Feeding The 5000

Recorded November 2018

(Part 1 is 29 Minutes)

(Part 2 is 17 Minutes)

The miracles in John’s Gospel are described as signs and as such, have a signification beyond the miracle itself. Jesus commends these works above those of John the Baptist and the signification of the sign miracles appears to be focused at the end of the (Christian) age. The fourth sign miracle of the ‘Feeding of the 5000’ speaks of spiritual growth – eat the Bread of Life and you will grow spiritually. This miracle is in the ‘distribution’. 

These talks were recorded on the same day in 2018, and it turned out (without prior planning) that the speaker was exactly 20,000 days old on this very day. A great day, therefore, to speak on the 4th sign miracle regarding the 5000 (4 x 5000 = 20,000)!

The Third Sign Miracle In John’s Gospel

Recorded 2019

(10 Minutes)

Jesus encouraged His disciples to find Him in the scriptures as per the ‘Road to Emmaus’ episode on the afternoon of His resurrection. 

This third sign miracle in John’s Gospel (of the infirm man raised at Bethesda) is significant for Israel. It typified the future event of Israel raised in unbelief in 1948. 

This work of Messiah (of raising and protecting Israel) was in the greater week (at the 1000-year level – when the Sabbath day’s rest represents the Millennial Kingdom). This is what Jesus appears to be referring to in John 5:17 when He says: “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

This talk was recorded as part of a spring conference on ‘The Progression Of Time For God And Then Eternity’ in 2019.

This talk is elaborated upon in the audio below called A Greater Witness Than John’s.

Water To Wine

Recorded December 2019

(Part 1 is 26 Minutes)

(Part 2 is 5 Minutes)

Truth protects our communion and fellowship which is otherwise weakened by a faulty witness. The Apostle John is a type of the church with an uncorrupted testimony – able to separate and distinguish Truth from impurities of false teaching and the traditions of men. The work of God, now, is to believe. 

Romans 11 – The Olive Tree Of Blessing

Recorded Spring 2020

(26 Minutes)

Family is the vehicle that God has chosen to bless humanity. He chose the family of Abraham and Sarah to bear Messiah. Family is sacred. 

All spiritual blessing is mediated to the Gentiles through God’s Covenants with Israel and the metaphor of the ‘Olive Tree’ of Romans 11 represents this blessing into which the ‘wild olive’ branch of the Gentiles is grafted. Occupancy in this ‘Olive Tree of Blessing’ is conditional upon a continuation in the goodness of God (Romans 11:22). The fate of the final (seventh) Church of Laodicea, in the Book of Revelation, suggests that this (Romans 11:22) conditional occupancy, of the ‘macro’ Gentile church, has been broken. The ‘two days’ (read 2000 years – 2 Peter 3:8) after the episode of the woman at the well (in John 4) and the Samarian ‘gentile’ revival, when accolade accorded to Christ became nominal (John 4:44), suggests a similar (Laodicean) fate for the mainly Gentile church at the end of the Christian age. 

Romans 11 – The Macro Church

Recorded Spring 2020

(24 Minutes)

God deals with both individuals and corporate groupings. The ‘macro church’ is such a corporate grouping that God may judge according to the Romans 11:22 ‘cutting off’ warning. This is not about individuals losing their salvation, rather it is a warning to the corporate grouping or ‘macro church’ that they may lose a ‘blessing’ accorded to them through the Abrahamic Covenant if they do not continue in the ‘goodness’ of God. 

Abraham’s negotiation with the Lord over the judgement of Sodom (in Genesis 18) and the judgement of the ‘Children of Israel’ over Achan’s sin in taking spoil from Jericho, are examples of how God executes corporate judgement. There is such a thing as corporate responsibility, whether it be national, regional, local or family responsibility. God expects humanity, especially believing humanity, to take corporate responsibility at each of these levels. 

The witness of the church is corporate, it is not about individuals, rather the witness (manifested in love and truth) of the family or Bride of Christ. The Apostle John expressed this truth in the greeting of his second letter: 2 John 1:1 …to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth. The strength of the witness of the church is directly proportional to the measure that the church has been sanctified by consuming the Living Word and, therefore, loving the truth. 

A Greater Witness Than John’s

Recorded (at Hambledon) November 2022

(36 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 feeds the multitude of 5000 with physical food (bread and fish) and then teaches 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 this talk was repeated at the Cromer 2023 conference.

Diagrams: 029 – “And I Am Coming Back” As 1948