Jesus posed a direct threat to the paradigm of control the religious leaders had developed. John brings us into the discussions surrounding Jesus so that we can get a glimpse at the Pharisees’ efforts to control the situation. In our text, we read that the people were questioning the integrity of the religious leaders, saying, “Can it be that authorities really know that this is the Christ?” With these conversations going on, the Pharisees send officers to arrest Jesus. When they fail to arrest him, the Pharisees demean the officers and the worshipers, saying, “this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” What a statement of condemnation pronounced on the very people they were called to shepherd.

This power struggle occurs in the midst of a celebration of God’s gracious deliverance of his people from Egypt. The Feast is a testimony to their inability to self-rescue and their need for outside intervention. At the end of the Feast, what John calls “the great day,” when water is poured out, symbolizing the water God provided from the rock, Jesus stands and offers living water from God. What Jesus offers threatens all who believe in self-rescue and the religious structures they erect.

If Jesus offends, it might be more about self-righteousness than it is about him. Join us Sunday as we consider the threat of grace.

Sunday, we begin John 7. The whole chapter is a unit that highlights the divisions that Jesus created: some believed, some questioned, and some wanted to kill him. The entire scene occurs in Jerusalem during the time of the feast of Booths (Sukkot). The feast is a week long experience where families build a small thatched structure similar to what they lived in when they came out of Egypt. It was a annual reminder that God rescued them from Egypt and planted them in Israel because of his covenant of grace. It’s an experiential reminder that they are dependent upon God.

The chapter begins with Jesus explaining to his brothers why the world hated him. John tells us that his brothers didn’t believe and that the Jews were trying to kill him. Jesus goes up to the feast secretly and begins teaching. The emphasis of this first section is the prophetic voice Jesus presents to the world and to his people.

He says, “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.” (v19) It’s a bold statement made to people who were in Jerusalem keeping the Feast of Booths. But that’s the problem. They assumed that because they were obedient to the law, God was pleased. Jesus urges them, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (v24)

As followers of Jesus, we accept our need of grace. Let’s look at that need this Sunday.

Sunday we’re going to consider Peter’s statement, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (6:68) This profession of faith stands in direct contrast to Jesus’ followers who turned away from him. It also stands against the unbelief of Judas who would betray Jesus.

Peter’s profession also addresses a controversy in the text regarding eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus. The Roman Catholic church has held and taught that the elements of communion transform into the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation). The bread and wine taste the same but are transformed, in line with Jesus’ words. This teaching undermines the whole teaching of salvation by faith alone.

So come Sunday to consider this text and its application to our lives.

In our text, John 6:51-71, Jesus is comparing himself to the bread he fed them and the manna their ancestors ate. Jesus compares what is temporal with what is eternal and what is labored for with what is received. The people struggle to understand how he came down from heaven missing the offer of eternal life. Jesus announces that anyone who comes to him and believes, though they die, they will be raised on the last day. 

He ends this section with another statement that trips his audience up. He says, “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (v51) Jesus is explaining the incarnation, what John started the gospel with saying, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (1:14) The incarnation connects mankind to God, as Jesus is Son of Man and Son of God. His audience, now the Jews in the local Capernaum synagogue, debate how they can eat his flesh. 

Again the people miss the point of how believing in Jesus connects them spiritually to God. He says, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.” (v56) Sounds like a Halloween movie, but Jesus is speaking figuratively not literally. Faith connects us to the Life Giver and life eternal.

Join us Sunday as we consider the connection we have with God through faith in Jesus.

In our text, Jesus is gently leading the crowds that are following him. He exposes their motive for following him and leading them from their religious system and innate self-righteousness to faith in himself. But he blows their mind by talking about bread from heaven that gives those who ingest it eternal life.

He makes a blunt statement, in essence saying, “your ancestors tried your plan and died.” He’s not being mean but trying to get his audience to realize that the system of religion they are trusting in doesn’t give them life. Indeed, people who cling to symbols and shadows miss the provision of God in Jesus. The religious shadows of Moses’ writing were meant to point them to Jesus, the One sent from God. Jesus explains why he is better than their religious system:
he comes down from heaven;
he receives and secures those who come to him; and,
he gives eternal life to those who believe, not those who labor for it.

Jesus offers himself, as he says, “for the life of the world.” What a beautiful passage and what a generous gift offered to us by the Father. And it comes with a message that if you believe, you are secure in Christ. Join us Sunday as we consider this passage.

