Our guest speaker gives us an encouragement from the fledgling (yet exemplary!) church of the Thessalonians. They were a church remembered for their fruitfulness, their faithfulness, their discipleship and their reputation as a people truly converted from their idolatrous past.
John 6:32-40 The Sign of Bread [Part 4]
Spiritual hunger and thirst are real. And apart from faith in Christ, the longing for spiritual life will never be satisfied. God sent His Son into the world to give THIS life (and that eternally!) to those who believe. But if eyewitnesses of Jesus’ miracles (the crowd) did not believe, who would ever believe? Jesus’ answer reveals a divine truth about true believers.
John 6:26-31 The Sign of Bread [Part 3]
The crowd goes to great lengths to catch up with Jesus but is spiritually blind. In the Lord’s conversation with them, we see four marks of their spiritual blindness: preoccupation with the needs of this life, neglect of the work of faith, heedlessness to the sign of God, and incorrigibility with regard to the words of the Lord. May we not be blind as they.
John 6:16-27 The Sign of Bread [Part 2]
Jesus performed astounding miracles. The Father gave the signs as His seal that Jesus is truly His Son. In the historical setting of John 6, the Lord not only fed the 5K but He also walked on water. These scientifically unexplainable miracles show that Jesus is truly who He claimed to be. And if He be God the Son, then what must we do in response? Take heed to His Word, turn away from sin and follow Him as He has called us to.
John 6:1-15 The Sign of Bread
Jesus fed the 5,000, but those who ate failed to see what this signified: Jesus is the Son of God from heaven. Sadly, to them, He was just a means to an end—a way to get what they wanted. But the Lord would not succumb to this. He is God the Son, the One we are to worship, follow and trust, and He gives to His people that which He deems best: eternal life.
John 5:41-47 The Pathology of Unbelief [Part 4]
Do you love God? Whose message do you listen to? Where have you placed your hope? These are the final issues the Lord brings up as He helps His audience see the hardness of their own hearts. These are sanctifying warnings for believers. They are also evangelistic tools to help unbelievers rightly perceive their own standing before God.
John 5:41 The Pathology of Unbelief [Part 3]
The love of men’s praise/recognition can turn into a deep spiritual problem. For the Pharisees, this was THE issue that kept them from believing in the Lord. One cannot live for the glory of men and also have Christ. As one former Pharisee said of his past: “I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ”
John 5:37b-40 The Pathology of Unbelief [Part 2]
The main point of Scripture is Christ. He is the central figure whom God predicted would come as the Savior of the world, who did come and whose return we now eagerly anticipate. Knowing Scripture in and of itself does not save. God’s message to man is that we embrace, love, honor and trust in His Son and be saved through Him.