John – God Speaks!
This is the season for, let’s face it, overeating which borders gluttony. We have many reasons, (AKA excuses and rationalizations), for doing so. Yes, I’ll try your cookies. I wouldn’t want to offend your baking skills. Yes, I’ll eat that dessert in the 9 by 13 pan of deliciousness full of a million calories because everyone else is doing it. It’s the social thing to do.
As the host, you provide way more than you need so that the favorites of all who will attend will be happy and give you compliments on your abilities. Ah, and then there are the leftovers that you don’t want to go to waste, so you eat them. For. Days.
Healthy living that controls food intake is put on hold until after the holidays. Admit it. We ALL do it. Well, most of us.
What if we were as hungry for Jesus as we are that piece of pie? What if we didn’t care about food for just a little while? What if we ignored those tummy growls long enough to keep hearing from a Person who spoke and behaved like no other we had ever encountered in our lives?
He makes sick people well! He talks and walks with confidence but not cockiness. His eyes, oh those eyes, when He looks at you. It is as if He can look right into your soul. What if we just could not tear ourselves away from listening to Him tell us about God, life and purpose? What if we didn’t even know we were hungry for physical food because our hearts were being fed to overflow with Spiritual nourishment like never before in our lives?
Would we settle for a couple of fish and small loaves of bread?
John 5, New Living Translation
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand
After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. 4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) 5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”
8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
14 When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” 15 When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.
WOW! Jesus already knew what He was going to do before He did it. I am reminded by what God always does in my own life. He meets a need before I know I will need it. He does this in a variety of ways. I am so thankful he does.
WHAT ELSE DO WE LEARN?
–The people weren’t really complaining of physical hunger, it was the compassion of Jesus to care for them while they listened to Him.
–“This is what we have, what good is that?” Jesus took what they had and gave thanks to God. When God intervenes it is more than enough to do His work in His way in and through us. Jesus, again knew exactly what He was doing. This was a lesson for his disciples. God will provide where He guides.
–They had LEFTOVERS! What did they do with the leftovers? (I really don’t know, but it could have been shared with those who arrived late to the party.) God always provides enough to have and to share.
–“Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” The Messiah they have been waiting for centuries is here among them and they are realizing it for the first time. Jesus’ popularity picks up speed and greatness as we travel through the gospel of John.
–Jesus’ also knows it is not time to rule as King of kings and Lord of lords as the people see it….so He slips away by Himself. God’s Son knows what He is doing.
And now we know who Jesus is, what He has done for us and stand ready to tell His story. We can trust Him! We can put all our hope and faith in Him! He KNOWS what He is doing!
How about we eat less and tell more about Jesus, focused on His love, mercy and grace. Let us pray for His Holy Spirit to fill us to overflow with His goodness and nourishment with the Bread of Life that is eternal!
And…Share the “leftovers”!
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for teaching us about your love, mercy and grace. Thank you for providing all we need and more so we can share with others who need to know you, too. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for saving our souls. I love you, Lord with all that is in me.
In Jesus Name, Amen. I believe.
ALL of God’s Word points to this Truth…God loved us and sent His Son to save us. 
19 So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. 21 For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. 22 In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, 23 so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.
39 “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.
Jesus, the Giver of Life. Believe and you will be saved.
7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”
Was this man a Jew or a Gentile? We don’t know. We don’t know his exact position in the government. He may have been a member of Herod’s court, but whatever his national or social standing, he was clearly at his wit’s end and desperately needed the help of the Savior. He desperately asks ”please come now” to Capernaum to heal his son.
46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.
49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”
WHAT DO WE LEARN?
This man began with CRISIS faith. He was about to lose his son and he had no other recourse but the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people came to Jesus with their crises, and He did not turn them away. The nobleman’s crisis faith became CONFIDENT faith: he believed the Word and had peace in his heart. 
HOLY PAUSE
Today is Sunday, our day to gather with many people and worship God together. It is the day to help others “come and see” what the Lord has done, is doing and will do in the lives of those who believe Him. It is a day to open the Word and see what God has to say to each one of us who are listening for a word from Him. It is a day to help people find and follow Jesus, too.
15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” 28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
THINK ABOUT IT…
20-23 “But you haven’t seen the half of it yet, for in the same way that the Father raises the dead and creates life, so does the Son. The Son gives life to anyone he chooses. Neither he nor the Father shuts anyone out. The Father handed all authority to judge over to the Son so that the Son will be honored equally with the Father. Anyone who dishonors the Son, dishonors the Father, for it was the Father’s decision to put the Son in the place of honor.
“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”
EVERYTHING is in Jesus’ hands. The mission to save the world is in Jesus’ hands. The characteristics of behaviors that please God are displayed perfectly in the life of His Son, Jesus. The ability to take a group of young fishermen, tax collectors and others and teach them to tell God’s story of redemption was all in Jesus’ hands. All power and authority is given to Jesus from God the Father. And what does Jesus do first? He gets alone often, as a habit, to pray, asking the Father for what to say and do.
27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. 28 You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ 29 It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. 30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.
As the song goes, we “can only imagine” the place where God and His Son lives. We can only imagine what happens hour to hour, minute to minute where there is no time to manage, no tears from frustration, no pain in any way. We can only imagine the incredible, relentless, unconditional, unimaginable amount of love between The Three-in-One, God, Jesus, His Son, and His Holy Spirit and his created.
In the beginning the Word already existed.
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
HOLY PAUSE
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge. 
Jesus is The Word. We refer back to the beginning of John’s gospel. The Word became flesh, fulfilling all the prophecies that the Scriptures had taught God’s people because the prophecies were about Him! The disciples could SEE it. The religious elite did not. Both were God’s own. Those who should have known best were blind to Who Jesus was. Jesus–The Word made flesh, speaking for God, who was God in the flesh fulfilled all that was said…from the beginning.
13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” 21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
The temple was an important element of the Jewish faith, for in it God was supposed to dwell. All of the ceremonies and sacrifices of the Jewish religion centered in the temple. When Jesus suggested that their precious building would be destroyed, their angry reaction was predictable. After all, if His body is the temple, then the Jewish temple would be needed no more. 
John – God Speaks!
The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. 3 The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”
5 But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Mary’s words to the servants reveal that she was willing to let her Son do whatever He pleased, and that she trusted Him to do what was right. It would be wise for all of us to obey what she said! It is worth noting that it was Jesus, not Mary, who took command and solved the problem; and that Mary pointed, not to herself, but to Jesus. 