Sunday we will consider a familiar miracle of Jesus, the feeding of the five thousand. John the apostle leaves no option than to believe that Jesus actually fed the crowd from the five loaves and two fish provided by the boy. He says, “So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.” Notice the words, “from the five barley loaves.” John is clear that this was a “sign” meaning that the miracle was meant to teach something. 

Before he shares Jesus’ teaching on the meaning of the bread provided, he shares another miracle, Jesus walking on water. It seems like a story he throws into the narrative. John doesn’t discuss the miracle but uses it to show the nature of the crowd who was “seeking” him. John uses this to set up the dialogue we read in the next paragraph. 

The crowd is determined to follow Jesus, but their motive is less than pure. They don’t want the “bread of life” that God provides, because they don’t want Jesus! Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” He is God’s provision for their salvation. Will they receive him?

Join us Sunday as we consider the bread that God provides. 

As we saw two weeks ago, Jesus was addressing the religious system that the Jewish leaders were managing. In our next section, Jesus is going to zero in on a particular motive behind the Jewish leaders religious system: receiving glory from one another and not the glory that comes from God. At the root of legalistic religious systems is the praise of self and the praise of men. Those who follow the law declare their own self-righteousness and rise in the ranks of religious authority. These are the “righteous,” the religious bourgeoisie who judge and manage the religious proletariat. 

Determined to remain in control, the religious leaders ignored the multiple witnesses that affirmed Jesus’ sonship and the eternal life that he offered. They chased after John the Baptist until he challenged their self-righteousness. They ignored the Jesus’ works, the Father’s testimony, and even the sacred Scripture. The very author they leveraged to establish their system, Moses, not only speaks of Jesus but turns against them, accusing them of guilt. 

In mercy, Jesus confronts their selfish zeal to lead them to faith. What mercy!

Join us Sunday as we witness the mercy of God in the teaching of Jesus.

Hebrews 10:19-25 - Here is a call from our LORD to enter further into the relationship with him - into the most holy place. What does it take to enter in? What are some blessings of entering? We are united to Jesus and as our high priest he mediates all we need through the Holy Spirit to walk in the heavenlies - to walk in the will of God.

Join in our worship and joy of the Spirit as we develop our relationship with Jesus this coming Sunday.

Sunday we dive into Jesus’ teaching about his relationship to the Father. The context really sets the stage for his teaching. The Jewish leaders were alarmed that he broke their Sabbath traditions and claimed equality with God. Before we jump in, we need to ask, Why are they threatened by these claims? Couldn’t they have just shrugged him off as a crazy person? Why did they take this so personally and use this as their justification to kill him?

The answer is in their reaction. Jesus presents an internal threat to the whole system of legalistic oppression and the glory that the religious leaders received within that system. If Jesus was equal with God, then he has authority to speak about the Sabbath and challenge their applications. If Jesus is God, their power and control is directly threatened. If Jesus is God, the glory these religious leaders experienced, the praise of men, is in jeopardy. If Jesus is God, then he has authority to judge them. But there is more: if Jesus is God, then he has something better than the Mosaic covenant to offer us. Jesus can bring us into the grace of his oneness with the Father. Jesus offers us something better than the Mosaic Covenant.

These are the very things Jesus teaches about himself. Read his teaching, John 5:19-29, and prepare to hear his offer of grace. 

For Sunday, Pastor Paul is going to record a sermon for our online viewers, while Pastor Tim will present John 5:9b-18 so that the on campus worshippers can be caught up. 

This week John takes us further into the conflict between Jesus as the religious leaders. Jesus had healed the “invalid” man at the pool of Bethesda, telling him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk,” which the man did. The problem is they were just outside the temple on the day of rest, the Sabbath. Carrying your bed on the Sabbath was a violation of Rabbinical law and the man was immediately challenged.

The Jewish leaders of chapter two (2:18) confront the man for carrying his bed, ignoring the fact that he was healed and walking. The man throws his healer under the bus with the leaders, not knowing it was Jesus. Once the Jews know it was Jesus, they pursue him, especially when he claims, “My Father is working until now.” Jesus not only accuses God of breaking the Sabbath regulations, but he equates himself with God. 

 Jesus is challenging Rabbinical law and teaching, exalting himself above their teaching as the law Giver. So come Sunday and see Jesus, the law giver.