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Christ did not expect mere honour and praise from men. His great motive was to
proclaim the glory and fellowship of the Father. Those who wish to be faithful witnesses
to the Saviour, likewise must not expect pats on the back from men. The apostle Paul
certainly did not (I Thess. 2: 6). "The love of God" is better seen as an objective
genitive, "Your love toward God". These leaders did not really love God and hence they
did not love Christ.
"I have come in My Father's Name, and you do not accept Me; but if someone else
comes in his own name, you will accept him" (5: 43).
Seven times in this Gospel the Lord speaks of the Name of the Father (5: 43; 10: 25;
12: 28; 17: 6, 11, 12, 26), but they still rejected Him Who made the Father known. Yet
they would readily follow others who claimed to be messiahs. History records several of
these between 30-70A.D., and Christ has foretold this will again happen at the end of this
age to aid the devil's deception (Mark 13: 6, 22).
"But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on
whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote
about Me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe
what I say?" (5: 45-47).
In God's law court there was no need for Christ to be their prosecutor, or chief witness
against them. There was one already, one whom they venerated, namely Moses. Their
rejection of Christ showed that, despite their pretensions, they did not believe Moses
either, for Moses wrote of Him. The leaders did not accept this, like many present day
teachers who do not. But see Deut. 18: 18 which is quoted by Peter (Acts 3: 22) as a
prophecy of Christ, and also by Stephen in Acts 7: 37. Note also John 3: 14 about
the brazen serpent and 8: 56 about Abraham foreseeing Christ's day. The Lord Jesus
clearly states the fact that Moses wrote portions of the O.T. (and see also Luke 24: 27,
44 for the same idea). There was no answer from the rabbis to this conclusion of the
Lord. Nor is there any effective one from the religious critics of today.
No.11.
6: 1 - 35.
pp. 81 - 85
The Feeding of the 5,000, and the Walking on the Water.
"Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the
Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed Him because they saw the
miraculous signs He had performed on the sick" (6: 1, 2, N.I.V.).
The lake is called Gennesaret in Luke 5: 1, and the Sea of Tiberias in John 21: 1.
This was because Herod Antipas in 22A.D. built Tiberias to the west of the Sea of Galilee
and made it his capital. Luke 9: 10 explains that it was eastern Bethsaida to which
Christ took His disciples, not the western Bethsaida of Mark 6: 45 in Galilee. He went
up on the high ground and sat with His disciples. The place is well known today as the