “comes from heaven”). Also, John the Baptist is stating that Jesus speaks of not earthly things, as he does, but of the greater heavenly things. Remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus that we studied last week in John 3:11–12:

11Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

12If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

The “we” in verse 11 above references both Jesus and John the Baptist, but John still was only a man who only did and spoke of what he was told by God. John did not speak on his own accord. Jesus, on the other hand, had descended from heaven and His ministry was superior to John’s. And, of course, we see this again from last weeks study in John 3:5:

5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Jesus brought the superior ministry with Him from heaven. Jesus was beginning His ministry in order to open up a way to God, through His sacrifice for sin.

Only Jesus Knows the Heavenly Things

In verse 32 we see that Jesus only speaks of what He has seen and heard. Since He was always in heaven with the Father, we know this testimony is directly from heaven and is true and pure. Again we can go back to last weeks study of John 3:13 :

13No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

Jesus testifies that only He has descended from heaven and only He brings the truth of heavenly things to us.

Believing in Jesus is Believing in the Father

In verse 33 anyone (including John the Baptist) who receives the testimony of Jesus and confirms (“sets his seal”) Jesus’ testimony also receives and confirms God Himself. We know that Jesus’ testimony came from God, so If we receive and confirm Jesus’ testimony we receive and affirm this is God’s truth. We cannot receive one and not the other, nor can we believe in one and not the other.

God Gave the Spirit to Jesus Without Limits

In verse 34 God sent Jesus to speak the full gospel (the good news) to the world. But God gave Jesus, who set aside His deity temporarily, the full measure of the Spirit. That is, the full and complete Spirit dwelt within Jesus. There was nothing lacking in this. Therefore, we can trust the testimony of Jesus as from God for we know that the Spirit speaks only what He hears from the Father. Not only this, but the full measure of the Spirit infers the full authority of God.

All Authority Has Been Given To Jesus

In verse 35 we see the glue that holds this all together. That is, “the Father loves the Son”. Love (the agape love) is what drives this action through Jesus the Son. This holy, perfect, and complete love spurs the second part of this verse, “God has given all things into His hand”. This verb “has given” is in the perfect tense, which means that the action has already occured in the past; however, the focus of this verb tense is not that the action has been completed but the resulting state of affairs. That is, God already gave all authority to Jesus and this results in the present state, which is Jesus the superior who is to bring the heavenly things to the world.

These five verses progress the deeper meaning behind John the Baptist’s statement, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jesus truly is the superior in that He is the only one having come from heaven to bring the truth of God to the world. This truth no other person possesses. The Spirit confirms and authenticates Jesus as speaking the truth of God. And no one but Jesus has the full authority of heaven given to Him by God the Father. In this simple statement, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” We have a clear and deep picture of who we are in relation to Jesus and what it means to follow Jesus. I thank God that Jesus is my superior as I am nothing in comparison. May no one see me; rather may they see Jesus instead of me.

Finally, the author closes this section with a verse reminiscent of John 3:16 in verse 36:

36“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

This is a fitting closing statement to verses 22-35. This is our response to the superior One, to the One from heaven, to the One with all authority and all knowledge. Our response is belief. But not just a theoretical or superficial knowledge, for even the demons believe that Jesus is who He says He is…but they do not believe in Jesus.

A good biblical definition of the Greek work for believe is:

πιστεύω (pisteuō). vb. to believe, trust; entrust. Describes the act of believing or trusting something on the basis of its truthfulness and reliability1

1 Aaron C. Fenlason, “Belief,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

So belief carries with it the idea of trust. Trust is key to this definition. We trust Jesus is who He says He is and on this we rely.

There is another small word interjected here that is critical to our belief…the word “in”. This word “in” defines the target or focus of our belief. However, this is too simplistic of a definition. True, the focus of our faith is Jesus but what does that imply? Well, this implies that this is a heart issue. This implies that we must be fully and totally committed to Jesus within a trusting relationship. If we don’t trust in Jesus, we cannot rely on Him. If we cannot rely on Him, we cannot obey Him. This is not commitment. [As an aside, doubts will creep in every once in a while and we may have an earthly fear of obeying something the Spirit is commanding us to do. I am not saying that these situations mean you do not trust in Jesus or that you are not saved. Typically, these situations are due either to an unrepentant sin or God purifying your faith. Both of which are different scenarios in which God works.]

Now this trust, or trusting in Jesus, allows us to obey Him. Who can obey someone who is untrustworthy? If we trust Jesus is who He says he is then our obedience is from joy and not from duty or simply adherence to laws.

(re-read verses 22-35 with this key idea of a true belief in Jesus in mind and see what the Spirit teaches you anew).

The Heart of the Matter

The mark of a person truly seeking salvation through Jesus is that they listen not only to the good things but also to the difficult things. The most difficult thing to grasp is the true cost of our sin against God, the sacrifice of His Son to pay the penalty for our sins. Once this cost is contemplated, the grace of Jesus is all the more wonderful and desirable. Having been justified by faith, Christ draws us near to Him resulting in our continued desire for His presence.

Digging Deeper

The Main Idea

Jesus, our living Savior, knows our hearts and purifies like a refiner’s fire so that His Father’s Church remains holy and acceptable to Him bringing glory to His name.

Digging Deeper

This last half of John 2 can easily be divided into three sections. Verses 13-17 talk of the zeal of Jesus for His church. Verses 18-22 talk of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Finally, verses 23-25 talk of Jesus’ sufficiency in the Father and knowledge of men’s hearts.

Notice that in each section John helps us better understand why each of these sections was written. The last verse in each section (17, 21-22, and 25) contain the summary of what was just written. Here, John is helping to focus our minds on why each of these sections was written so that we might better understand Jesus as the one true Messiah and Son of God.

John 2:13–17

13The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

14And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

15And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables;

16and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”

17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”

The scene is set at the time when the Passover feast was nearing. Jesus went to Jerusalem as it was the custom of any Jewish male over the age of 12. You could just imagine the amount of people packed into Jerusalem at this time. Think of a crowded mall during Christmas season and then multiply that by a lot.

