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We have seen and heard

If you think about it, it is pretty incredible. People have seen God. People have heard from God. God has been here, walking amongst us, and we have seen him and heard him.

The One who spoke and made the universe come into existence has been here with us. The One who parted the Red Sea and the Jordan River for Moses has been here with us. The One who brought the Israelites into the promised land has been here with us.

The One who was rejected by the Israelites has been here. The One who punished the Israelites for their rebellion by scattering them to the nations has been here.

And this is the same thing that John was speaking about when he started his first epistle:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched —this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

1 John 1:1

John is saying that this One who did all of these things, and so much more, is the same One that they were allowed to see. Jesus is the Word of life, and they were able to be with him. They were allowed to truly see him with their own eyes. They were allowed to hear him with their own ears. And they were allowed to touch him with their own hands. They had seen and heard, and touched, God.

They saw, heard, and touched eternity through the Eternal One, even while he was here on earth. His leaving wasn’t the end, it was simply a moment in time. His life would continue on forever, and so would the life of those who believe in him.

How privileged were these people, that they were allowed to see God?!? That God was willing to come to them in their time in history. God came and dwelt among them!

But we should be clear that God continues this to this day. Jesus came as God in the form of a man. Jesus was referred to as Immanuel, which means God with us.

But Jesus also gave us his Spirit. For those that believe in him, the Holy Spirit will come to dwell with them. Jesus wants to know his people, and he wants his people to know him – and intimately. This is no small thing. The God of the universe comes as a man to earth to show Himself to everyone, and now he will know us, but more importantly, we can know him.

And so now, his Spirit dwells with us and we are called to live by the Spirit. No longer by our flesh, but living according to Christ within us. Through the Spirit within us, and through his word, we can know him. We can know God. With our own eyes and ears, we can see and hear him.

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No King But Caesar

Jesus’s “trial”, as recorded in the book of John, is quite a scene. There is a progression of interesting statements that are made, especially and most specifically by the Jewish leaders.

First, after Pilate offers to free either Barabbas, the insurrectionist, or Jesus, the innocent man whom the Jews have accused of insurrection, the Jews say that they want to set Barabbas free. Oh, the irony…

So presumably, that is what Pilate does, but he does go ahead and have Jesus beaten. He is flogged, but then Pilate brings him out and says that he has found Jesus to be innocent, despite the beating that he just gave him.

But what is the response of the Jewish leaders? Crucify him!

And they repeat it, shouting back to Pilate that this should be Jesus’s fate.

But Pilate doesn’t get it. Why should he crucify him? Jesus hasn’t really done anything wrong. And here, the Jewish leaders show their hand. They “say the quiet part out loud”, as the saying goes. They say:

We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.

John 19:7

This isn’t really what they were supposed to say. This is the real reason that they want to crucify Jesus. They want him gone because they believe that he is blaspheming. Their unbelief prevents them from being willing to understand who Jesus truly is. Their eyes have been blinded and their ears can no longer hear. Their rage against Jesus as a result of his threat to their leadership prevents them from being able to believe in him.

And so they are coming after him for blasphemy. That is the real reason, but it really isn’t a good enough reason for Pilate and the Roman government.

But Pilate was afraid because he couldn’t understand what was happening. Where are you from?, he asked Jesus. But Jesus wouldn’t give him an answer that would satisfy Pilate any further. He would stay silent, just as the prophecies said that he would.

Pilate still couldn’t figure out why he should crucify Jesus, so he continued to try to set him free. But the Jews continued to shout and demand that Jesus be killed. And now they get their story straight as they level their accusation:

If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.

John 19:12

The Jews are backing Pilate into a corner. Now they have worked up their story to make Pilate understand that they are accusing Jesus of being against the Roman state. This is no longer a conversation about religion or about the Jewish laws, but now this is a question of Pilate’s loyalty to Rome. If Jesus is against Rome, then Pilate is against Rome if he doesn’t crucify him.

