Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00012B
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00:01 And welcome back.
00:02 We are studying glimpses of God 00:04 in chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. 00:06 We are with Dr. Jon Paulien. 00:08 And, Dr. Paulien, after Jesus now feeds the 5,000 00:14 He then gives a discourse 00:15 or a sermon of the bread of life. 00:19 Tell us about that. Right. 00:20 Have you been to Galilee? Yeah. 00:22 I have actually. You have. 00:24 So you have seen the Sea of Galilee? 00:25 I've seen it. Yeah. 00:26 Well, if you picture in your mind and maybe our viewers 00:29 who haven't been there, they can picture a lake 00:31 that sort of tear drop shaped and the wider part on the north, 00:35 on the north-east side is where the feeding took place. 00:40 He fed the 5,000. 00:41 Even today, there's not a lot of people who live there. 00:43 It's sort of open land. 00:45 And then they took the boat across the lake 00:47 and its maybe 20 kilometers at the most. 00:50 They took the boat across the lake and landed in Capernaum 00:53 which is on the north-west side of the lake. 00:55 And you've been to the synagogue there, I suspect? 00:58 I think so. I have. 00:59 You know, which is pretty cool to stand in the synagogue. 01:01 And there I love to read some of the stories 01:03 here that happened in that very place. 01:08 So he gives a sermon now in which he illustrates 01:13 the parable of feeding the 5,000. 01:16 You see, it's a story all the gospel writers have it, 01:21 but in John it becomes an acted parable of Jesus 01:26 as the bread of life. 01:28 The bread that they were feeding on was to remind them of Jesus 01:33 and who He really was and what He could do for them. 01:36 This is a rich, rich chapter. 01:38 I wish we could just read through it 01:40 but let me give a little bit of a foundation, 01:43 so that people can get a handle on it. 01:46 It all goes back to Exodus 3:14 01:49 because Jesus uses this phrase I Am 01:54 and in the Greek it's very emphatic, Ego eimi. 01:59 It's really pointing back to Exodus 3:14, could you read it? 02:04 "And God said to Moses, I am who I am. 02:06 And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 02:10 I Am has sent me to you." 02:12 This is really the name of God. 02:15 As close as you come to a name of God, it's I Am who I Am. 02:19 I Am has sent you. 02:21 And in the Greek this is emphasized, 02:23 I Am could simply be "Eimi" but here it's "Ego Eimi" I Am. 02:29 And so the Greek phrase here evokes more than just, 02:34 well, I am coming over to see you today. 02:37 You know, that's I am but it's very basic. 02:40 In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses I Am in several ways. 02:44 Some of it is just self identification. 02:47 You know, disciples were in the stormy boat and they say, 02:49 "Who's that coming on the water?" 02:51 And He says, "Don't worry, it's Me." 02:53 You know, He says Ego eimi. It's Me, don't worry. 02:56 You know, I am not scary. I am just a guy you know. 03:00 So that's a human level. 03:02 But then he can also use it at a divine level. 03:06 I Am the bread of life. 03:08 I Am the resurrection and the life 03:10 and that points back to the Old Testament. 03:12 I wish we had time to look at some of the texts 03:14 but in the Old Testament God speaks in those terms. 03:19 I Am, you know, water. I Am life to you. 03:24 So that language of I Am is used in relation to other things. 03:28 And in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, 03:30 "I Am the bread, I Am the light, 03:33 I Am the door, I Am the good shepherd, 03:37 I Am the resurrection and the life, 03:39 I Am the way, the truth and the life, I Am the wine." 03:42 You see, all these different ways 03:44 and the idea when you hear that 03:47 it references back to the Old Testament prophets 03:50 where Yahweh, God uses I Am with predicates, you see. 03:57 These kinds of things, these are expressions 04:00 of what God was offering Israel. 04:02 Now Jesus uses these same expressions 04:05 and it's not just a cliche, 04:07 but it's to remind them of the God of the Old Testament. 04:10 Jesus is really claiming He can do for them 04:13 what God of the Old Testament was designed to do. 04:17 But beyond that Jesus even uses--uses without predicate 04:22 which is really stunning and the most remarkable 04:25 of these is John 8:58. 04:30 It's one of those Johanna and misunderstandings, 04:34 where Jesus says something and people don't get it. 04:38 Let's go to verse 56. 04:42 John 8:56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced 04:45 at the thought of seeing my day." 04:47 That's a translator. 04:49 The Greek says, "He rejoiced to see my day. 04:52 He saw it and was glad." What do they think? 04:56 Oh, Jesus is claiming to be what? 04:58 Three thousand years old. 04:59 "Because you are not yet 50 years old, 05:01 the Jews said to Him, and you have seen Abraham?" 05:06 Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, 05:08 before Abraham was, I Am." 05:13 I mean, there He is just nailing Exodus 3:14 05:17 and they of course understood Him. 05:19 They took up stones to stone Him 05:21 and on that occasion He vanishes. 05:23 So He's clearly using this language 05:26 to refer to His divinity. 05:28 And so the I Am statements 05:34 in the Gospel of John point to who Jesus is. 05:38 Now when reading these I Am statements 05:39 or expressions that Jesus, you know, makes for example, 05:43 I am the bread, I am the light of the world, 05:46 I am the door and so on, the way, truth, life and wine. 05:51 It almost is difficult for the reader to say, 05:54 well, what does that mean, you know? 05:57 Okay, so Jesus is the bread but what does it mean to me? 06:00 Jesus is the light, for example in this room 06:03 we have so much light, right now that, 06:06 you know, if Jesus says, "I am the light." 06:08 It would be difficult for me 06:11 or for even anyone to just grasp that meaning, 06:15 that Jesus is the light. 