2. A Greater Witness Than John’s
(43 Minutes)
The eight sign miracles in John’s gospel were not only amazing miracles (in their own right), but each of them also had a symbolic meaning which communicated a profound spiritual truth. Furthermore, (and this is where it becomes interesting), each of the eight sign miracles may have a prophetic fulfilment at the end of the age.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus set a ‘pattern’ of miracle first followed by an explanation or spiritual truth afterwards. For example, Jesus fed the multitude of 5000 with physical food (bread and fish) and then taught them about spiritual food in His following teaching. In John 6:35, Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
This ‘pattern’ becomes important with the third sign miracle of the raising of the infirm man at Bethesda (who incidentally had been beside this pool for 38 years). This deeply symbolic miracle of the raising of this man, in unbelief, is followed by teaching from Jesus which contains four anomalous statements. These unusual and unexpected statements invoke the reader to consider if Jesus is communicating a deeper message. Just as John The Baptist heralded the first arrival of Jesus, do the ‘greater witness’ of the works of Jesus prepare the way for Jesus’ second arrival at the conclusion of the first resurrection?
This talk captures in overview, the essential premise of Jonathan Hill’s first book ‘Unlocking the Sign Miracles of John: In the Consummation of the Age’.
Note that the first third of this talk was accidently not recorded at the conference, so a section from this same talk (given late last year) is appended onto the front (of this talk) to give the full content. This ‘join’ occurs at 13 minutes and 55 seconds.
Diagrams: 029 – “And I Am Coming Back” As 1948