But now the death blow, both to Pilate, to the Jews, and most of all, to Jesus:

They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

John 19:15

Jesus is standing there to be judged and Pilate is still trying to set him free, but the Jews make a statement that rings through eternity, both into the past as well as into the future:

We have no king but Caesar.

How true. The Jews rejected God as their King in the time of the prophet Samuel and God allowed it, giving them first Saul, then David, Solomon, and many kings after them. They wanted to be like the other nations around them, not having God as their King, but instead having a human king, just like the other peoples.

And now, they are so far from having submitted themselves to God’s lordship that they are willing to say that their king is non other than the king that lords over them from a foreign nation. They have been conquered by the world and its systems of sin that they can no longer see how they have sold themselves as slaves to it as well.

It could go unsaid, but this is, of course, a significant warning for us as well. Who is my king? Who is yours? Do we submit to “Caesar”? Do we submit ourselves to this world? Or do we offer ourselves to Christ as King in the Kingdom of God?

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King of the Jews

The Jewish leaders had brought Jesus to Pilate to be judged. They had in mind already that he would be killed, even prior to his trial. The outcome was determined. Jesus must die. Everything that would lead up to that outcome was simply a show and procedure to get to that place.

But Pilate wasn’t so sure. First, his wife had warned him not to be involved with Jesus. Second, he couldn’t seem to wrap his head around what precisely should be the charge against Jesus.

Pilate eventually calls Jesus out and asks him if he is the king of the Jews. So we see here what the Jews accuse him of to Pilate. They are accusing him of insurrection.

But why would they do that? Because they know that Jesus will be immediately killed. If the Roman government believes that there will be an insurrection, it means that the people are attempting to rise up against the government and appoint a new king. In that case, Caesar would no longer be the sovereign over them, but instead they would now have a new king that would rule over that land.

So the Jewish leaders have accused Jesus of being the king of the Jews.

Where did they get this idea? Jesus had always spoken of the Kingdom of God and he had just, a few days ago, ridden into Jerusalem with the people welcoming him with a hero’s welcome. So it wasn’t too difficult for the Jewish leaders to spin Jesus’s words and actions into saying that he was going to cause a political uprising.

But Jesus confirms to Pilate that he isn’t here to create a political kingdom out of Israel:

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

John 18:36

Jesus isn’t attempting to create the kingdom of Israel. He is reestablishing the kingdom of God. God had been the King over all of the Jews until they had rejected him, requesting a king just like the kings of all of the nations around them, thus rejecting the only King that they had ever had, God himself.

But now God is here, and Jesus has been given all authority, and the Kingdom of God is his. He is King. But his Kingdom is not of this world. It is the Kingdom of God that is now open to all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, who will bow their knee to him as their one true King.

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Full Measure of Joy

Before being taken to be killed, Jesus prayed for his disciples, aloud in front of them. He prayed, asking that God would be glorified, and that he also would be glorified. He prayed, confirming that his disciples know and believe the words that the Father had given to Jesus to give to the disciples. He also prayed that his disciples would be protected from the evil one. He even said that his disciples were not of the world, and that they wouldn’t be taken from the world, but that they would be protected while they are in it.

Jesus also prayed that they would be sanctified by the truth, that they would live out in holiness what they had learned from Jesus.

Jesus also prayed for those that would hear the same message and experience the same process through his disciples. He wanted additional generations to have the same experience, believing in Christ and following him, even after he had returned to be with the Father in heaven.

But now, let’s get to the Why. Why was Jesus standing there praying in this way? Why was he praying out loud in front of his disciples? He was doing this because he wanted his disciples to have joy.

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

John 17:13

So often we think that to follow Jesus means that we are to be empty of joy. We are to be solemn and sullen. We think that because it seems like the people of God act this way. Or because our churches are solemn places. Silent except for the voices of the priest or the pastor. Silent except for the songs of the choir. We think of seriousness, of gravity, of solemnity. We certainly don’t think of joy.