06:17 So help me understand maybe today, 06:21 how can I grasp that spiritual meaning 06:25 and say this is what it means to me? 06:27 Well, using the analogy you just brought up, 06:30 I would say God can get our attention in two ways. 06:33 He can turn up the light 06:36 or He can turn up the darkness, you see. 06:39 Now we are surrounded by bright lights. 06:41 At home, we are surrounded by internet, television, 06:44 all kinds of stuff, distractions, 06:47 you know, life is busy, the office, 06:49 everything is going on at the office. 06:52 The only way God can get through us at such a time 06:55 would be to turn up the light 06:57 and make His presence really dramatic 07:00 or He can turn up the darkness. 07:03 And the way I think of it here, I am the bread of life. 07:06 To understand what that really means 07:09 it might be helpful for somebody not to eat for three days. 07:13 Let's say for whatever reason you couldn't eat for three days 07:17 and you come to a friend's house and there's bread in the oven 07:21 and the bread is just finishing as you walk in the door. 07:24 They are opening the door 07:25 and they are pulling out this fresh bread 07:28 and the aroma at that point, they cut a slice off, 07:31 they put a little butter on it, hot right into your hand. 07:34 You haven't eaten in three days you take a bite of that bread, 07:38 that's what Jesus is all about. 07:41 That's what I mean by turning up the darkness. 07:44 In other words, if you did not experience food for three days, 07:50 you know, they say hunger is the best sauce, you see. 07:54 So when we come to realize how deficient our daily life is. 08:00 When God helps us to focus on that, 08:02 when circumstances cause us to say, 08:04 "Life is really tough." 08:06 It's at moments like that when Jesus becomes precious to us 08:10 or at other times like I said He turns up the light 08:13 and turns up, you know, 08:15 the bread comes in such a form that we can't miss it. 08:18 So those hardship moments, 08:20 those moments of darkness in our lives where we sense, 08:24 we realize our need of that light, 08:29 that hunger that we have. 08:32 We realize because without-- let's say we are filled 08:36 or we have everything then we really don't sense 08:39 or understand what it is to have the light. 08:42 We trust in ourselves. 08:44 We feel like we've got to fix our problems. 08:47 And sometimes our ideas have to shipwreck 08:51 before we are willing to actually take a good look 08:53 of what God has to offer, in Jesus Christ. 08:56 And so the spiritual gospel is telling us, 09:00 you got to take your eyes 09:01 away from the distractions of this world, 09:03 this desire to solve your own problems, 09:06 to fix your own issues and look a little deeper. 09:10 And so when God turns up 09:11 that darkness as you say it is for our advantage. 09:14 That's right. It is for our good. 09:16 And God doesn't even have to turn it up, 09:17 life will do that for us but God can use that darkness 09:21 when it comes to really get our attention 09:24 for who Jesus really is the bread of life, 09:28 the door, the good shepherd, the water, the wine, etcetera. 09:34 We need to learn to see Jesus 09:36 in the ordinary things of everyday 09:38 and that's what John is calling us to do. 09:41 So in the synagogue of Capernaum Jesus is giving this sermon, 09:45 I am the bread of life to show that the light, 09:49 you know, in those days of course bread 09:51 was the primary thing to eat, 09:52 so it meant everything that food meant to them 09:56 but here's the interesting thing, 09:58 when Jesus is done with the sermon, 10:00 look at verse 60, I think it is. 10:05 And we are back in chapter 6. 10:07 Chapter 6. Yeah. John Chapter 6:60. 10:11 "Therefore many of his disciples when they heard it, 10:13 they said, 'This is a hard saying who can understand it?'" 10:17 And that's what I am saying, 10:18 you know, earlier today, how can I understand such, 10:20 you know, I Am the bread and the light and so on. 10:23 They were looking for a messiah 10:25 that would help them politically, 10:27 would help them economically, would help them militarily. 10:31 They were looking for a messiah rooted in this world. 10:36 John is saying, the true life, the abundant life. 10:41 The ultimate life is not grounded in this world. 10:45 It is grounded beyond. 10:47 And that's where the spiritual gospel comes in. 10:51 The interesting thing is at the end of the sermon 10:55 everybody leaves Him. 10:57 We think people are spiritual 11:00 because they have lots of followers, 11:02 because their ministry is big and powerful. 11:07 We think spiritual work must be good 11:08 if it has big numbers, big donations. 11:12 When Jesus really got down to it, everybody left. 11:19 And at the end of this chapter, 11:21 you know, He comes to the disciples 11:23 and says, "Will you leave too?" 11:26 And they said, "Well, we were thinking about it 11:28 but where would we go? 11:30 We don't know where else we would go." 11:32 So it's almost like the disciples stayed 11:33 because they couldn't come up with another option, you see. 11:36 Which in a sense is where we are to, 11:39 when we realize that there is no other option 11:42 then we will turn to Jesus with all our hearts, 11:44 but we love to hang on to our stuff. 11:48 We love to hang on to our options, you see. 11:51 And because of that we don't connect with Jesus 11:56 in a powerful way that John would encourage us to do. 12:00 It's almost like saying we are having you 12:01 Jesus is better than having no one at all. 12:04 Well, having Jesus makes you realize 12:07 that every other option was no one at all, you see. 12:11 And that's why we talked about weddings 12:13 and bringing Jesus into the wedding 12:16 because if we put our spouse ahead of Jesus 12:20 they could be gone tomorrow for a variety of reasons. 12:23 But when Jesus is in that marriage 12:26 it raises it to another level. 12:28 And, Dr. Paulien, I believe that Jesus is searching today 12:32 for people who are in darkness 12:35 and He wants to shed that light into their heart, 12:38 so that they can eventually give their lives to Christ 12:42 and see that indeed they always needed 12:45 that light and that bread. 12:46 Friends, till next time God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17