People came to celebrate Passover in which they remembered God’s deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian slavery. This deliverance was through the blood of a lamb. It’s no coincidence that Jesus was here to celebrate Passover as He was sent to deliver all people from the slavery of sin through His blood…the perfect Lamb of God. But immediately in verse 14 we see conflict arise. Not everyone had come to observe the Passover and give glory to God for what He had done. We are told that there were people doing business in the temple of all places. Did these people not have any shred of reverence for God’s house?!?! With all the crowds in Jerusalem, people had set up tables to exchange currency for the temple tax and to sell animals for the sacrifice. Not everyone could bring their animals for sacrifice, especially if they had to travel long distances, nor did some have the right currency to pay taxes. So enterprising people set up tables to do this business. But one thing that is missing from this story is if these businessmen were doing business ethically or unethically. Knowing this is missing from the story is important. It lets us know that we do not need to focus on that topic to understand the full meaning of this story. However, as a side note, in Mathew’s accounting of this story the idea of unethical business does come up in John 2:14:

14And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

Now in verses 14-15 we hit the climax and resolution of this story. After seeing what these people were doing in His Father’s house (the temple), He made a whip and drove them all out of the temple. This word “all” in the Greek is strongly emphasized (due to word order), meaning that Jesus drove ALL out of the temple. John goes on to say that he even drove the animals out of the temple. Additionally, the money tables were overturned, spilling all the coins randomly onto the floor. Just think of how these businessmen felt as they saw their money spilled and mixed with other people’s coins on the floor. But even with all this, nothing is said of anyone rising up to challenge Jesus (well, yet, at least) or of restraining Jesus. No rioting was mentioned either.

If we just read this story as Jesus righting a wrong or just driving out businesses from the temple, we might miss the full point of the story (in verse 17)…that Jesus has an all consuming desire to please the Father by keeping His house holy and dedicated to the Lord! Today we can read “His house” as the church body that we learned about in our Ephesians study. The house of the Lord (a physical structure) has been replaced with His body of believers (a human structure).

The OT verse that God called to the disciples’ minds here in verse 17 was the fulfillment of Malachi 3:1–3:

1“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.

2“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.

3“He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.

And Jesus’ zeal to present the body of believers as spotless and holy to the Father is one of the utmost importance. Essentially, Jesus’ desire for the holiness of the body is all consuming. Knowing this, we all should live in a righteous fear of the Lord. Righteous fear gives birth to wisdom and wisdom to holy living.

Keeping ourselves holy, worshipful, and free of sin is imperative. We should not look at all like this temple that had allowed businesses to pop up and crowd out the real reason for that temple to exist…the worship of our holy God who demands holiness in worship. We must also recognize that our purity (or impurity) will affect the larger body of Christ with whom we worship side-by-side. A little leven moves quickly throughout the whole mixture. Likewise, impurity or purity will also move quickly throughout the body of Christ.

Let’s begin to pray for the continued purity of worship both individually and corporately throughout our church. I for one certainly do not want Jesus to have to do the work of driving out things that adversely affect my worship of Him. For He is like a refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap (you should Google fullers’ soap). Disciplining ourselves daily is far better than Him having to discipline us as we have seen Jesus do here. This is not easy, but remember that we have the Holy Spirit (our Helper) to graciously and mercifully help us in our time of need.

John 2:18–22

18The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”

19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

20The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

21But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

22So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

Here it is! We knew someone was going to try to stand up to Jesus and put Him in His place. These Jews, most likely either the temple authorities or perhaps some of the Sanhedrin, approached Jesus demanding a sign to prove His authority for the act of cleansing the temple. Notice how the question was worded. The Jews didn’t humbly ask Jesus to show His authority. They essentially demanded that He present a sign of His authority to which Jesus answers that “this” temple will be destroyed and I (Jesus) will raise it up in three days.

You see, these Jews did not comprehend that the Light of the world was standing right in front of them for they chose to remain in darkness so that their deeds would not be exposed (more on that next week). To be sure, it wasn’t yet His time to reveal Himself as Messiah to the world. However, His disciples were beginning to understand.

However, if we take a step back, we do see something that would indicate Jesus’ absolute authority over all. That is, no one took the next step to lay ahold of Jesus and throw Him in jail. In fact, the only conflict we see is Jews demanding a sign and then mocking Him for thinking He will rebuild the physical temple in three days, which took 46 years to build. Certainly Jesus’ cleansing of the temple would have hurt the income of the money changers and those selling livestock. It possibly could have hurt the temple finances as well if the people could not get their money changed to the correct currency with which to pay the temple tax. And with such a large crowd in attendance surely they could have easily grabbed Jesus and brought Him to the Roman authorities to be jailed…but they didn’t.

Not only was it not Jesus’ time to publicly declare Himself Messiah but it was also not His time to be taken to the Roman authorities for punishment. Jesus had placed Himself in the hands of His Father and His Father had orchestrated everything according to His good and just will.

And in verse 21 we see the reasoning for this story. Jesus was talking of His own body, the new temple of God. But even His own disciples didn’t get His meaning at that point in time, for it took Jesus’ death and resurrection before they were reminded of this event and fully understood its significance (verse 22).

So to in our evangelistic efforts what we say to others about Christ and how we act as Christians may not always bear fruit immediately. It is possible that God will bring to mind our words and deeds to those unbelievers we witness to at a later time when they are ready to understand. All things are under Christ’s control and will happen at His appointed time in the life of the unbeliever and believer alike.

Now we don’t have to go to a physical temple in order to ask forgiveness for our sins and to worship the holy triune God. Our bodies are the new temple of God and we can worship Him in spirit and truth. We studied this throughout Ephesians when we learned of the great mysteries of what God was doing in Ephesians 2:19–22:

19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,

20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,

21in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,

22in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

But are we to forsake meeting together? Of course not, for it says in 1 Corinthians 14:26:

26What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

“When” we meet…yes, we do not need to meet in a special temple, one built and dedicated to God as it was in the Old Testament. However, the body of Christ, His glorious temple is being woven together through us…the individual stones that are building a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to glorify God and to grow as children of God we must continue to meet together as one unified body in Christ.

John 2:23–25

23Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.

