The Notes are Good

Here is my analogy:

Let’s say two people know of each other.  They’ve casually dated maybe.  Then one day, one proposes to the other.  They immediately grab a couple of witnesses, go down to the chapel, and get married.  After the ceremony, they both go back to their respective homes and lives.  They occasionally get together, chat on the phone, particularly during difficult times, but that is it.

How would you describe their relationship?  Deep?  Devoted? Supportive? Loving? Giving? Lasting?  Probably not.  We don’t really even have a term for it in our language, it makes so little sense.

Yet, that is the “relationship” so many people want to have with Jesus.  Jesus invites us to be His bride.  Over and over again He discusses our relationship together (and His relationship with the Father) in the same language of a wedding.  The two become one.  The relationship Jesus wants is a relationship of Unity, of coming together, Him transforming us, us being transformed in Him, everlasting, deeply spiritual.

The other key point I want to make in today’s lesson is to carefully read question 5.  I read it incorrectly the first time and it is a much deeper and more meaningful question when read correctly.  The question asks about the role scripture has in “people coming to Jesus in faith?”  When I first read it (and answered it), it turned it around.  I read it as people coming to faith in Jesus.  But that isn’t what the question says.  The question is regarding how you come to Jesus “in faith.”  When you open the word of God, do you start with prayer?  Do you call on the Holy Spirit to open your heart?  Do you begin with openness and desire to experience the message and truth?  Or do you come in doubt?  Do you come in skepticism?  Do you come with pre-conceived ideas looking for the scripture to support what you want it to say?

The scriptures are a portal to experience and see God, but if not entered in faith, they are a stumbling block at the feet of the proud.

My Answers:

5.
The bible is the written word of revelation about God.  It is the story of relationship between a loving God and mankind, told in fullness and truth including the things that have not yet transpired but are known by God.  Without the revelation and teaching we would only believe in a God drawn from our own imagination.  The bible is God’s way of teaching us about Him.

6.
It is a holy connected relationship, not a distant acquaintance.  It is a belief “in” Jesus as God incarnate, not a belief “about” Jesus.  It is “in”timate.  It is also transforming.  The relationship brings life to a transformed heart and spirit, one that yearns to become holy and do the works of love.  (compare to someone professing love for another person, but not making any life change.)

7.
a.
Physical death and spiritual death.  Body vs. Soul.

b.
That if we unite in belief with Jesus, then we do not die and will have eternal life.

The question that Jesus is facing in our lesson today is related to when and how Jesus received his authority?  When did he get his calling?  Who gave him his orders?

For the jewish people, this request for an audit trail, to use the accounting term, was completely natural.  They were jews with access to the torah and teachings and traditions because of their ancestors.  They traced back to Moses, who received his authority at a burning bush.  They traced back to Jacob/Israel and the visions he received when he saw the stairway of heaven and wrestled with the Lord.  They traced back to Abraham who was called to leave his homeland and moved to the promised land.  Each of their ancestors had “a moment.”

As Christians, we do the same thing in a slightly different way.  We ask fellow christians about “their testimony” to recount the moment “when they accepted Jesus” or “were saved.”  We focus on events or an event, a point when things changed.

And all of those things are true in our lives.  We are born into sin.  We are dead in our sins, even as a child.  And, then, the Holy Spirit moves in our lives and we are called to accept the gift of salvation and, if we do accept, we are changed.

But these things are not true about Jesus.  Jesus was God forever before He chose to become flesh and enter the world as a baby in Bethlehem.  Jesus, as a new Adam, was not born of sin. He was placed in a virgin’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit.  All of this exactly as foretold by the prophets.

This distinction is huge and it is the difference between “seeing to believe” and “believing to see”.  The people around Jesus saw a man, he looked like a man, he sounded like a man, he dressed like a man, he ate and drank and breathed like a man.  That, to them, meant that at his core, Jesus was a man.  For him to be something more would be an “add-on” some additional blessing or authority that would come from heaven to add-to what he was.  But, in truth (amen, amen), at his core, Jesus was God.  He came down from heaven and took on an earthly human body.  The word became flesh.

