SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/24/2016 8:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Fickle Crowd
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 After these things Jesus went away to the
other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2 A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was
performing on those who were sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there He sat down with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the
Jews, was near.”
The first
thing we again need to be reminded of is “The phrase meta tauta (after these things [Cr. 5:1] does not necessarily mean
that the events recorded in chapter 6 occurred subsequent to the events in the
previous chapter.” We have to believe
that there was a fairly long gap, that could be a year if the feast that John
speaks of in chapter five was indeed the Passover feast, for we could not determine
which feast John was talking about in chapter five, but in chapter six the
Passover is mentioned. John’s gospel was
written for a specific purpose as we have seen from the first day that we began
to study it so even though the time line does not follow the other gospels John
has good reason for the things he writes.
I have mentioned in one of our first SD’s on the gospel of John that a
very long time ago I heard that it was possible that the gospel of John was
actually written after John recorded the book of Revelation, and if that is not
so, at least it was written many years, perhaps up top sixty years after the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, so John had a lot of time to think about what to
write.
The event
of the feeding of the 5,000 took place on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
MacArthur writes “Since the largest area
of Galilee lies to the west of the lake, the ‘other side’ would indicate the
area east of the lake, more remote and less populous.” There have been different names of this sea,
which was actually a lake, but during the time when John wrote this gospel it
was more commonly known as the “Sea of Tiberias” “After these things Jesus
manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and He
manifested Himself in this way (John 21:1).”
The phrase “after these things” is used six times in John’s gospel and
five of the begin chapters. Now as far
as this body of water being named “The Sea of Tiberias” it was done because of
the city of Tiberias which was located on the western side of the lake and was
named in honor of Emperor Tiberius.
Now we
mentioned earlier that the reason that Jesus and His disciples were at this
place at this time was because of the fact that the disciples just returned
from a “missions trip” and were tired and needed a rest. Also our Lord got the news of the death of
John the Baptist and needed time to grieve over that event. Matthew 14 records this event “13 Now when
Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by
Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the
cities.” Matthew 14:1-12 speak of John’s
death.
When we
look at Mark 6 we find that Jesus and His disciples crossed the lake in a boat,
as said to get away from the crowds, but that is what they found, a large crowd,
and as stated they were probably headed up to Jerusalem to the Passover
feast. Even though this crowd was
probably headed for the Passover their motives to see Jesus were not spiritual,
but to receive healing for just as Nicodemus knew of all the works that Jesus
had been doing, so now these crowds also knew and were in line to receive
healing, but as we will see they truly missed the spiritual true spiritual mean
of Jesus feeding them. As we will see
they were what we would call thrill seekers, not looking for spiritual truth
that would save their soul.
We see that
Jesus, after arriving with His disciples went up on the mountain and it was
there that He sat down with His disciples, as this was part of their plan, but
then came the crowd to join them. As we
look through the gospels we see that mountains had importance in the life and
ministry of Jesus Christ. The Sermon on
the Mount took place on a mountain, in Mark 3:13 we see Jesus was up on a
mountain praying before He chose His disciples, then in Matthew 17 Jesus and
three of His disciples were up on the Mount of Transfiguration, also the Olivet
Discourse took place on a mountain.
Where this mountain is located is in what we call the “Golan Heights”
and this was the sight of the 1967 war Israel had with Jordan.
The last
section speaks of the Passover event shortly coming and we have already dealt
with that subject.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I desire to seek Jesus to worship Him, and
not to just have Him fulfill my wants and needs.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To better know my Savior and
Lord, and to remember what Jesus went through in what is called the Passion
Week.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Baal” (1 Kings 16:31).
Today’s Bible question:
“With whom is there no respect of persons?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/24/2016 9:38 AM
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