24But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men,

25and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

Again in verse 23 John sets the scene for us. It is the time of the Passover feast. Jesus is performing miracles and people were seeing these miracles and believing in Him. In the Greek we get a better sense of what is going on here. Essentially, as Jesus was in the midst of performing signs, people were being drawn to Him. Notice that John does not say that people were drawn to Jesus prior to Him performing these signs. Rather, it was during these signs. To put it bluntly, people were drawn to Him because of these signs.

John also says that many people were believing in His name. This statement is key to understanding the next two verses 24-25. To believe in Jesus is to make Him the object of your faith. That’s what this verse is saying. Many people put their faith in Jesus because they saw the signs He performed. But is this the real saving faith? To answer this we must read on.

In verse 24 it surprisingly says that Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them. This word “entrust” in the Greek is the same word for believe (found previously in verse 23). The many believed in Him, but He did not put His trust in them. It sounds like Jesus did not believe in their belief. And this is exactly what John is saying here. But why? I thought that the many here had put their faith in Jesus. After all, haven’t I put my faith in Jesus too…and I never even saw the signs that He performed?

There’s a lot to think about here. You see, at this point the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out (that’s later in Acts). So can we really say that these people had their hearts changed? It is possible that some may have been changed, but since Jesus was not believing in their belief overall we can infer that this was only a surface faith and not a permanent, life changing, saving faith.

But why? Well, verse 23 gives us another clue. The people believed in His name because of the signs. The signs were what drew people to Jesus, but the signs were not enough to continue their faith in Him.

Jeremiah 17:10:

10“I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.

Jesus knew the hearts of the people that were believing in His name. He knew that they were drawn to the signs He performed, but signs alone are not enough to keep a person’s faith alive and focused on Jesus.

Later in John 6:66 we see what happened to many of these so-called disciples of Jesus:

66After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.

Immediately before this Jesus taught that He was the bread of life and that all who want eternal life must feed on His flesh and drink His blood (read John 6:22-71 for the full story). His disciples started to grumble after hearing this and as we see in verse 66 that many of His disciples left Him. In the Greek we see another imperfect verb “no longer walked”, giving the sense that this was a permanent condition that began in the past and continued on without end. To be sure, many of these disciples that turned away were only following Jesus because He performed the signs at the passover feast.

Later on we will hear Jesus lay out what is necessary for a truly saving faith in John 8:30–31:

30As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.

31So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;

Even here Jesus is not placing His trust (belief) in the Jews in this verse that believed in Him. Rather, He shows what a true saving faith looks like. Saving faith shows itself in a continued walk in the Lord. It shows itself when we humble ourselves and repent continuously. It shows itself in our continued obedience to our loving God.

I’ll end with a story. My future wife (with whom I was head-over-heels in love) and I were on a mission trip during our college days in a southern state. I think it was Louisiana. We were going out to talk to people in a poorer housing area that surrounded one of the churches we were helping. After a couple of hours, we all met back at the front of the church. A seemingly wonderful thing had happened to all of us who went out to talk to people and witness for Christ. There had been many converts that day. It seemed as if the Holy Spirit was moving throughout that area and the harvest was ripe for the picking. All of us were on a spiritual high as we started regaling each other of our stories of how many people were believing in Jesus.

But that feeling would not last. As the pastor of the church arrived to see how things had gone, we spoke of how many people had come to believe in Jesus and that surely there were many more to be saved that day. All during this time his expression did not change. Surely this was a good thing; shouldn’t he also be praising God with us? After all of us, overly excited college students, calmed down a bit the pastor set us straight. He said that the people who had accepted Christ have done so many times for him and others who had witnessed around that area in the past. What!?!? Well, the proverbial rug had just been pulled out from under all of us. Imagine going from a spiritual high to the stark reality of what had happened in less that 60 seconds.

You see, a lot of these people (I hope not all) were just there to “get something” from the church and its workers. They weren’t interested in Christ; they were interested in their next meal or collecting enough money for rent. It was at this point that I realized that you cannot be certain about a person’s spiritual state just by witnessing, praying a prayer, and then leaving to go to the next house.

Remember what Jesus plainly stated in John 8:31, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine”. Unfortunately, there was (and had been) no evidence of them continuing to walk with the Lord. This was a very difficult lesson to learn, but it brings me closer to Jesus who had to deal with those that only had a surface faith.

The Main Idea: True belief can only begin once God’s glory is revealed to us.

Digging deeper:

Chapter 2 of John can be subdivided into three sections. This first section (verses 1-11) contains the well known story about Jesus turning the water into wine (very good wine at that). Every detail of this story is important and meaningful, but the underlying reason for this story cannot be found in a wedding or water being turned into wine. The real reason for this story is twofold and revealed in verse 11. Jesus made known His glory, as we previously read in John 1:14:

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And the second reason is so that Jesus’ disciples would believe and trust more deeply in Him, note also in John 1:12:

¹²But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

We need to keep verse 11 in mind as we read this story.

John 2:1-5

¹On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;

²and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

³When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

⁴And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.”

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

In these opening verses, the scene is set. Jesus and His disciples and His mother Mary are at a wedding. These were very special occasions in Israel. They could continue on for days, even a week. The bride and groom were treated like royalty. Also (and very important to this story) is that the wine should flow throughout the entire wedding feast, meaning there should be enough wine to last days. Even with a smaller wedding party the amount of wine necessary would be fairly significant. But if the wine were to run out it would be a catastrophe. The bride and groom as well as their families would be humiliated (not a great way to start their lives together) and there could be legal or financial ramifications. So running out of wine at a wedding was no small matter.

The very first dialog we see is Mary (probably frantic) telling Jesus that they have no more wine left. Note that she doesn’t directly ask Jesus to fix the problem; rather, she informs Him of the situation in no uncertain terms. This is important as she could have informed the wedding party or the parents of the groom or even the head waiter. Instead, she turns to Jesus.

We shouldn’t fail to remember that Mary is Jesus’ earthly mother and has raised Him and been with Him all this time, not only having heard the angel’s message to her about the Messiah she bore but also storing up memories for herself about Jesus growing up. Certainly she of all people would have a deeper understanding of her Son and who He really was. Certainly her faith would have spurred her on to simply tell her Son the calamity that was occurring as opposed to commanding Him to do something about it.

What was Jesus’ response to His mother? He said, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” As an English translation in today’s American culture, this sounds very harsh and maybe a little aloof. Hardly…you see, in the cultural and historic context in which these actual words were uttered, it was a respectful way of answering. It might have sounded more like, “Ma’am, why tell me this?”