As the jews at that time pointed out, this is hard teaching.  It is hard teaching for us even today.  Many in our lesson this week will say, I don’t get it.  I don’t see it.  I don’t understand it.  And that is alright.  God is bigger than we can understand.  God is deeper and wider than we can fathom.  My encouragement to you is to park those things so they don’t become a traffic jam or a detour to the journey of your faith.  Write them down.  Keep them in your bible or prayer journal and keep in the path of studying the Word.  Maybe God will explain them to you.  Maybe He won’t in this life.  But it is amazing that as our faith deepens and our lives our transformed, we see things in different ways.

 

My Answers:

3.
That Joseph was not his father and that Mary was a virgin.  They assumed it was a human birth, not a divine intervention.

4.
It is the difference between believing that Jesus was a normal man with grandeurs of being God’s son and believing in the fact that Jesus is God who took on earthly form and lived without sin and sacrificed his life to pay the price for our sin.  John 1:1 and 1:14, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

When you read the words of Jesus in this first half of the dialogue in the temple in Caperneum closely, there are some amazing insights into the relationship of the Father and Son of the Trinity that are presented.

1. Believers are a gift from the Father to Jesus the Son v.37
2. Jesus did not come to earth for His own will (benefit), but to do the will of the Father.  He is here out of obedience. v.38
3. The Father’s will is that none who He sends to Jesus will be lost, but all raised up at the last day v.39
4. There will be a last day for the earth v.39
5. The Father’s will is that EVERYONE who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life v.40

The fact of all of this is that the will of the Father is for all to be fulfilled.  Jesus is the only path for that fullness.  He is the bread of life.  Coming to Him does not just temporarily stave off the hungry we all have, but we never go hungry again.  Believing in Him doesn’t just quench the dryness in our throat, but we never thirst again.  He doesn’t just give us a life, He gives us Eternal life.  He doesn’t just fill us, He fully fills us.  Fulfillment.

Because of sin, all of us are born with a part of us that is dead.  Sin is death, and like someone who has had a heart attack, part of our selves is dead even at birth.  We are born in sin.  But, the Father’s will is not just that we live, but that Jesus fix us by removing the death in us, the sin, so that we not be lost but all raised up on the last day to eternal life.

We know, from this discussion, that Jesus knew fully and completely that He came to earth to die, to pay the price for our sin.  He came out of obedience to take on the death of the world, of every one of us so that He would not lose any of us.  He came to unite Himself to us, to take on our sin, and bear our death, fully out of obedience to the Father.

My Answers:

11.
material, most likely, although some may have been coming around.  The clincher is the “always”.  Bread that causes you to never hunger again does not need to be received always, but only once.  Once saved, always saved.

12.
a.
v40, that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.  I’m sure because Jesus said it and I believe it.  I’m sure because His word and His sacrifice are sufficient.

b.
All those the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will NEVER drive away.

13.
Never hunger again, never thirst again.  He is providing everything I need and allowing me to participate in serving Him by serving others and demonstrating His love; I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day

As hard as it is to believe, there will probably be some people at some time who look back on this day and age and consider it to be “the good old days.”  When you look at the troubles in the world, the division and hatred, the way the world has pulled farther and farther away from God, it seems hard to believe.  I can’t imagine the Hebrews, wandering in the desert and yearning for the food of Egypt, would ever have believed that, generations later, people would be pining for their 40 years in the desert!

The people didn’t just ask for “daily bread”, they demanded Jesus give it to them ALWAYS.

That is ALWAYS the wrong approach to God.  It assumes we know what is best and demand that God get on board and use His power to provide it.  I have a plan, I have needs, I have desires, I know what should happen, I just need God to sponsor it, to get behind it and make it happen.  Get behind me God, with you as my co-pilot, I can steer us into great things.

See the problem?  See why this is such a wrong approach?

But haven’t we all also done similar in our prayer life.  We make up our mind and ask God to get behind us instead of us getting behind God and following Him.  It isn’t that God won’t at times give us what we ask, but, we then simply do not know what greater blessing God would have had for us if we had followed Him.

