Entrusting Faithful Men

We saw in the previous post that people dropped everything and joined the throng rapidly moving along the shore of the Sea of Galilee to meet Jesus when He and the disciples landed on the northeastern shore. The crowd didn’t have time to gather provisions. As the evening approached, the disciples urged Jesus to send the crowds away that they might go buy food for themselves while they still could. Jesus responds “You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:15-16)

Earlier (when Jesus had seen the crown coming), he asked Phillip, “Where can we buy food for these people.” Phillip, along with Simon and Andrew were from Bethsaida, the largest nearby village and would know the local diner, drive-ins, and dives. Phillip responded that they didn’t have enough money to begin to feed this crowd (two hundred silver coins would be about eight month’s wages for the average laborer). Nor was there likely that amount of food readily available nearby. Jesus was a pragmatic host, but more importantly he was planning to use the occasion as a teaching moment, for John adds that Jesus already knew what he was going to do before he inquired of Phillip (John 6:5-7). Jesus would use the miracle He was about to perform as the backdrop for a very important dialog about His identity.

Of the five thousand (and some commentators suggest that the number excluded the women and children), only one had any food – a young boy had brought with him five barley loaves and two fish. Miracle of miracles, the boy had not continue reading…

The first of Jesus’ “I AM” statements is in John 6:35 – “I am the Bread of Life”.

John begins chapter 6 with the words “After this . . .” which would seem to indicate a rapid succession of time. But in reality, several months have passed since the account of John 5, perhaps even a year, if the feast mentioned John 5:1 is taken as Passover. If it were the Feast of Booths (aka The Feast of Tabernacles), chapter 6 occurs 6 months after chapter 5. John often uses the various Jewish feasts as his timeline marks. It is now close to Passover (John 6:4) and this would be the Passover before Jesus’ crucifixion, so this marks His last year of earthly ministry. If Jesus was crucified in 33 AD (I’ll talk about the evidence for this in a forthcoming post), then this would be April 32 A.D. John doesn’t tell us what happened between chapters 5 and 6, perhaps because the other Gospel writers do.

Jesus preaches in Nazareth and is rejected in His own town (Mark 6:1-5), and continues on to other nearby villages in Galilee (Mark 6:6). He then sends out the disciples in pairs to preach repentance, cast out demons and heal the sick (Mark 6:7-14). During this time, Jesus continues preaching Himself. While the disciples are out on their mission, Herod Antipas has John the Baptist beheaded, fulfilling the wish of his Herodias and her daughter with the preacher’s head served on a silver platter (Mark 6:14-29). The disciples return and tell Jesus about their experiences and apparently also about the news of John the Baptist (Matthew 14:13).

And so Jesus tells his disciples, “Let’s go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.” It was likely meant to be a retreat to debrief, to reflect, and to pray and worship. continue reading…

Asked to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses asks, “Who shall I say sent me?” God responds, “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:13-15). God continues, “This is My name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” Thus, God would always refer to Himself as “I AM”.

“I AM” comes from a Hebrew word “hayah” meaning to exist, to be, to happen. The Hebrew letters comprising the word (yod-he-haw-he) would be transliterated into English as YHWH (pronounced Yahweh). In the Hebrew Scriptures, we have several instances of the term Yahweh combined with other words to describe specific aspects of God’s nature and attributes, most often in commemorating God’s specific blessings. Our English rendering of YHWH is Jehovah, combining the Latinized version, JHVH, with the vowels from Adonai, another name for God meaning master or lord. continue reading…

April 2, 2010 (Good Friday): Rick Warren began his bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life, with these words: “It’s not about you.” But for Jesus, His purpose was all about you and me. He came to restore us to a right relationship with God/Himself. He came to give us abundant life (John 10:10) – to restore to the access to the Tree of Life lost in the garden. And to accomplish that He had one principle plan: to die. Contrary to much popular belief, Jesus did not come to teach us how to live a good, moral life. He came to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins (Romans 3:23) that we might meet the demanding standard of God – sinless perfection, which no amount of good, moral living can begin to measure up to. He didn’t come to teach us how to live because that could never solve our problem (Romans 8:3-4).

In the Gospel of John, we see Jesus telling those around him that “his hour had not yet come” as he went about ministering in Galilee (John 2:4; John 7:6-8). He successfully avoided those who were seeking to kill Him (John 7:1; John 8:59; John 10:39-40). So you’re thinking, “Wait a minute. Sounds to me like Jesus was really trying to avoid death.” He fled and hid, not because He didn’t come to die, but because continue reading…

Today is Maundy Thursday – celebration of the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples eating the Passover meal (Seder) on the eve of the crucifixion. Passover, one of the most significant Jewish holidays, celebrates God’s deliverance of Israel from the slavery and bondage of Egypt. In a demonstration of His power before both Israel and Egypt, death struck the first born child of each household, except for those who had chosen in faith to slay an unblemished lamb and brush the doorpost of the house with its blood (Matthew 12:1-27).

The Feast of Unleavened Bread took place on Nissan 15 of the Jewish calendar. The 14th was “the day of Preparation” in which an unblemished lamb would be slain at the temple for each family in the afternoon between 3:00 and 5:00 PM and eaten that night as part of the Passover Seder dinner. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) all record the Last Supper as being the Passover meal (Matthew 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-8; Luke 22:13-15). But there is a problem in John’s Gospel. John clearly states that Jesus crucified on the “day of Preparation” (John 19:14) and that the Jews asked Pilate to remove the bodies from the cross that afternoon so as to violate the holy day (John 19:31). Matthew 27:46-50 tells us that Jesus died about 3:00 PM (the ninth hour), interestingly at the same time that the lambs would be sacrificed for the Passover that night. Jesus was the ultimate Paschal Lamb! Here is the problem . . . How could Jesus celebrate the Passover on Thursday, when John clearly states that the Passover was Friday? Is the Bible incorrect? continue reading…

Much has been preached and written about the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus praying there the night before His crucifixion. But last week as I was preparing to conclude a seven week study of the “I AM” statements of John with a focus on “I am He” in John 18:5, I came across a detail in John’s eyewitness account of the events that caught my eye and took me off on a fascinating rabbit trail. The Biblical writers, under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, provide details for specific reasons. No detail is irrelevant and no relevant detail is omitted. II Timothy 3:16 tells us that “all scripture is inspired and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness”. Often times amazing insights can be gathered from the details – gold nuggets can be found if we just turn over a few stones!

In John 18:1 we are told that Jesus went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley to the garden. Where is the Kidron Valley? Gethsemane is positioned on the slopes of the Mount of Olives directly west of the Temple and about one-fifth of a mile from the Temple. The Temple was the highest point in Jerusalem and it would be very much in view from the Garden. Between the Temple and the Garden was the Kidron Valley – a wadi ( a wash that was dry except for the heavy winter rains, when it could become a pretty wild river).

So what is the significance of Jesus walking through the Kidron Valley? The Old Testament tells us that during the period of the divided kingdom, there were continue reading…

I am a teacher. I teach computer information systems vocationally at a community college – programming, multimedia (Photoshop and Flash) and web development. But more importantly, I have been called and gifted as a teacher of God’s Word. I love to study the Bible (I use and highly recommend the Logos library system – www.logos.com) and I enjoy teaching what I learn. Oftentimes I learn as I’m preparing to teach, for one of the joys of teaching is that the teacher always learns the most! One cannot be a teacher without first and foremost being a learner.

My primary outlet is through a grassroots, homegrown program called Forum of Four (www.forumsof4.org) – a two to three year mentoring group that continue reading…