These words were also a way for Jesus to distance Himself from the issue at hand. Jesus knew what was going on (obviously). But He also knew what was in Mary’s heart. Certainly she wanted Him to help out and fix this problem. But Jesus didn’t want to fully reveal Himself to the world just yet (remember that He said, “My hour has not yet come.”).

Notice Mary’s response to Jesus. She turns to the servants (who were probably in even more of a panic than Mary) and says, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” This statement is posed as a command to the servants. Perhaps Mary had some overseeing duties at this wedding feast and could take charge of the servants at this moment of crisis. Her command was that they do anything that Jesus tells them. This is a very telling example of Mary’s faith in Jesus. She is putting the entire problem in Jesus’ hands not knowing what the outcome will be (as we can infer from her words, “Whatever He says to you, do it”).

Mary’s implied faith in Jesus to take care of the problem is even more poignant after Jesus’ reply to her first statement about the wine running out. Not only is Mary trusting that Jesus can take care of the problem but she also trusts in Jesus’ method of taking care of the problem. To put it another way, she isn’t telling Jesus how to take care of the problem. She simply leaves everything in Jesus’ hands. This is the trust that is brought about through faith.

Did you see the other thing that Mary does? She points everyone to Jesus. Rather than trying to do things herself she points others, namely the servants, to Jesus Himself. She tells the servants to do what He says and that is that. Mary has pointed others to Jesus and left the results up to Him. With one small statement (or technically a command) she has borne witness that Jesus can deal with this calamitous situation in any way He chooses. And Mary did this all without knowing absolutely whether Jesus would in fact fix this situation or not (based on Jesus’ previous answer to Mary I don’t think anyone was certain). Mary’s faith in action bore witness to Jesus. May our faith in action make our desire to place the outcome fully in Jesus’ hands so that He may be glorified.

John 2:5–11

⁶Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.

⁷Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.

⁸And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him.

⁹When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom,

¹⁰and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

¹¹This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

Verses 5-10 seem to be about Jesus saving the day for the wedding party. While this is a good and gracious thing that Jesus did, it was not the point of this story (remember the point is found in verse 11). There’s more to this story than just turning water into wine and saving the wedding.

John points out that there were 6 stone waterpots for a purification custom. The number 6 in Jewish culture usually meant something was imperfect or incomplete. This is meaningful as the Jewish purification customs were only an incomplete and imperfect forerunner to Jesus’ perfect and complete purification for all sin.

Jesus had the servants fill all 6 jars to the top with water. I’m sure the servants were thinking how could filling these pots with water help solve the immediate problem? Nevertheless, the servants obeyed and filled the pots exactly as Jesus had asked. Even filled to the very brim with water, these waterpots had no real power in and of themselves to solve the need for more wine much less remove sin permanently from a person when used in the purification ceremony.

Then Jesus told the servants to draw out some of the water and take it to the headwaiter to be tasted. Surely the servants must have thought this was a crazy idea. Taking some water to the headwaiter to be tasted wasn’t going to even remotely fix the situation. Yet, they obeyed.

Much to everyone’s surprise the water had turned into wine. In fact, the verbal phrase “had become” is in the perfective, meaning that at some point in the past the water had turned into wine. We’re not told if the water in the pots was all completely turned to wine or if it was turned to wine as the servants drew out the water from the pots (although, from the story’s wording, it seems that the servants might not have seen all 6 pots of water turn to wine but just what was drawn out). Regardless, the result was that a miracle had happened and the wedding had been saved.

Underneath this story is the idea that purification customs were not sufficient to permanently save a person; however, Jesus’ grace, which flows as freely as the wine flowed freely from the pots of water, is perfectly sufficient to save. Jesus was about to remove the old ways of purification (signified by the 6 pots) and usher in a new and perfect way of purification. This was God the Father’s plan for His Messiah.

This brings us back to Jesus’ mild rebuke to Mary: “What does this have to do with us?” and “My hour has not yet come.” Jesus was not put on the earth to do the will of people but to do the will of the Father. We can hear this in the first question: “What does this have to do with us?” So He was stating that He was not there to act like a wish granter but that He had a more important mission.

There is also the problem of the statement “My hour has not yet come.” This typically can mean one of two things: the time at which the Father would reveal the Son as the true Messiah or the time at which the revealed Messiah would die for the sin of the world. In this context, it couldn’t mean the latter as the former has not even happened yet. So we can understand this statement as Jesus not wanting to reveal that He is the Messiah at this point in time.

In this story, Jesus performs His first miracle, saves the wedding, and revealed His glory so that His disciples would have an even deeper trust in Him. All of this was done without revealing Himself as Messiah to the world. Notice that only His disciples, Mary, and the servants knew of the commands that Jesus gave leading to the water turning into wine. The headwaiter and the rest of the wedding party had no clue as to where the wine came from. This was all choreographed by Jesus who did not reveal Himself as the Messiah. Therefore, Jesus revealed (manifest) His glory only to the disciples, who, in turn, believed more deeply in Him. This was the true underlying meaning of this story.

We have read of John the Baptist giving testimony of himself that he is not the Christ, the Son of God that people were seeking; rather, he was the forerunner of Christ proclaiming His arrival. Next, he gives testimony of the true Christ, the Son of God who appears along with a very special event proving He is the Christ. At this point, after introducing his followers (and us) to Jesus the Christ, John the Baptist pivots to pointing his disciples (one being John the apostle) to their one true teacher, Jesus.

John 1:35-42:
35Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,
36and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
37The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
38And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?”
39He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
40One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
41He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ).
42He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

Remember in John 3:30 where John the Baptist says:
30“He must increase, but I must decrease.
Here he is putting his own words and his faith to work. John is effectively putting Christ first, not only in his life but in the lives of his disciples. John is telling his disciples that initially they followed him as he was proclaiming the Messiah. Now, the Messiah has come and his disciples need to follow Him as He is their true rabbi or teacher.