We shouldn’t pray for God to be on our side, we should pray that we be on God’s side.  We shouldn’t pray for God to be our co-pilot, we should be thankful to have God pilot our lives.  We shouldn’t run ahead and count on God to catch up to our great plans, we should be at peace where we are and patiently wait and trust in God’s timing.

I’m not saying any of that is easy.  We are impatient, we are infants, we are self-focused.  We are like little kids going down the candy aisle at the grocery store after not getting a nap – we through tantrums and make demands.  We don’t just want, but we want what we want right now.  But, God loves us even during these times and He helps and guides us to mature.

My Answers:

8.
As they wondered in the desert, God provided Manna from Heaven for them to collect daily and eat.  Moses was their earthly leader, but he did not make the manna, it was from God

9.
a.
The more wonderful food is Jesus.  He is the bread of eternal life, given by God.

b.
I am in Jesus and He is in me.  We are connected and I am slowly being transformed out of my sinful self and nature into a holy being who will live forever, because He paid the price.  My God is not distant, My God is my creator and He loves me.

10.
Bread from heaven… they must have been hungry!    Demands don’t go well, because we don’t know what we really need.  Sometimes God provides them, sometimes He provides something more in line with what we really need.

I felt the need to change one of the questions in our study today.  It asked, what must a person believe about Jesus.  I think that is the wrong preposition.  I don’t think we are called to believe about Jesus, I think we are called to believe in Jesus.

The difference is at the heart of this and next week’s lesson.  Believing about Jesus is a surface belief.  It is a study of facts and figures.  It is a faith on appearance.  It is outward, logical.  Even the demons believe about Jesus for they know the facts.  To use the Greek, this is a belief strictly in the Logos.  To use the Star Trek, it is a Spock level belief.

But believing in Jesus is to reunite back to the original creation of man and our position as being made in God’s image and joined to Him.  It is intimate.  It is a connection, a uniting, a wedding.  It is full and complete, body, mind and soul.

I think it is part of the reason Jesus keeps discussing being the bread of life with the people.  He doesn’t want to be “out there” to us, He wants to be “in here” with us.  He came to this earth.  He became a man.  He loves us.

My Answers:

6.
They wanted (we want at times) a list of things we can do with our hands.  If I do this or that, then I’ve “earned” it.  If I follow the law close enough then I deserve it.  The one work Jesus gave them was to believe in Jesus

7.
a.
It is not believing about, it is believing in.  It is placing ourselves, body and soul, into the faith that He gave His blood on the cross as a sacrifice of atonement for us because He is righteous and He loves and wants us

b.
Every time I try to “do it myself” first.  Any time I think I am doing something “for” God.  Anytime I get stiff necked and start to think “I’m good”.

The people asked Jesus “when did you get here?”  His response was to highlight to them that they, actually, were not in the same place.

Jesus was fully in the will of His Father.  Jesus’ entire reason for living on the earth was to be obedient to the Father.  As He said, His food was to do the will of the Father.

The people who approached Jesus were in a completely different place.  They were looking for a snack.  They wanted something to tied them over.  Jesus was at the banquet of all of heaven’s best, and they wanted chips and a soda so they could keep driving by.

This message really hit home to me because I do the same thing in my prayer life.  I’ll pray things like:

1. God, if…
2. Let me glimpse…
3. Show me that…
4. Help me through…

I’m looking for temporary patches, get-bys, fill ups, so I can keep on keeping on with the way I’m living my life for me as a christian.

But God’s answer, when I truly listen, is the same message I heard this week.  The question is not to God but to me.  When I ask:

1. God, if…  – I need to see my lack of trust and faith
2. Let me glimpse…   – I need to be thankful and joyful for the spirit of God that dwells in me and fills me up.
3. Show me that…  –  I need to open my hard heart to the miracles all around and the goodness and let others see God’s power in my life
4. Help me through… – I need to go help someone else

I am not trying to say we shouldn’t pray for help and direction, I’m simply trying to say that, in those prayers, we shouldn’t dwell in the land of doubt and fear.  We need to stop, sit down, be at peace, and be with the Lord.  God’s desire for our lives is not that we run on E for empty, but that we be filled to the brim with power and vigor and spirit.  When we turn to Jesus, we trade in our E for empty for his E for Eternal.