And I should mention that joy doesn’t necessarily mean happiness at all times. Jesus himself was preparing to go to die a death of significant agony on the cross. He certainly wasn’t happy about that. In fact, at Gethsemane, he prayed and asked the Father if there was any other way that this could be accomplished. He knew what he had to do, but we can’t necessarily say that he was completely happy about the fact that he had to do it.

But Jesus was full of joy. He was joyful that the Father would be glorified in what he had done and what he was doing. He was joyful that he himself would be glorified by his disciples and by his Father. He was joyful that he had completed the work that he had been given to do by his Father.

Jesus had a deep sense of joy. A deep sense of satisfaction in what God was doing. He was being used to reestablish God’s Kingdom on the earth, and he himself is the King. Jesus was joyful because he had done what God had sent him to do and now the work was complete.

But we see that Jesus was praying aloud for his disciples so that they would experience that same sense of joy. Jesus knew that they also would go through a deep sense of agony as they witnessed him go through the death that he was about to go through. The emotions would run deep. The sadness for his death would be profound. But they will soon understand. They would soon have revelation from the Holy Spirit for what God is doing around them, and for what God is doing through them.

And so Jesus desires a different reality for them. He desires that they would also live lives full of joy. Maybe not always happy, per se, but joyful. He wanted them to be full of joy because they understood what God is doing.

And that is the same joy that God wants for us. He wants us also to live lives full of joy. In the good times and in the difficult times. In the happiness and in the sadness. In all times full of joy because we know that we have life in eternity with our God. Not separate from Him, but with Him forever, and in this we can see what our Father is doing and we are full of joy.

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Will you really?

Peter was sure that he had it worked out. He was one of the leaders in Kingdom that was to come. Jesus was the Messiah and Peter had a front-row seat, even as one of the Messiah’s disciples. He even seemed to have an inside track as the leader of the leaders. Could it get better than this? He was in great shape.

But then Jesus says that he is leaving. He is going away.

Wait, what? Peter might have thought…

I imagine that Peter might have also been thinking:

Where could you possibly be going?

We have important work to do. We need to take over Jerusalem and overthrow the Romans, don’t we?

But Jesus says that Peter cannot follow him now. He can’t come to where Jesus is going.

Now Peter is alarmed. He is in the catbird’s seat. He is in a great spot, and now he is going to be left behind? Hold on just a second…

So Peter makes his case. He says that he is willing to give his life for Jesus!

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

John 13:37-38

Jesus is right there with the answer. Despite Peter’s best intentions, Jesus already knows that Peter is about to truly be tested. Words are one thing, but the true test is about to come. In fact, while Peter doesn’t yet realize it, the true test is coming that night.

Unfortunately, we find out that Jesus’s prediction comes true and Peter does deny Jesus. Three times, and in somewhat rapid succession no less. Jesus will be arrested and suddenly everything will come crashing down from a human perspective. God’s plan is continuing forward, but Peter’s plan is about to take a hard turn in the wrong direction.

I think Peter’s ordeal and the lesson that he is in the midst of learning at this point is actually a lesson also for each of us. Words are cheap, so the saying goes. But this lesson that Peter is about to learn is going to send him into a new level of understanding suffering for the Gospel.

Will Peter really lay down his life for Jesus? Not this time, but it will be a lesson that he will learn for the rest of his life.

And what about us? Will we lay down our lives for Jesus?

We can make a choice, but it is important to understand that we aren’t just talking about a choice to lay down our physical lives because of our association with Jesus. Not just if someone has a gun to our heads or is threatening our lives. This isn’t really the only lesson that we should take away from this situation.

Instead, we should be thinking about how we are living for Christ. Not just whether we will die for him, but how we will live.

Will I really lay down my life for Jesus? Will I really turn it over to him? Will I really give it to him, or will I deny him and live the way that I want? Will I truly lay down my life, or will I deny his lordship over my life?

Words are cheap. Actions are what count. Now is the time to act, laying down our lives for what we say we believe.