How does John the Baptist do this? He starts with one word…”Behold”. “Behold” is a special word with important meaning. We can see the call to “behold” from John followed by the response from Jesus in verse 39, which is “Come, and you will see.” So what does this word “behold” mean? It can mean to perceive with any of the human senses, but here, in context, it seems to be pertaining more to the sense of sight. After all, Jesus had come in the flesh to all the world, but it has a deeper meaning than just to perceive with the eyes. Here it has the meaning of to pay attention, to discern, to inspect closely, or to understand. John is not simply saying, “Look look, there’s Jesus!” Rather, he’s telling his disciples to go to Him, learn from Him, understand Him, and discern for themselves whether or not Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ.

Notice also that the word “behold” is an interjection. We see this by the addition of the exclamation point at the end of John’s command (yes, it was also phrased as a command) to behold Jesus. This was not just some statement that John was making but an emphatic plead for those to follow their Savior, the Lamb of God. John understood the wrath of God that sinner’s faced. Therefore, he was emphatic about their need to follow the One who could save the sinner from the wrath of God. This is a perfect picture of humility in leadership as John pushed Jesus to the center stage as he exited stage right.

Why should we focus on one word, “behold”? Well, these verses give us such a clear picture of evangelism from first John the Baptist and then the source of salvation…Jesus. What better examples to learn evangelism from than both John and especially Jesus.

John the Baptist was never about himself, he always preached Jesus. In fact, he actively encouraged others to behold Jesus or, in other words, seek out Jesus and examine him closely. Shouldn’t this be our desire too…to explain Jesus to others (as John had been doing with his disciples) and then encouraging them to behold Jesus on their own? But how do we get others to behold Jesus? After all, He’s not with us physically as He was in the gospels but in heaven at the right hand of the Father. What we can do is encourage others to go to church to hear Jesus preached (praise God that Trev preaches Jesus!) or to attend more personal bible studies to learn more of Jesus. Since we know that God’s word will never return void, we know that when others hear Jesus preached and taught, we can be certain that the Holy Spirit is working.

But now that we have encouraged those to behold Christ, what next? We can answer this by Jesus’ first utterance in the gospel of John, “What do you seek?” Of course Jesus knew the answer as He knows all of our hearts. But this is more of an example for us. As we encourage others to behold Christ, we must ask the next natural question, “What are you looking for?” For some it could be wealth and power, for others it could be a healed body, to some it may just be more knowledge, and yet for others it may be a desperate need for the healing of their broken sinfulness…ultimate forgiveness.

The answer that the two men gave in verse 38 was very telling of their true intentions. First, they wanted to know where Jesus was staying. So we know from this that they did not just want a superficial meeting with Jesus; rather, they wanted an in-depth time to sit down with Jesus at a place where they would not be bothered by others. They wanted their full attention on Jesus and Jesus’ full attention on them. Secondly, they called Jesus rabbi (which we know is a highly respected term for teacher). To be called rabbi was a great position to have and one that demanded respect. In calling Jesus rabbi, they showed not only their respect for Him but also (and so very important) their desire to learn from Him and understand…or, in a word, behold Him.

We are not told what conversations transpired between these two men and Jesus, but it certainly changed their lives. There are two clues as to the validity of this statement. First, the place and time are mentioned. The place was where Jesus was staying, granted it is not mentioned exactly where this location was as this was less important than who was staying there…the Christ. But the time is mentioned in precise detail, that is, “in the tenth hour”. The other fact is that only the two men that followed Jesus would have known these details. One is Andrew, mentioned in verse 40 and the other is not mentioned by name. However, with the specificity of details here we can only arrive at the conclusion that the other man was the author of this gospel…John the Apostle. After all, who would have these specific details and who would have also not mentioned himself by name as John was known to do in his own gospel? This is another amazing aspect of this story since, if you recall, John wrote his gospel around 50 years after this event. John remembers this event in such detail not because he has a great memory but because this was a life changing event for him!

The second clue as to the validity of the statement I previously made was that Andrew immediately went out to tell others that the Messiah had arrived. Isn’t that what we all want to do when we receive the Holy Spirit? I remember when I was saved in college at a Southern Baptist retreat one fall weekend. The first thing I wanted to do was to go tell someone what had happened to me…and that’s just what I did. Here we see Andrew doing just that. He was so excited that he ran to find his brother Simon (who’s name Jesus would later change to Peter) and told him of the news. But read verses 41-42 carefully; notice that Andrew first told his brother of who Jesus was. Then Andrew followed this up by bringing his brother straight to the Messiah Himself.

This is a great example of evangelism. First, we tell others of who Christ is and then we show them by bringing them to Christ Himself. But since we don’t have Jesus physically here, we need to bring them to where Jesus is preached and taught. We need to bring them to our church and our Bible studies in order to encounter Jesus. It is here that they will come into Jesus’ presence. This is where the work of the Lord is accomplished in saving the person. The work is the Lord’s. We are simply the herald of this wonderful message that the Messiah is here!

John 1:43–51:
43The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.”
44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”
48Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
49Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”
50Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”
51And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

During the next day Jesus does something a little different, He personally calls Phillip to follow Him. We see that Philip immediately follows Jesus and we also see Philip acting in the same way as Andrew acted…he goes and tells others. From Philip’s call we can see a different side of evangelism. Sometimes we must go and tell others of Jesus and who He is. Sometimes Jesus has already worked in someone’s heart and He brings that person to us so that we might show them Jesus. Who knows, the next person who enters our church building for the first time may be just that person. We must be vigilant as to where Jesus is already working in the hearts of others.

After encountering Jesus, Philip goes to tell his friend Nathanael who Jesus is, the prophesied Messiah. But Nathanael has a much different reaction than the others who were told of Jesus. The others seemed to immediately go to Jesus and began to follow Him. Nathanael, however, argued that nothing that came from the town of Nazareth could be good. You see, the people of Nazareth were generally despised or considered much lower than people from other towns in that area. Nathanael’s first thoughts were that since Nazareth was so insignificant and did not factor into any prophecies of scripture, how then could the Messiah come from such a lowly place. Nathanael, like other Jews, might have been looking for a conquering king that would elevate Israel above her enemies rather than a lowly carpenter from a relatively unknown town.