 

My Answers:

3.
a. When did you get here?  You are looking for me not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.   b. Very Truly I tell you… God the Father placed His Seal of approval

4.
They were just looking for a freebie.  They weren’t looking for something ever lasting, just something to temporarily fill them and make them feel better

5.
a.
Do not work for food that spoils (food for our body), Do work for food that endures to eternal life (twinkies… JK: Spiritual Food, the word of God and the Spirit of Faith)

b.
Matthew 3:16 – At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

Storms come to each of our lives.  We don’t desire them.  We don’t enjoy them.  We never look forward to them.

But, God is in control.  Nothing happens without God allowing it to happen.  That does not mean it is punishment.  It doesn’t even necessarily mean it is something that we are a part of specifically for ourselves.  We may be part of a storm that God is using for someone else.  We don’t know the why’s.

What we do know is we do not need to be afraid.  We know that we only need to say the word and Jesus in right there in the boat with us.  We know that “with the Lord as our helper, what can mere mortals do to me?”

We also need to know that without the storms we do not get to see the rainbows.  Without the difficult and trying times, we would never experience true faith and we would never know true peace.  Without hardship and hurt and pain, we would not experience healing.  Without all these things, we would never recognize the miracles that Jesus makes happen.

We learn to rely on God during times we need to rely on God.  We learn to turn things over to Him fully in prayer when we reach all limits of what we can do on our own.

Hopefully, we take those learnings to heart and continue in the same practices both in the valleys and on the mountaintops.  But either place, God is there and He is in charge.

 

My Answers:

10.
a.
They obeyed, not because of sin – not all troubles are repercussions of disobedience

b.
Because God is in control and it may be the avenue to allow me to see God do something miraculous

11.
a.
walked out to the men in the boat

b.
see him, hear him, accept Jesus into the boat

12.
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”

Transformation and encounters with God normally go hand in hand.  But we face the same challenge the people at the sea of Galilee faced.  Are we open and accepting to having ourselves transformed into the image of God, or are we set on transforming God into the image we desire?

It is only through bible study that we gain a clear understanding of the attributes of God.  If we don’t know His true character, then He, to us, is a manifestation of our own thinking.  Too often men preach about their “god”, whom they base on the real God, but because they have refused to prayerfully read His word and listen to the message without preconception, is not God, but their view of what God should be to fit in their predefined box.

Here’s the deal.  When you understand the attribute that God is immutable, unchanging, then you understand that God does not become something different for me than He is for you.  There isn’t a deal of my faith and your faith, my beliefs and your beliefs, my definition of right and your definition of right, there is only God’s.  The thing that has to change, to be transformed, is not God or His word, but me and my heart and ways of thinking.

 

My Answers:

8.
They recognized Jesus as the prophet promised by Moses and the prophets but assumed His rule would be a national rule of the Jews as an earthly kingdom, not a spiritual rule of all people who believe.

9.
to pray, it is important to make quiet time to be alone with God

I firmly believe that salvation is a gift, that once accepted no one can take away.  However, I believe faith is something that grows.

I also think that the stages we see in the feeding of the 5000, that mirror the stages of the woman at the well, shed light into our own progression of faith.

Philip represents the first stage.  Denial and doubt.  We saw this with the Samaritan woman’s first response to Jesus requesting a drink, denial and doubt built from the thought of a Jew asking a Samaritan for a drink.  Philip does the same with Jesus’ question, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Andrew represents the second stage.  Questioning.  Again, the woman at the well had reached this stage when she returned to her town and asked this others, “could this be Messiah?”  We move in this stage from sheer doubt and denial to a flicker of hope and cautious acceptance.  Andrew find the boy and asks, “how far will they go among so many?”

