Unit 4: Miracles of Jesus

Background on Jewish Weddings

Background

• Wedding receptions = 7 days
• Lavish hospitality = sacred duty
• Shame and embarrassment

Jesus' response to Mary as "Woman"

• Not disrespectful
• Formal
• Jesus doesn't break commandments

Woman

"Why is Mary telling Jesus, "There is no wine?"

No Wine

• Connection to Old Testament prophecies
• God will provide miraculous wine
• Jesus providing wine reveals he is the long awaited Messiah.
• Jews would know that the Messiah would provide "abundant" wine as the prophecies stated

Jesus' role as "bridegroom"

Bridegroom

• Jesus reveals that he is not only the Messiah but also the bridegroom
• Bridegroom's responsibility to provide the wine for the reception
• Jesus steps in and provides when the bridegroom of the story fails to do so
• Prophecies are being fulfilled through Jesus
• He is revealing the mystery of his divine identity

Why does Jesus say, "My hour has not yet come?"

Jesus' hour

• Jesus' response to Mary when she tells him there is no wine.
• Jesus does not feel it is the right time to reveal himself
• Divinity
• Mary has a different opinion
• "My hour"
• Refers to the Crucifixion
• Jesus know once he reveals himself as "divine", he will begin his journey towards crucifixion

What does this miracle teach us?

Lessons

• Mary
• Teaches us to put our problems in God's hands and trust him completely
• She told Jesus the problem and left it up to him
• Ask for Mary's intercession
• Jesus as bridegroom
• He provides for us and provides in abundance!
• We just need to ask
• He used what was there - ordinary items - to make something extraordinary happen

Background to the passage

• Jesus and disciples had just returned from traveling and just learned of John the Baptist's death
• Wanted to be alone to grieve and rest
• Sailed out in the boat to find some peace
• Crowd was forming on the shore
• Jesus and the disciples sail back in to preach to the crowd

Background

What's happening?

Event

• Preaches to the 5,000 all afternoon
• Dinner time
• Jesus tells the disciples to give the crowd something to eat
• WHAT?!
• A small boy has some food packed
• 5 loaves and 2 fish
• Jesus multiples it and feeds the crowd!
• 12 baskets left over

Connection to the Last Supper

• This passage connects to the Last Supper
• Take, loaves, give thanks, break, distribute
• Institution of the Eucharist
• Eucharistic = Holy Communion

Connection

Bread of Life Discourse

Discourse

• "I am the Bread of Life"
• “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
• When we eat his flesh and drink his blood, God truly lives within us and we within Him.
• Jesus was speaking LITERALLY not METAPHORICALLY
• Transubstantiation
• The miraculous change by which the bread and wine are consecrated into the body and blood of Christ while keeping only the appearances of bread and wine
• Total transformation into the REAL PRESENCE of Jesus

Lessons

• God is enough!
• Feel overwhelmed
• We ONLY have 5 loaves and 2 fish
• Conversion/change
• Inadequate
• Contribution and commitment

Lessons

Background

• People feared large bodies of water
• Chaos/hell
• Sea of Galilee subject to violent storms
• Few could swim

Background

What's happening?

Story

• After feeding of 5,000
• Thought Jesus was a ghost
• Peter
• Doubted
• Believed he was the Messiah

Dispel Disillusionment

• Think Jesus is a ghost
• Bad to worse
• We make things worse in our head

Dispel Disillusionment

Defeat Distractions

Defeat Distraction

• Peter leaves boat when he realizes it's Jesus
• Focused on Jesus
• Shifted his focus
• SINKS
• Distracted from Jesus by his surroundings
• Today - we get too busy for Jesus
• Must not let problems or distractions keep us from Jesus

Destroy Doubt

Destroy Doubt

• Knew Jesus was amazing before this
• How do we really see Jesus for who he truly is?
• Storms come up in life
• How long until we call on Jesus?
• We try to think of our own solutions
• The deeper problem is DOUBT
• Doubt Jesus but trust our skills, intellect, connections, etc.
• Jesus = last resort

Lessons

Lessons

• Jesus may not come when you want, do what you want, or follow your every direction - but he does care and will help
• Storm doesn't settle until Jesus gets in the boat
• Peter walked on water DURING the raging storm
• Jesus doesn't always remove our problems, but he walks through them with us
• Sometimes we must change our heart instead of asking God to change our situation
• Faithfulness unleashes the supernatural
• Don't let fear keep you from getting out of the boat!

Physical healings

• Power over sickness
• Commitment to the good of his people
• Serve a larger purpose in God’s redemptive plan
• Expressions of divine compassion

Physical Healing

Miracles Today

Today

• Miracles still happen today!
• Even if we don't frequently see extraordinary miraculous events, God is active.
• A consecrated host seems to change to human flesh and blood…
• A statue of Christ weeps real tears and sheds real blood…

Background

Background

• Only in John
• Lazarus, Mary, Martha
• Close friends of Jesus
• City of Bethany
• Stone Jesus

Why the wait?

Wait

• Told Lazarus was sick and dying
• Didn't leave immediately
• Knew Lazarus would die and he would bring him back
• Jews believed the soul hung around a person for 3 days after death so the person was "mostly dead"
• After 3 days the soul left and the person was "all dead"

Jesus Wept

Wept

• Wept with Martha and Mary
• Fully human and felt emotions
• Experienced loss and death of a loved one
• God never intended for us to experience death
• Wrenches soul from body, rips loved ones from embrace of their families
• click to edit

Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb

Tomb

• Jesus' miracles spring from his sense of compassion for suffering
• Sign of power over death
• Tells Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life..."
• Meant to connect to the resurrection of the body when Jesus comes back
• Gives us hope of life beyond death

After the story...

• Last miracle
• Plot to kill Jesus
• Holy Week and Passion

Next

Lessons

Lessons

• Spiritual sin
• Needing to die to sins
• Fear it's too late to get out of the "tomb" of sin
• Offers new life
• Our "tombs"
• Feel trapped, sealed off, bound
• Prison of negativity
• The Lord is always ready to remove the tombstone of our sins