How did Phillip react to Nathanael’s doubt about the authenticity of Jesus as the Christ? Philip simply replied with the words, “Come and see.” He didn’t get into a deep and lengthy debate on the relevance of the Messiah originating from such a lowly place as Nazareth or try to convince Nathanael of Jesus’ authority. Rather, he echoed Jesus’ words, “Come and you will see”…those same words that we previously read in verse 39. Philip was saying that if you don’t believe me, go to the source. Go see Jesus and judge for yourself.

Yes, we can debate who Jesus is, use apologetics, and employ various evangelistic techniques, but in the end we must tell others to, “Come and see who Jesus is for yourself.” To be sure, I’m not reducing the goodness or impact of debates, apologetics, and other techniques for evangelism. I’m saying that we need to, at some point, take Jesus’ example and tell others to carefully consider Jesus as the Messiah (i.e., to behold Him) and then let Jesus work in their hearts.

It might be difficult sometimes to let go and allow Jesus to do the work. After all, we do have good arguments for accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. However, we must all understand that we are weak and only human and in our humanness we cannot change people’s minds. We must allow the One who can change the heart and mind of a person once and for all to do the real work of salvation. We must invite them to church and to Bible studies so that they might witness Jesus for themselves and judge Him worthy above all others.

If it is still difficult to let go and let Jesus work, consider verses 47-48. This is a clear example of what Jesus is able to do. Jesus is able to see the heart of the person. In verse 47 Jesus gives an accurate depiction of Nathanael. Jesus describes Nathanael as an Israelite with no deceit in him. Jesus looked into Nathanael’s heart and knew that he was indeed coming to see Jesus for himself with a desire to accurately know who He was. Nathanael was not coming to argue with Jesus or condemn Him (like the Pharisees); rather, he really wanted to know if this was the Messiah that scripture foretold. Nathanael’s desire to come and see was not deceitful but honest. We should pray for people that grace our doorstep for the first time that they will also have a “beholding” heart like Nathanael’s.

In the next verse (48) Jesus does something just as miraculous. Jesus tells Nathanael that He saw him under the fig tree much earlier (even before Philip came to him). Now why would this simple phrase have meant so much to Nathanael? Well, that is the power of God who knows the most intimate details of us and the most important events that occur around us. These details He can use to show non-believers that He really is the Messiah, the Christ who has the power to save. This is something we do not possess. We, knowing that Nathanael was under the fig tree, might discard such a seemingly unimportant event but not Jesus. You see, Jesus knew that this event was so important to Nathanael. Why was this event (sitting under a fig tree) important? It is because this is typically where a person would go to meditate on scripture and pray. Jesus not only knew this, but He knew exactly what Nathanael was meditating on and praying for. Was it prayer for guidance or maybe to be shown the Messiah Himself? We aren’t told. But Jesus knew what it was and Jesus knew that only this would pierce Nathanael’s heart. Whatever it was, this must have been an especially close time with God as Nathanael recognized Jesus the moment He spoke those words to him.

We do get a glimpse of what Nathanael was meditating on, though, in verse 51. This verse summarized what is in Genesis 28:12–22:

12He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.
14“Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
15“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
17He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top.
19He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz.
20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear,
21and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.
22“This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
It is possible that Nathanael was meditating on these specific verses under the fig tree. Giving further proof that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God.

This initial chapter of John has given us a deeper glimpse into who Jesus is. It has pointed us to Him and explained Him, the same One who explains God the Father. John the Baptist has pointed us to Jesus and commanded us to follow Him and see for ourselves who He really is. Finally, we have a glimpse of how Jesus after we seek Him out and follow Him gives us the wonderful duty to tell others about Him. Regardless of how others respond to us proclaiming Jesus, we always should fall back on those words of Jesus and His Apostles, “Come and see.” Let us be a “come and see” type of church where those who lack deceit and genuinely want to know and behold Jesus really can come and find peace with Him, the Christ, the Son of God.

This next section in John 1 contains the testimony of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the one voice calling out to make straight the way of the Lord. He was also baptizing those for repentance in anticipation of the coming Messiah. Who (except John the Baptist, having been provided the sign to authenticate the Messiah from God) could have known that the Messiah of which he testified would be standing in their midst that very next day?

John 1:19–28:

19This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

20And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

21They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

22Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

23He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

24Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.

25They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know.

27“It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

28These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Let’s set the stage for these verses. What was John the Baptist doing and who was he doing it to and why? He is testifying that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This constitutes the main idea of the gospel of John and why it was written (John 20:31). But the other thing he is doing is baptizing and I want to focus on that for just a minute.

This is not the typical baptism that you and I do as an outward expression of our inward identity to Christ. When you and I were baptized we were buried with Christ (as we are lowered into the water) and then raised with Him in newness of life (as we are raised out of the water). But Christ had not yet gone to the cross, died for the sins of the world, and been raised to life on the third day. So this baptism wasn’t exactly the same baptism that we go through. It was something a bit different and very meaningful and indeed provocative for these Jews that were being baptized by John.

To begin to understand this baptism we first need to remember that the Jews hated the Gentiles. In fact, they called the Gentiles dogs, which was the worst form of identification for a person. Jew’s thought very lowly of the Gentiles in that they were unclean and undeserving of any recognition or respect. They really did not like the Gentiles at all.

Now, in Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist says:

11“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John’s baptism was specifically with water (a physical substance) for repentance, which was a preparative mindset that would prepare people to follow and obey the Messiah. In contrast, he says that Jesus’ baptism will be far greater as He will baptize with the Spirit and fire. So we know from John that his baptism is different than Jesus’ baptism. Of course, then our baptism is an outward expression of Jesus’ inward baptism of us with the Spirit.

So the question remains, “What does John’s baptizing mean to the Jews at that time?” This is where it gets mind blowing. This baptism that John was performing had its roots in OT purification rites. Now this form of baptism was also being performed on the Gentiles that were converting to Judaism. Yes, that’s right, this is the same baptism that would be performed as a purification act not only on the Jewish people, but also on those hated Gentiles!

Think about this. These Jewish people were humbling themselves greatly. In a sense, they were saying that they were no different from the Gentile dogs. This was an extreme demonstration of their humility and repentance.

Why was there such an extreme demonstration at this time? Well, Jesus was about to start His ministry. When Jesus is present mountains are moved. And in this case, the Gentile hating Jews were stating that they were no better than those that they hated and were in desperate need of repentance. But more importantly, this was a genuine demonstration of their repentance. After all, at that time, who among the Jews would even think of identifying in any way with a Gentile?

