2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
July 30, 2025
John 5:31-6:13
Verses 31-35. The issue Jesus was facing was that many of his Jewish brethren didn’t accept him as the Son of God. The Jewish religious leaders ignored the signs, miracles and his superior command of the scriptures. The signs and wonders testified to his divine nature, but those signs were rebuffed by the religious hierarchy of the day. Instead of seeing Jesus as the promised Messiah, they saw him as a troublemaker. What made their refusal to see Jesus as the Son of God was the fact that many of them believed John the Baptist to be sent from God. John the Baptist clearly stated that he was not the ONE, but the one who would make the way clear for the Messiah (John 1:6-8, 15,19-28). John also publicly declared Jesus to be the very Lamb of God (John 1:29-34). In these verses, Jesus alludes to the fact that John identified Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. That testimony should have been enough. Jesus said that “for a time” they followed John and enjoyed the light that shined through him leading them to the Lord. John’s testimony should have been enough.
Verses 36-40. Jesus told the crowd that he had other witnesses that were weightier or of greater authority than John. The works that Jesus was given by the Father to do testify to his nature. Jesus did the works of the Father and those works testified that he was the Messiah. Not only did the works of the Father hold more weight than the testimony of one man, the testimony of the Father in the scriptures testified to Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus told the religious leaders that if the word of God really dwelt in them, they would recognize the WORD standing before them. The Samaritans accepted this after they heard Jesus, but the Jewish religious leaders did not.
Verses 41-47. Jesus rebukes the religious leaders for accepting others who came in their own name with no authority but rejecting Jesus who humbly came to them in the name of the Father healing and performing miracles for the Glory of God. Jesus told them that they are more than willing to accept people giving them glory but failed to seek the Glory of God. Jesus finishes his rebuke by stating that their accuser would not be Jesus but Moses. This is two-fold. In one sense Moses’s writing foreshadowed Jesus. Secondly, Jesus is saying that even if they see the signs and miracles that Moses did, they still will reject Jesus. This is why the very next miracle John records is the feeding of the 5000. After that miracle, John records Jesus walking on water. This miracle alluded to the feeding of the Israelites in the Wilderness and how God suspended the rules of physics with regards to the Red Sea. Jesus fed the crowd in a way that was greater than Moses. If Jesus did miracles greater than Moses, those miracles testified that he is greater than Moses.
Chapter 6:1-4. For the most part, the miracles that are recorded in the gospels are designed to be signs that Jesus is the Messiah that was predicted to come in the Law and the Prophets. Jesus traveled to the shore of the Sea of Galilee with a great crowd of people following him because they saw the miracles he performed. John tells us that this is around the time of the Passover which is to highlight how many people were there. During the Passover, thousands made their pilgrimage to the area to celebrate the Passover. Also during this time there was a strong sense that the Messiah would be a political leader that would overthrow the Roman empire. Jesus came to overthrow a greater enemy that plagued all mankind. Rome would be dealt with as detailed in the book of Revelations. That would come later, but Jesus came to set us free from sin and give eternal life.
Verses 5-7. Jesus already knew what he would do and asked Philip where they could buy food to feed the great crowd that came to hear Jesus. We know from verse 10 that the crowd was at least 5000 not including women and children. From Philip’s perspective it would take nearly 6 months of wages to give everyone in the crowd one bite per person. Jesus asked Philip this to present a problem that could not be solved by human intervention. The point of Jesus’s question was to place the disciples in a position where only divine intervention could solve. In the same way, feeding the ancient Israelites in the desert was impossible; feeding 5000 on a hillside as evening approached with no resources was also impossible.
Verses 8-9. Andrew, another disciple, interjected that the only thing he saw was a young boy with a lunch consisting of some fish and bread. Andrew presented the young boy’s lunch as a sign that they didn’t have enough for such a crowd. Andrew didn’t present the boy as a source of possible provision; he presented the boy as a sign of severe lack. We often present our little bit as a sign of lack and not a sign of possible provision. We come to God sometimes really saying what we have is not enough.
Verses 10-13. Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit on the grass. Jesus then takes the fish and bread and multiplies the small lunch in such way that everyone was fed and some was leftover. Jesus instructed the disciples to gather the leftovers, and they were able to fill 12 baskets with leftover bread. The number 12 was a sign of the 12 tribes of ancient Israel, and the bread was a sign of the manna that fed them in the wilderness. Later in this chapter Jesus will declare that the manna that fed the Children of Israel was a sign of Jesus who is the true manna that fell from heaven.
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