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Not Just Me

I have been struck recently thinking about the fact that God Himself came into the world in the form of Christ. Today, as we read the words of Jesus in the Gospels in the Bible, we are reading the very words of God. The things that Jesus said are themselves what Good has said. The things that Jesus did are themselves the things that God has done.

This is amazing. Who wouldn’t want to know God Himself. Even if you aren’t sure about God, certainly if you could know Him and you could know that he is real, you would want to know who He is and what He is like, wouldn’t you?

This is the opportunity that Jesus gives to us because Jesus was here. He was God in the flesh. In fact, he is God in the flesh. And he will yet be God in the flesh when he returns.

To help us to know him, God decided to make himself knowable. He came as the Christ. He spoke to us in words that we can understand. He experienced what we have experienced. All of the temptations and trials…and much much more than many of us will ever experience. He endured suffering that he didn’t deserve. He made himself a sacrifice for us as an offering for our sins. And he did all of this because he was re-establishing his Kingdom. He was doing it all so that we would be able to enter his Kingdom and give him glory as our King.

So Jesus emphasized this to the people in Jerusalem. He said:

Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.

John 12:44-45

Jesus cried this out to the people in an attempt to help people know who he is. He wants people to know the Father and believe Him. He wants people to know himself because if they do, they will know the Father.

The connection between Jesus and the Father is amazing. But truthfully, it is also difficult to understand. We can ask ourselves the question: How does God send the Son and yet is the Son? How can the Jesus and the Father be One?

Again, these are difficult questions, at least until we understand that there is One God and that He has decided to make Himself known in three different ways: As Father, as Son, and as the Holy Spirit.

There is a lot to say about this, but for now, I want to finish by simply sharing a few other things that Jesus said related to his connection with the Father:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

John 1:1-3

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.

John 10:27-30

Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 5:17-18

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

John 6:44

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

John 14:6-7
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I AM

Martha’s brother Lazarus had died, but Jesus had gone to “wake him up”, as he had said to his disciples. When he arrived, he found Martha there with great faith. She said that she knew that God, the Father, would do anything that Jesus asked.

Jesus responded saying that she needed to believe in him, and she affirmed that she did. She believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and the One that they were waiting for, the One who was to come into the world.

So with this affirmation, Jesus reveals to her that he doesn’t need to ask his Father per se. He himself can give life directly to Lazarus:

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

John 11:25-26

Jesus says that he is the resurrection. He is the life. Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead, but Jesus is speaking of even more than that. He is speaking of eternal life, that even after we have died physically, we can continue to live spiritually – forever. We will never die. We will never pass away. We will not by lost to death, but we will have life.

But Jesus says this in the context of he himself being the resurrection and the life. Do we want resurrection? He is the resurrection. Do we want life? He is the life.

These are part of the group of statements that Jesus makes that we could refer to as the “I am…” statements. Jesus had said:

I am the bread of life.

I am the good shepherd.

I am the gate.

He will go on to say:

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And there are many more. But the point is that we can think of these things as abstractions, as concepts. We can think of each of these things as things, but Jesus identifies himself as these things. If you want to know Jesus, you know him as these things.

Most importantly, this also follows Jesus’s statement as he spoke to the Pharisees saying “Before Abraham was born, I am.”. So Jesus is not just identifying himself as these individual ideas and concepts. He isn’t limited to those things. He is much greater, much more than just these. In that case, he invoked God’s I AM statement to Moses, thus identifying himself as God himself.

The “I am” statements give identity. They show value and worth. They help us to understand who Christ truly is. They are ways to help us, with finite and limited minds, to understand Christ, God himself who comes in the form of a man to help us to see Him.

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Not Just Playing God

There is a saying, when it comes to making a determination over whether or not someone will live or die, that we could be “playing God”. That means, of course, that we, as human beings, make determinations about whether someone else should go on living or will not.

This frequently comes up in the medical field, possibly related to abortions or to euthenasia, or in other ways as a doctor makes a determination related to a person’s life. Someone else might say that they are “playing God” by being the one who is saying that they can determine whether the person lives or dies.

