Sermon Tone Analysis

There is a growing Rejection and Misunderstanding of Christ starting here in Chapter 5 of John and going through chapter 7.

Outline:

The context of today’s passage () shows the growing rejection of Christ

The Content.

()

Christ Command ()

Christ Condition ( )

Introduction:

1 Peter 4.13-14

This text is showing us the true nature and person of Christ while at the same time revealing the growing rejection of the Christ.

At first large crowds followed because they loved what they were getting and seeing.

Many were getting healed, He was teaching with authority, there was intrigue, there was miracles, but maybe most importantly their was free food.

Being in college ministry for 25 years I will never underestimate the power of free food.

Luke records a time when thousands flocked to follow Christ.

So many that they were stepping on each other in

Also it seems to be the hidden cost of good leadership in a fallen world is being misunderstood.

The hidden cost of good leadership in a fallen world is being misunderstood.

This text is showing us the true nature and person of Christ while at the same time revealing the growing rejection of the Christ.

At first large crowds followed because they loved what they were getting and seeing.

Many were getting healed, He was teaching with authority, there was intrigue, there was miracles, but maybe most importantly their was free food.

Being in college ministry for 25 years I will never underestimate the power of free food.

Luke records a time when thousands flocked to follow Christ.

So many that they were stepping on each other in

Ultimately, the crowds that followed Jesus were not about His kingdom but there own kingdoms.

They were fickle.

Self-involved.

Once Jesus began to explain His kingdom many or perhaps most turned back.

Chapters 5 through 7 of John’s gospel note the beginning of the nation’s shift in attitude toward Jesus from reservation (cf.

3:26; 4:1–3) to outright rejection (summed up in 7:52).

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006).

(p.

171).

Chicago: Moody Press.

john 6.6

john

They are misinformed about who Jesus is, or even where he was born which would have helped validate his Identity.

In our fallen sinful state, the way we enter the world, we too view the person of Jesus in this way.

We misunderstand who He is and what He offers.

We can’t see it.

Like small children told they cannot go get their ball in the street or else they may be hurt or even killed.

The Christ is right here with them but they are blind.

Are we any different?

Excited by His astonishing miracles and powerful preaching, people flocked to Jesus.

Matthew 4:25 reports that “large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.”

After the Sermon on the Mount, “when Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him” (Matt.

8:1).

On another occasion, “large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach” listening to His preaching (Matt.

13:2).

Across the Jordan in the predominantly Gentile region of Perea, “large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there” (Matt.

19:2; cf.

20:29; John 6:2, 5).

Luke records a time when “so many thousands of people had gathered together [to hear Jesus] that they were stepping on one another” (Luke 12:1).

But the overwhelming popularity that Jesus experienced was not as beneficial as it appeared.

The crowds who flocked to Him primarily consisted of curiosity seekers.

They were not devoted to Him as Lord and Messiah, but followed Him for the excitement, healings, and free food He provided (cf.

6:26).

At one point, they were so enthusiastic about what they perceived as Jesus’ supernatural social welfare program that they tried to make Him king (6:15).

But because they were not generally committed to Him or His gospel of the kingdom, Jesus did not commit Himself to them (2:24; 6:26, 64).

Ultimately, the fickle crowds rejected Jesus (6:66), following the example of their religious leaders.

Those leaders, especially the Pharisees (the most influential religious sect of Judaism), mounted an unrelenting campaign of lies against Jesus, falsely accusing Him of being a demon-possessed Samaritan (8:48) of illegitimate birth (8:41).

As noted earlier, they even attributed His miraculous signs to the power of Satan (Matt.

9:34; 10:25; 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15).

The nation’s ultimate rejection came at Jesus’ trial before Pilate when, urged on by the religious leaders, the crowd screamed, “Crucify Him!… His blood shall be on us and on our children!”

(Matt.

27:23, 25).

At His death, Jesus had only a handful of identifiable true disciples—120 in Jerusalem (Acts 1:15) and another 500, probably in Galilee (1 Cor.

15:6; cf.

Matt.

28:7, 16).

The nation’s ultimate rejection came at Jesus’ trial before Pilate when, urged on by the religious leaders, the crowd screamed, “Crucify Him!… His blood shall be on us and on our children!”

(, ).

At His death, Jesus had only a handful of identifiable true disciples—120 in Jerusalem () and another 500, probably in Galilee (; cf.

, ).

The nation’s ultimate rejection came at Jesus’ trial before Pilate when, urged on by the religious leaders, the crowd screamed, “Crucify Him!… His blood shall be on us and on our children!”

(, ).

At His death, Jesus had only a handful of identifiable true disciples—120 in Jerusalem () and another 500, probably in Galilee (; cf.

, ).

The nation’s ultimate rejection came at Jesus’ trial before Pilate when, urged on by the religious leaders, the crowd screamed, “Crucify Him!… His blood shall be on us and on our children!”

(, ).

At His death, Jesus had only a handful of identifiable true disciples—120 in Jerusalem () and another 500, probably in Galilee (; cf.

, ).

The nation’s ultimate rejection came at Jesus’ trial before Pilate when, urged on by the religious leaders, the crowd screamed, “Crucify Him!… His blood shall be on us and on our children!”

(, ).

At His death, Jesus had only a handful of identifiable true disciples—120 in Jerusalem () and another 500, probably in Galilee (; cf.

, ).

Really 620 people is the educated guess at least of some noted theologians.

john 5.1-

1.

The Content: A few Observations

Jesus intentionally sought out this man much like he deliberately went to Sychar and the women at the well.

Jesus initiates these relationships, not them.

Second, we notice that there is no verse 4 in the ESV (or the NIV, or the NASB).

But it’s there in the old Authorized King James version.

Second, we notice that there is no verse 4 in the ESV (or the NIV, or the NASB).

But it’s there in the old Authorized King James version.

Why is it missing?

The answer is that it’s not there in the oldest and best manuscripts.

Here it seems that somewhere along the way, a copyist drew a marginal note of explanation into the actual text.

Verse 7 begs for an explanation.

It says, “The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.’”

It seems like only a few were healed (or maybe only one), when the water was “stirred up,” and if you were too slow, you missed out.

So verse 4 in the King James explains (you can see it in your footnote): it says that the invalids were “waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.”

That helps make sense out of verse 7 where the man says he can’t get to the pool in time.

Of course, this explanation may be exactly right.

But since it’s missing from the earliest manuscripts and has other marks of being added later, the more recent versions omit it so that we have a version that is as close to the original as possible.

How the pool worked is not essential to the story.

The fact that Jesus worked is essential to the story.

Don’t let this disturb your faith in the word of God, There are thousands of Greek manuscripts or fragments of Greek manuscripts and the way we arrive at our amazingly reliable Greek and Hebrew and English versions is that these texts are compared with each other in painstaking and complex ways so that when some manuscripts have different wording, we can tell almost all the time which is original.

And in the few places where we can’t, there is no significant historical or doctrinal issue at stake.

Some refer to these chapters as John’s “festival cycle.”

Once this pattern is recognized, new insight is possible on otherwise difficult paragraphs.

In my outline (see Introduction) I have suggested that one effective way to organize the section is to group the four major festivals together, leaving the Lazarus story to one side (as foreshadowing of death and resurrection).

An outline of the festivals makes John’s structure clear.

• The Sabbath Festival in Jerusalem (ch.

5)

• The Passover Festival in Galilee (ch. 6)

• The Tabernacles Festival in Jerusalem (chs.