Now you can see why the Pharisees sent the priests and Levites to question John the Baptist. This was an earth shaking event for the religious leaders. If John was a false prophet (which I imagine was foremost in their minds), then he had to be silenced so that the Jews could be kept untarnished by the Gentiles. So the Pharisees sent a delegation to question him.

The delegation first asked John if he was the Christ. This was an important question since if he answered “No” then he might be at risk of retribution from the Pharisees. I would imagine that John knew this, but yet his answer remained truthful and humble in John 1:20:

20And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

This answer was not a simple “No”; rather, this was more akin to “I AM ABSOLUTELY NOT THE CHRIST!!!” The way this was phrased in the Greek and mostly in the English is that of absolute exclamation, not leaving anything in question. The phrase repeats: he confessed, he did not deny, and again he confessed. This redundancy or restatement implies that what he said was both surprising and of importance.

The “I am” in “I am not the Christ.” is placed in the emphatic in the Greek due to word order (something that is not easily translated to the English). You could think of the “I am” as in bold. John is emphatically saying, “In no way am I the Christ!”

Finally after questioning John, the delegation asks who he is that he is baptizing for purification? In essence, John replies that he is preparing the way for the true Messiah, the true Saviour of the world. Remember, John said that he was just a voice that was preparing the way for the Lord or making straight the path for the Lord. This verse comes from the OT in Isaiah 40:3:

3A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

John the Baptist was preparing the hearts and minds of the people to humble themselves and repent of their sins in view of Jesus’ coming ministry.

John 1:29-34:

29The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

30“This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’

31“I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.”

32John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.

33“I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’

34“I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

John the Apostle now brings us into the second day’s events following the events of verses 19-28 that we just read. John the Baptist begins by introducing Jesus as the Lamb of God. In John 1:1-18 we learned of several names or descriptions of Jesus: the Word, the Creator, the Light of men, and God. Here we learn of a new name, the Lamb of God. This certainly had specific meaning to the Jewish people as lambs were an imperfect sacrifice for people’s sin. John was saying, here is the sacrificial Lamb…the one and only perfect Lamb that will be sacrificed. It is almost as if John the Baptist is answering the question from long ago in Genesis 22:7:

7Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

John’s answer is (to paraphrase), “Behold! He is right here in your midst.”

This perfect Lamb of God was the finality of all sacrifices. There could not be a continued sacrifice for sin as Jesus took the entire burden of sin from the world, carried it, became sin, and died. What more effect could a continuation of the imperfect Jewish sacrificial system have? None!

Notice, though, the rest of verse 29. The Lamb of God takes away the sin (singular) of the world. The verb “takes away” gives us the sense that Jesus is taking a burden (sin) from our shoulders and placing it on His; therefore, removing this burden from us. Now, you could ask the question (as I did), “Why do we have to be saved now that Jesus has removed sin from the world?” The rest of this verse (29) explains why. The word “sin” is singular not plural. And the word “world” covers all humanity in a general sense. So John the Baptist is not saying that Jesus is taking away all sins from each and every one of us specifically so that we have no need for repentance and salvation but that Jesus is bearing the penalty for the entirety of the world’s sin. Remember back in John 1:12:

12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

There needs to be a reception of Jesus on our part. We need to repent and believe in Him and place our faith and trust in Him. The people that John was baptizing were preparing themselves for the arrival of the sacrificial Lamb of God. Their belief was in the right place…in Jesus. Their repentance made straight the way of the Lord.

The other important point that John the Baptist brings up is that he did not know or recognize who this Lamb of God would be. In what must have been a completely stunning turn of events, John found out that his very own cousin Jesus of Nazareth was He. This may seem odd, but God had a reason in keeping the true nature of Jesus a secret up until that point. Not only that, but God sovereignly kept John and Jesus apart physically (Jesus in Nazareth and John in the Judean desert). If John and Jesus knew one another and had been close to one another then there could be charges of collusion brought against both of them. In keeping Jesus’ identity secret and both men physically separated, proving collusion between them would be difficult to impossible. But the final proof that Jesus was the Lamb of God, the very Son of God, was in John’s vision of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus…not only descending, but remaining on Jesus.

This is John the Baptist’s testimony, that Jesus is the Son of God. In John 1:19-28 he gives a testimony of who he is, showing that he is not the Christ. In verses 29-34 he then gives testimony of who Jesus is, introducing Him to the world in which He came to save.

Did you know that John wrote his gospel roughly 50 years after Jesus’ ministry on earth and His ascension to Heaven? That might seem like an insignificant bit of Bible trivia, but I think it’s important. Why? Well, have you ever tried to write about or even talk about events that you were a part of 50 years ago? It’s difficult, right? It’s difficult to bring back to memory every little detail with historical accuracy. Can you even get the order of events right? As a test try to remember the colors of the clothes the last person you saw was wearing. It’s hard to get that right yet here John is remembering and writing about events that took place about 50 years ago.

To a non-believer this little bit of “trivia” could be something to take hold of to bolster their argument that surely the gospel writers got it wrong or just dreamt up these “stories”. However, as a believer I know in my heart that the gospel of John is true and accurate. The idea of John writing this 50 years after the fact only bolsters my faith that his writings are true and accurate.

There are two reasons for this. First, as a believer I know the power of the Holy Spirit and that He can bring to mind any detail He chooses. John wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we’re not relying solely on an unreliable human memory.

How many times have I been confronted with something (good or bad) and a verse (one that I don’t remember memorizing) will come to the forefront of my mind. It’s the Spirit speaking to me. Likewise, as a Christian I believe the only way that John could have written such detail in truth so many years later is due to the working of the Holy Spirit.

Second, we, as humans, tend to remember events with the utmost clarity when the event itself is intensely emotional. Emotions make things memorable. What could be more emotional than God incarnate calling John personally to follow Him? What about Jesus walking on water or feeding the multitudes or even bringing Lazarus back from the dead? These and other miracles would not easily be forgotten or diminished from John’s mind.

It is these things that bolster my faith that the gospel of John was written and handed down to us with accuracy and clarity. Where a non-Christian might see doubt and a reason for disobedience, I see faith and the Spirit at work calling me to obedience.