But in John 10, Jesus says that he has the authority, not only to lay down his life, but whether or not to take it back:

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

John 10:17-18

Twice, Jesus says that he is able to both lay down his life as well as take it up again.

OK, so first of all, it seems that Jesus is “playing God” by saying that he has the authority to lay down his life. He said that he is the Good Shepherd and he has the authority to lay down his life for his sheep.

Jesus, of course, is referring to giving his life, sacrificing his life, for the sake of both the Israelites as well as the Gentiles. Previously, Jesus had said that he has sheep that are from “this pen”, meaning the Israelites, but also those that are “not from this pen”, meaning the Gentiles, and he would lay down his life for both of them. So Jesus is referring to the fact that he will be giving himself for these people as a sacrifice, a payment, for the sins of each of these people.

Now, we can follow the idea that someone would have the authority to lay down their life. Whether it would be in selfless sacrifice, such as a hero that gives themselves so that others can live, or it would be a completely selfish act of suicide, we can say that someone – anyone – would have the authority over their own lives to lay it down for another.

But Jesus didn’t just say that he had the authority to lay down his life for another. He said that he had the authority to take it back up again. Jesus is referring to his resurrection that was to come. He would be killed on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, but Jesus also declares here that he has the authority to take it back up again. He has the ability, and the authority, to return back to life. Here, he declares it, and soon, he also does it.

Jesus has the ability and the authority to speak to life or death matters. Why? Because he isn’t just playing God. He is, in fact, God.

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What does their reaction tell you?

In John 8, Jesus finds himself in a long, protracted conversation – or we could probably say debate – with the Pharisees. The conversation was primarily over Jesus’s identity, although it turned into a conversation as well over the identity of the Pharisees. In short, the question was:

Who is your father, and where do you come from?

In Jesus’s case, he spoke of God being his Father. He labored to help them understand that he was doing the will of God the Father, his Father.

But he also turned the question around on the Pharisees as they claimed Abraham as their father. Abraham was the father of Isaac who was the father of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel, so the Jews looked back to Abraham as their father.

But there were two problems. First, Jesus wasn’t referring to a physical family lineage. Instead, he was talking about a spiritual lineage. The Jews were referring to the flesh. Jesus was referring to the lineage of the Spirit.

Second, Jesus pointed out that if they were sons of Abraham, they would do what Abraham did. What did he mean by that? Abraham was declared to be righteous because he believed God. But these Jews wouldn’t believe God. Here was Jesus standing before them, but he wouldn’t believe that he was who he said he was. He was claiming to be God in the flesh, but they wouldn’t believe, neither that was what he was actually saying, nor that he was actually God.

That is, right up until Jesus said that he had known Abraham, and then the scene played out like this:

“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

John 8:57-59

The Jews are incredulous: You have seen Abraham! Come on, man…

But Jesus lands the knockout punch in this conversation. He says, I was around long before Abraham. In fact, he calls himself “I am.”

What did he just say? Excuse me?…the Pharisees must have thought.

And what do the Pharisees do? They pick up stones immediately so that they can kill him.

But wait a minute. Why are they so upset? Jesus is just making this claim that he somehow knows Abraham, right? Maybe he is talking in some metaphysical calling upon Abraham, or trying to live the life that Abraham lived.

No, that’s not it. Instead, the problem, as far as the Pharisees are concerned, are these last two little words. Jesus said:

Before Abraham was born, I am!

The “I am” part here is the problem from the perspective of the Pharisees. Why? Because they just understood Jesus to say something very clearly. He just said that he is God! Jesus knew it and the Pharisees knew it. They were now speaking the same spiritual language, and because of this, they want to kill him, and immediately come with rocks to get the job done.

To understand this, we have to go back to the book of Exodus. This is a book that the Pharisees would have known extremely well. It is a part of the Torah, written by Moses, and speaks of the story of Moses. The books of Moses contain the Law, so this is the source. These are the original books from which everything is drawn.