The young boy represents the third stage.  Participating.  We know very little about the little boy.  Did he bring goods to sell?  Was this his lunch?  Did he approach Andrew?  Did Andrew approach him?  A lot of commentators make assumptions in these areas and shape entire discussions then around their assumptions, such as how generous the young boy was, etc.  I don’t know, we don’t know, we only know what the scriptures say, which is that he had 5 loaves and 2 fishes.  But what we do know is that he, through his loaves and fishes, got to participate in this amazing miracle.  The same was true for the Samaritan woman.  The townspeople, after 2 days with Jesus, professed that they no longer believed based on what she said alone, but on the word of Jesus that they had experienced for themselves.  The woman didn’t save the people, any more than 5000 people ate their fill from 5 loaves and 2 fish.  It was the power of the Holy Spirit, working through the woman and the bread/fish, that saves and feeds us even to this day.

Where are you currently on your faith walk with Jesus?  If you doubt, is it time to start asking questions of hope instead?  If you have been asking questions, is it time to engage and give and participate?  If you are engaged and giving and participating, is it time to look at what denials and doubts are still present in the darker corners of your life?  It is a continual process, growing in holiness each day, as long as we walk with Jesus.

 

My Answers:

5.
Philip: Take 6 months wages for everyone to have even a bite – Denial
Andrew: Here is a boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish, but how far will they go among so many? – Questioning
Boy: Gave  – Generosity.
This also is a reflection of the stages of faith.  At first we don’t believe, then we questioningly belief, then we accept God’s power and participate.

6.
Gave thanks.  One of respect and love.  We give thanks at meals and pray together, but I’m not always thankful to God during times of trial.

7.
1. Jesus saw the crowd – pray to have eyes opened
2. A boy was willing to share what he had – Be generous
3. Jesus had the people sit – Find peace
4. Jesus gave thanks – Give thanks
5. Jesus/disciples distributed – Serve others
6. All fed – enough to eat – feed and be fed (physically and spiritually)
7. Disciples gather the pieces left over – 12 baskets – Let nothing be wasted, gather back more than given to feed again.
Proclaim the glory of God

A couple of weeks ago in our lessons, Jesus discussed that the time of harvest was at hand.  During harvest season, there is very little rest.  The equipment runs day and night to get the crops in lest any wither on the vine or be diminished by storms.

Jesus calls those of us who are His workers to participate in the harvest.  This is not because He needs us, His power and the power of the Holy Spirit are sufficient.  But, He allows us to participate for our joy and strengthening and for unity and development of His church.

Our faithfulness is not only in the things we do, but it is also in the things we omit.  As the confession says more clearly, I have sinned against you in thought word and deed, not only by the things I have done, but by the things I have left undone.  It is not only the “crops” we hurt, but also the “crops” we fail to harvest because we are doing other things.

There is no doubt this is a real sin and one we need to bring to mind when we confess and pray.  There are many times that we become too focused on ourselves and our own wants and needs and desires to the detriment of others.  We get so focused on our destination to get to church that we drive past people who desperately need help.

While we need to watch for those sins, we also need to accept God’s grace in those areas.  In comparison to the needs of the world, we stand totally insufficient.  We cannot carry the burden of “not doing enough”, because it will crush us.  We need to keep in mind that God doesn’t need us to carry that burden, He is sufficient to carry it on His own.  He doesn’t need our help, He allows and desires us to help for our good and the good of the church.

 

My Answers:

3.
It was not yet time to enter into that level of conflict

4.
a.
He wanted to to go with his disciples to a quiet place and get some rest.  The people ran ahead and He had compassion on them and taught them many things.  He placed a heavy emphasis on the “time of harvest” and staying focused on work.

b.
The sin of omission is one that we gloss over.  It is not the things we have done, but the things we have left undone.  I pray that God guide me in this and also give me peace.  It is easy to fall into a feeling of “I could have done more”, given all the hurt and anguish in the world, but it is not by our own efforts that change happens but by the power of the Holy Spirit.