5:31-40 Although Jesus is not on trial here, His response to their charges sounds like what He would say if He were giving testimony in court. However, what Jesus is saying about Himself would not be valid in a Jewish court unless it's backed up by the testimony of others. He calls John the Baptist as one of His witnesses. The Jews would accept John's testimony. But Jesus also mentions the testimony of the works He has been doing in His ministry. Even the OT scriptures testify that Jesus is who He claims to be. But the word of God "does not dwell in" these Pharisees because they do not believe what Jesus is saying. Although these men study the scriptures diligently because they think this is how they will receive eternal life, they do not follow what these scriptures say about Jesus and come to Him for eternal life.

v. 41-47 Jesus does not accept praise from men but they like to receive praise from each other. He knows these men-- they do not have the love of God in their hearts. Jesus again tells them He has been sent by His Father and they don't accept Him. But they quite easily accept some other man who comes in his own name, without any real authority. They accept praise from each other but "make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God." Jesus is quick to say that it is not He who will accuse them before the Father, but it is Moses who will accuse them. They think the Law is their friend and that Moses would defend them, but Moses actually believed the things God said and he wrote them down. Jesus concludes his speech by saying, "But since you do not believe what he (Moses) wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"

6:1-15 Some time after this, Jesus sat on a mountainside near the far shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Feast. A large crowd followed Him because they had seen the miracles. Jesus asked Philip how they were going to feed all these people. Of course, Jesus was only testing him because He already knew how He was going to feed them. Philip said it would take more than 8 months' wages just to give each person one bite. There was a boy among them who had five small barley loaves and two small fish. Jesus had the people sit down on the grass, about 5,000 men. He gave thanks for the loaves and fish and distributed them to the crowd. There were 12 baskets of bread left over after everyone had eaten all they wanted. The people realized they had been fed miraculously and began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." Remember, Moses said that God would send a prophet like himself and the people should listen to Him (Deuteronomy 18:15). It was in the time of Moses that the Lord fed the whole Israelite community with manna-- a miraculous distribution of bread. At that time there were over 600,000 men and their families who ate manna every day for 40 years. Jesus knew this crowd was going to try to make Him their king by force so He withdrew to a mountain by Himself. He did not come into the world to become the king of a physical nation.

v. 16-25 That same evening the disciples got into a boat and began to row across the lake to Capernaum. A strong wind was blowing, making the water rough. They rowed about 3 ½ miles from the land when they saw Jesus walking on the water towards them. He told them not to be afraid and got into the boat with them. "Immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading." The next day (the day after the crowd was fed with the loaves and fish) the crowd realized that Jesus and His disciples were gone so they boarded boats and went to Capernaum to look for Jesus. They found Him on the other side of the lake and He began to teach them about "the true bread from heaven."

We will read about that in two weeks. Remember, there is no class on Thursday, February 28th.