In Exodus 3, God approaches Moses in the wilderness. There is a bush that looks like it is on fire but it isn’t really burning up so Moses goes over to see what is happening with this bush. God tells Moses that He wants him to go back to Egypt to free the Israelite people from their slavery.

But Moses is skeptical. Why would the Israelites listen to him? Why would the Egyptians listen to him? Hmm… he isn’t even a good speaker. How is he going to get this job done?

So Moses asks an important question, and God gives an important answer. Here is that exchange:

Moses 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?”

God 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.’”

Exodus 3:13-14

God identifies Himself as I AM. That is the name that He wants Moses to use when the Israelites ask him the name of the God who sent him.

So, let’s return now to the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus says:

Before Abraham was born, I am!

What did the Pharisees hear? They heard that Jesus just used the same name that God used to identify himself to Moses and the Israelites as Moses would go to release them from captivity.

Yes, that is exactly what they heard, but they couldn’t stand it. And because they couldn’t stand it, they immediately picked up stones to kill Jesus.

Like Moses, Jesus was there in Jerusalem to lead the people out of their slavery to sin. Jesus had even said this to the Pharisees:

“Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:34-36

But as he went on to say, they had no room for him. They didn’t want Jesus’s words. In fact, they didn’t want God’s words. They only wanted their own, and so they remained a slave to sin, and their father was not Abraham, but Satan himself.

Yet it is clear that they understood what Jesus was saying. There is no doubt. They knew precisely what Jesus was saying when he said before Abraham was born, I am! They knew that Jesus was calling himself God, because that is who he is.

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You had your fill

After Jesus had fed the 5000 and then crossed over to the other side of the lake, the crowd of people continued to follow him, hoping to make him their king. But Jesus knew their real motives. They weren’t there because they truly wanted him and what he had to offer, they wanted him to be king because he had given them free food.

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.

John 6:26

Jesus had given them food because he had compassion upon them. They had been following him while he had been healing and performing miracles and he knew that they would be hungry as they followed him…so he fed them. Simple as that.

But Jesus also knew that their motives weren’t necessarily to find God. They weren’t really trying to see what God was doing. They were trying to fill their stomachs. They were trying to be entertained. They had other motivations from what Jesus had in mind.

Jesus told them that the work that God requires is that they believe in the one that God had sent. And what do they ask for? A sign!

Hadn’t they just all received food? Didn’t they understand that there had been sign from God that had just been performed in their midst? Yes, they knew because that was the reason that they had been following Jesus in the first place. He was doing great things. Incredible miracles. But they were interested in the miracles themselves and the amazement value of them more than the one who was perfoming the miracles.

The miracles were intended to simply help confirm the words that Jesus had been speaking. They had been the confirmation that Jesus was who he said he was.

Who did Jesus say he was?

He explained to the people that he was the bread that came down from heaven. And yet the people complained because they knew him from when he was a young boy.

Yet here he was also perfoming these signs and wonders, so they couldn’t seem to figure out how best to understand him. They weren’t willing to open their eyes and see that only God could do the signs and wonders that Jesus had been doing. Only God could make the blind see, the lame walk, and the deaf hear. Only God could walk across a lake or tell a storm to be calm. Only God could drive out demons and evil spirits, healing people from their sicknesses.

But they couldn’t see it. They were blind to what was happening right in front of them. They couldn’t understand what Jesus was explaining to them. They could only see the miracle of the bread that had been given to them. They could only understand the physical, but they were unable to understand and comprehend the spiritual.

So this is why Jesus explained to them that there is a significant difference between the physical break and the spiritual bread:

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. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

John 6:32-33

In the time of Moses, the Israelites received manna, a bread that would sustain them in the desert. That was, in reality, also a bread that came from God.

But now, God has given them a true bread from heaven and gives life to the world.

In the same way, God offers bread to us even today through the life of Jesus. The entire world can live if we believe in him, and for this reason, we should not simply have our fill of that which comes to us physically, but instead allow Jesus to fill us as the true bread that has come down from heaven.