The apostle John is very specific again about the geographic movement of Jesus from Jerusalem back to the region of the Sea of Galilee. I believe John is wanting the reader to consider this and to retain that which has happened unto this point.
This is the general area in which he the Lord grew up, and perhaps the writer is drawing are attention to that which Jesus himself said about a prophet not having honor in his hometown.
It is also the general area in which Andrew and John were from, and also their brothers Peter and James. And the place that Jesus decided to go to specifically find Philip and instruct him to “Follow me’.
After Philip had been called by Jesus, we have an outstanding testimony “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joesph”.
Philip knew by way of revelation, that this normal man who had instructed him to ‘Follow me”, was at one with the Word of God. This is profound and radical truth, it is also full of normality and a wonder designed by God to liberate the mundane with the twinkle of the nights stars.
Philip gave testimony to the perfect harmony of the law being fulfilled and prophesy, by a son of a carpenter named Joseph. He had not learned this great truth through the religious seminars or instruction from the high priest at Jerusalem, it had come through a direct call from Jesus to follow him.
The second divine revelation given to man in Johns gospel that comes through Jesus finding a man in his home region is this: A harmony between the nature of Gods being in a man and it being a provide sacrifice for fallen mans sins (Law and prophets).
Harmony means that liberty does not have a license to sin.
Given biblical theology we know that he to whom Moses wrote about in the law and to whom the prophets referred could not be born of Adamic man. Therefore, Philips understanding at this juncture is perhaps incomplete, as Jesus was indeed not the son of Joseph as Matthews introduction to the New Testament documents.
This harmony, was indeed offered akin to Isaac upon a mountain, of Golgotha. Rejected as prophesy foretold by the master-builders. The lamb of God was not slain within the temple, nor did his blood get sprinkled upon the mercy seat. Not within the realm built by men’s hands did the blood get shed, but a permeant throne was touched in the spiritual domain, legally granting access to all who believe. The veil was indeed torn in two, as the outer court and the women’s court and inner sanctuary (priesthood of all believers) were all made one through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The first divine revelation given to man in Johns gospel has an absolute harmony with the second: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’.
John the Baptist was ordained to be a prophet of the Lord before ever he was conceived, such was the divine WILL of God to redeem fallen man. ‘Thy will be done’, is a prayer for unison with a God wholly committed to love being the method of redemption. 1 Corinthians Ch 13 is written due to the cross being the revelation of Gods redeeming love.
On reflection it could be stated that Andrews proclamation concerning Christ was the second divine revelation given to man in Johns gospel and Philip the third.
Andrew and John are informed that they will see, because they desired a residing place of harmony with God.
But when Jesus sees Peter, he proclaims that while his birth and nature is known and his family origins that he shall be ‘called’ by a new name.
Andrew had not seen that coming. Andrew had not seen his brother baptized in the Holy Spirit, and heralding the lamb, the messiah, unto a perishing world. He had not seen his brother as the first apostle divinely appointed to preach in the Holy Spirit to the Jew and Gentile, despite having denied that he knew him thrice.
When Jesus speaks this word to Simon the son of John, it carries the same message as spoken to the priest Zachariah inside the inner sanctuary: He shall be called by a new name!
The prophet who heralded the lamb, is superlatively prophetic through his birth. John who had not done any act in obedience to the law (only his parents faithfulness is honored by God) heralds in the truth of a new nature of divine grace born freely within man.
Simon is perhaps the most loved of the apostles pre Pentecost as he akin to David inspires hope to failures. And yet it is worth considering the measure unto which this initial word spoken to him, enabled him later to have a greater measure of faith to step out of the boat. Can any man boast of anything before God. This was his first encounter with the divine Word of God, spoken by the Son of God, it has eternal consequences.
Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, “Come and see”.
Philip replicates the words that Jesus spoke to Andrew and John. In this we have a beautiful harmony being played through the accordion of scripture between God and man. Did not the Lord breath his breath into the nostrils of man, and man became a living being.
And it should be noted that the Lord sees all men under their fig leaves! The great cry when the Lord God ‘called’ to the man was ‘Where are you’? This cry is the gospel mandate, all men are implored to come and see, and God transformed a blind Pharisee so that others may see.
The first two people who are brought to Jesus through other men’s ministry, Simon and Nathanael, are both affirmed directly by the lamb of God. Jesus does not do detached discipleship training for second generation believers. Here again we have the universal cry of ‘Where are you’, and the gospel mandate to ‘Go into all the World’. He is the lamb for the whole human race; Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Kuwait, Australia, Scotland and Peru.
Their would also appear to be progression in this chain reaction of events and callings. Nathaniel responds to the revelation that before Philip called you, I saw you, with an exclamation that ‘Teacher, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel’.
What had been missing from Philips understanding is plugged by Nathaniels.
Here we have a principle of body ministry, each supplying to others needs. This is central to the essence, plan and nature of are redemption: Living for others benefit.
Harmony!
Jesus, is never static nor has man ever exhausted his depths of inspiration. Man can’t outlive the life of God, and that is why eternity is a promise of life. And why the great lie concerning Gods nature brings death. God has shared all of himself with humanity, and hence those who take him at his word, shall know no depression, cynicism or boredom in heaven.
Harmony.
‘You are the Son of God’, is not left as a pinnacle of the revelation!! It is not a eureka moment of a secluded monk who gains enlightenment!
‘But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles’.
The Son of God, refers intentionally to himself as being the Son of Man.
He came that others may become one with the will of his Father. The firstborn among many brethren. And does not this opening salvos of Johns gospel focus on the sharing of good news between brothers and friends in community.