It’s funny how the Spirit can use seemingly insignificant or “trivial” bits of knowledge to glorify the Father.

Now, before I get into the meat of the gospel of John, it’s important to understand why this gospel was written. After all, the other three gospels had already been written and what more needed to be said? It turns out a lot more needed to be said about Jesus and our believing in Him.

To understand why a book of the Bible was written I like to look for a key passage that summarizes the book. Fortunately, John explicitly points this out to us in John 20:30–31:

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;

³¹but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John wrote this gospel so that we might believe who Jesus is, the Christ and the Son of God! And through our belief and trust in Him we have hope for life, a real life, an eternal life and a life in Jesus’ name!

Notice that the word “believe” is mentioned twice in verse 31. In fact, the word “believe” is mentioned 98 times in this gospel. From this we can see that “belief” is a key aspect of John’s writing. It would be a good idea to precisely define what John means by “believe”. To be sure, if one is to believe in God then that person must acknowledge that God does indeed exist. However, that is the most basic and incomplete definition. True, you have to know that God exists before you can do anything else, but that knowledge alone will not save. Remember that even the demons believe and shudder…but they will not be with Jesus in eternity.

The most important part of believing, especially how it is used in the gospel of John, is that of having a real and active faith and putting your full trust in God. This type of full belief leads to our committing ourselves to God. And as the book of James says, our faith produces works and these works not only prove that we are God’s children but also glorify our Father in Heaven.

John 1:1-5:

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

²He was in the beginning with God.

³All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

⁴In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

⁵The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Some of the most important words you will ever write as an author are the first few. In these words you must capture the reader’s attention, you must set the stage for what comes after, and you must do so while keeping the main point of your argument in clear sight (in this case, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God). To do this John begins his gospel with six crucial words: “In the beginning was the Word”.

For the Greek, reading these first six words must have provoked great interest. Why? Well, to begin with, the first four words, “In the beginning was” spoke not of Jesus’ finiteness, but of His infiniteness. Let’s break this phrase down into two parts. First, “In the beginning” speaks of time…at the beginning of time. Or we can think of this as when time was created and set into motion. Secondly, we have the verb “was” that follows. This word in both English and Greek is designated as an imperfect verb, which means that it denotes a past or previous action that is still in progress…a previous action that happened before creation began. Additionally, this verb is speaking about the existence of Jesus as the Word (more on that shortly). Putting this all together we have Jesus who existed before the beginning of time. Jesus was not a finite being who was created, He was the un-created infinite Son of God. John is setting the stage for us to truly understand who Jesus really is.

Next, John refers to Jesus as the Word (Logos in Greek). This would have made a big impact on the Greek reader who, at that time, saw special meaning in using “the Word” as a title for Jesus. In short, the Greeks considered a person’s words (logos) to be the best representation of that person. A person’s words could lay bare the essence of that person. Likewise, John is saying here that Jesus was the ultimate Word. He was the Word of God or the exact representation of God in human form (see verse 18).

In verse 3 John explains that Jesus created everything. This strengthens the defense that Jesus “in the beginning was!” He was not created alongside creation or with creation. He Himself was creation’s creator. Therefore, He had to have existed before the beginning.

In verse 4 John explains that Jesus is the Light. We will delve into Jesus as the Light more in verses 8-9 as well as when we encounter John 8:12:

¹²Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

In these first five verses John begins his gospel in the most grandiose way possible. He introduces exactly who Jesus is in a way that resonates with his audience, the Greeks. John is keeping with his main point that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31).

John 1:5–9:

⁶There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.

⁷He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.

⁸He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

⁹There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

To progress John’s theme in his gospel, God calls on John to testify as to who Jesus is. No, this is not John the Apostle and writer of this gospel. This is John the Baptist. Actually, John the writer of this gospel never mentions himself by name in his own gospel.

While John the Baptist was not the Light of the world, he was the one to testify that Jesus was the one true Light. This Light was not just a light that illuminates but also the source of all light, pure and brilliant. He was the source of truth and knowledge of God and was in contrast to the darkness, which was falsehood. However, the Light was unable to be overcome by the darkness. Jesus was pure, brilliant, and the source of truth and knowledge of God, unable to be overcome by evil…truly the Son of God.

John 1:10-11:

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

¹¹He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

But the Light is even more than this. The Light is able to enlighten those who do not know the Light. In a word, the Light saves. Verses 10-11 describe the Light coming to those He created and yet they did not know Him. These verses are speaking of all humanity in more general terms. No one in the world, no one created by the Word knew the Word, much less believed in Him. We will see more of this unbelief throughout the gospel of John in spite of the miraculous signs that Jesus performed.

John 1:12-13:

¹²But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

¹³who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Yet in verses 12-13 John speaks of a remnant of all of humanity that will receive and believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord. This remnant is born anew of God. This is not a human birth of which all humans experience but a second birth that only God can perform on our hearts. More of this second birth will be discussed in John 3 where Jesus explains this concept to Nicodemus. In reading through verses 10-13 we can see how all of humanity is born into unbelief, not knowing our Creator. But then as we see, read, and hear of the work of Jesus our Creator He draws us to Himself so that we may have life eternal in Him.

John 1:14-18:

¹⁴And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ”

¹⁶For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

¹⁷For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

In verses 14-18 John speaks of Jesus’ glory. The very essence of who God is, the Word, became flesh to us. Jesus became like us. He was someone who experienced what we experience both good and bad, but He and only He remained sinless. Jesus’ glory is unlike any other. This glory is complete and full of grace and truth. So full of grace and truth is His glory that it lacks nothing. As we seek Jesus in the gospel of John keep in mind that Jesus brings with Him the full glory of God. This means we know that as we are in Christ we too lack nothing in the way of grace and truth. Knowing this, let us shine forth His Light to everyone we meet.

Throughout verses 14-18 we hear of Jesus’ glory, grace, and truth, rank, and fullness. Then in verse 18 we are told that no one has ever seen God. So God gave us Jesus, the Word, to explain to us who God is. Therefore, we can be assured that as we behold Jesus throughout the gospel of John we know that we see the fullness of God in all His glory and His glory that is complete and perfect, lacking nothing in the way of grace and truth.