When God called the apostle Paul, it was not to be placed in a trophy cabinet called saved by grace. It was to share what he had been given: that others might see.
Come and see: The lamb slain before the foundations of this world; Nathanael, Martin Luther, Hudson Taylor, prodigals, dying thieves and the whomsoever’s.
Once Jesus bridges the divine with humanity, heaven touches earth.
Then their is a marriage, on what John refers to as the third day. Here an axe is laid to the root, just as it was when the ark crossed the Jordan river upon dry land. He may not have been the son of Joseph, but the immaculate conception did not predate his coming.
Here we are prophetically being given an insight into the final revelation of the text of scripture, when John the apostle is on the island of Paphos, is seeing through an open heaven the outworking of Gods divine will and plan of redemption: Revelation Ch 19 v6-9.
And no eye has yet seen: Isaiah Ch 64 v4. Paul follows this with it not being right for their to be division within his body, in Corinth. Called unto one hope when you were called.
That heaven and earth are meeting, and unison between the divine and humanity is being bridged, Jesus transforms the water into wine. John the Baptist couldn’t do this, and Mary his mother could not instruct disciples on from Johns Baptists ministry. We must be following his personal instructions to be part of the fruitful vine.
The apostle John notes that Jesus went from here to Jerusalem for the Passover. This is the first Passover during the course of his 42 month ministry. From his baptism to Calvary, culminating in the fourth. As with the light going into water and the covenant given to Noah, Elijah the prophet goes 40 days to the place Moses was given the law. After it had rained for the first time in 42 months. From, Abraham to the birth of Jesus, 42 generations and when he is baptized in water, 40 days in the wilderness.
Moses and Elijah, with Jesus. Peter, James and John. Six water pots, hear Him. The bridging of his divinity into humanity. The promised blessing unto Abraham the friend of God, who allowed God to show himself as he really is, sharing his only begotten Son, that every nation and family should be blessed. The transition, the transformation, the anointing from one generation to another, the mandate unto all believers, to do the will of God, to obey his voice and word.
Quite why the synoptic gospels only have one Passover is unknown to me. But that John is drawing are attention to these things is unequivocally part of his gospel.
Jesus having returned from Jerusalem, having affirmed that to believe Moses would lead to faith in Him. Jesus goes up the mountain, and sits down with his disciples.
This is the only Passover during his ministry that Jesus is not in Jerusalem.
Jesus lifted up his eyes, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”
Jesus had found Philip in Galilee, and Philip had proclaimed that he had found him who Moses in the law and the prophets wrote of.
This question intentionally directed at Philip is not a question just for him, it is a question unto his body, those seeking to be at one, at rest with him in the mountain.
The replication, the multiplication the growth of the brethren. How shall we buy bread to sustain it, to feed them, to keep them sustained in this discipleship school.
Jesus knew that he wasn’t going to buy bread. Did he know that he would do it through the principle of someone sharing with others what he himself had been given or did he simply know that his Father would answer his cry? One would imagine that Jesus foreknew the principle he was intend on communicating.
Philip answers the question as best as he knew how. He gave a rough estimation of what he thought might just give each man a very small amount, but certainly not a enough to quantify a meal nor any concept of something left over.
Philip who had responded with such enthusiasm, when called upon for an answer to a question concerning that which he had called and would be calling others unto, answers in a natural and pragmatic manner.
But Jesus had not asked him to estimate the cost. Jesus had asked him where? Where are we to obtain bread that this crowd may have their hunger met. Was not the answer the same one that had caused a women of Samaria to leave her waterpot at the well.
Come and see, where I reside. Philip, had specifically been found so that he might share with others the bread of heaven, that good thing that shall not be taken away (Luke Ch 10 v42).
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, hearing this question, contributes what he knows. And to his estimate it is not much for so many.
This sequence is not without purpose. That it is a reverse order of Johns opening Salvo.
Philip who has specifically been found and called by Jesus himself in Galilee. Philip who on his return from Jerusalem during the the one Passover that he is present in Galilee is asked a direct and specific question.
Andrew, had not been specifically found and called. Andrew had followed the prophets cry and Jesus had responded to him following with: you will see.
Jesus took Andrews contribution to answering the question, and multiplied it for the whole crowd.
Jesus is teaching the whole crowd upon this mountain top, that he has no favorites, that his Church is not fed by what and where money can buy, but rather God is well able to feed and more than satisfy according to his gospel truth: Man shall not live by bread alone.
Thomas, replies later on a statement of the Lords, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way’?
Philip then speaks of seeing the Father as being enough for us. He asks Jesus to show him the Father.
Philip, has not understood all that the prophets and the law were trying to communicate. That God had come down unto man, contrasted to a span, to share Emmanuel. That he was seeing the very nature of God the Father through Jesus Christ his Son.
This was a Passover in Galilee, a prophet in his home area, feeding the crowd with one lads offering, a full basket for each of his apostles to chomp over the subsequent days the wonder of it all. Where is a prophet at home, where is the promised land of the peoples home, where is the Father who welcomes home, where is the robe, ring and shoes needed for sins redemption: Come and see, Jesus reveals the Father: For this my Son was dead and is alive again, that nothing be lost.
Jesus knew, what he would do.
Jesus knew that he would have to cry out to his Father at Calvary. ‘It is finished’
Jesus knew that he must ascend, for grace to open men’s earthly restricted minds. To send the teacher into the hearts of men, that his sacrifice has opened up the throne.
Jesus’s one mission is to establish the heart in the faith of the Son of God who has loved all men, and given himself for all men, that they might know of assuring their sins forgive and that their home is in heaven.
The Fathers gift unto mankind is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The revelation of God as are Father can only come through Jesus Christ.
eternalrays 