We are going to cover the whole chapter. So, I encourage you to spend some time to read it before Sunday so you can get a sense of it. This is a bigger section than we typically take on. The scene shifts to the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. Jesus refused to go up to Jerusalem with His family, but did show up in Jerusalem and he was, once again, confronted by authorities who wanted to arrest and kill Him. One of the words that comes up over and over again in this passage is seek. That will be our focus this Sunday – the things that we turn to so that our parched souls can drink deeply, though they come up short again and again. We will see that we are offered living water that will actually satisfy the longings within.

This is the second half of the Bread of Life Discourse. Last week we saw Jesus start statements with “Truly, truly,” three times. It helped us explore really hard questions about our own hearts. This week Jesus takes the metaphor a step further. Where He claimed to be the bread of life, now he makes an explicit call to eat His flesh and drink His blood. The people who heard Him were understandably offended and grossed out. The crowds that had gathered at the feeding of 5,000 suddenly started to thin out. Some of Jesus’ own disciples left Him. He asked the even asked the 12 if they would leave, too. This passage will help us to see who Jesus is more clearly and challenge us on our own responses to His hard teachings.

This begins a long section that theologians call The Bread of Life Discourse. We will take the broader passage in two pieces, finishing it up next week. We see Jesus and the disciples back home in Capernaum, but the crowds who had eaten the bread the day before followed them to find Jesus. In the pattern of what we have seen already, the people were so caught up in looking for signs that they missed the significance. This week we see Jesus claim that He is the bread of life. It gives us the chance to press into the questions of what we seek, work for, and hope in.

This is another familiar story. After miraculously feeding 5,000 people, Jesus withdrew to a high place to pray. His disciples headed out to cross the Sea of Galilee. That night they were caught in a terrible storm and were rowing hard to try to make it to shore safe and alive. What happened next was something beyond what they ever could have expected. Jesus came to them, walking on the water. In the midst of a storm, with wind and waves battering the boat, Jesus came to them. When he joined them in the boat, everything was calm and they came to land. This is a good Sunday for all of us, because it shows us that there is hope whatever storms we face.

This is a familiar story, and the only miracle that occurs in all four Gospels. This week we see Jesus return to Galilee from Jerusalem. As a crowd surrounded Him, he asked the disciples how they could feed all the people. The best anyone could produce was a boy’s lunch of barley loaves and small fish. Jesus was able to feed 5,000 men, potentially 10-20,000 people in total, with leftovers in abundance. There is a lot for us to draw out of this well known story.

This passage continues the discussion between Jesus and the religious leaders who wanted to kill Him after He healed a man on the sabbath. Jesus started by making dramatic claims to His own authority and equality with God (5:19-30). In our passage for this week, He continues by taking a courtroom approach and calling on witnesses to who He is, establishing the validity of His claims. This is a great passage to show us that Jesus didn’t stand on His own claims, even as the incarnate Word of God, but still pointed to witnesses and evidence to His own divinity.

This week, we will be looking at the birth of Christ from the opening 2 chapters of Luke’s gospel. In what serves as the prologue of the book, Luke tells his motivation for writing this gospel, so that his recipient, a man named Theophilus, can have “certainty” (Luke 1:4) about the things concerning Jesus. It is this idea of having certainty amidst uncertainty that shapes Luke’s account of Christ’s birth. In his well-researched version of the incarnation, Luke does something that is distinct among the gospel writers: he intentionally interweaves the narratives of the birth of Jesus and John the Baptizer.

Throughout the remaining weeks of December, we’ll be pausing our study in John’s gospel to celebrate the Advent of Christ. Advent allows us to cultivate space in our lives for joyful remembrance and anticipation of Jesus Christ together. We remember His first coming in the incarnation, and we anticipate His second coming to establish His kingdom. 

This week, we will be in Matthew 1:18-23, taking a look at the well-known Christmas story but focusing our attention entirely on the descriptive name given to Christ, “Immanuel” which means, “God With Us”. In our study of this name we’ll explore four things: God meets our greatest needs in the person of Jesus. God is the initiator of this great action. The word “with” is crucial in conveying how God intends to relate to us. And lastly, there are excellent implications that Jesus’ “withness” carries for every one of our lives.

After Jesus healed the crippled man, he faced major backlash from religious leaders in Jerusalem for healing on the Sabbath. The response Jesus had was not to back down or cower to the pressure. Instead, He doubled down, telling them his real source of authority. This is a great text for us on this second Sunday of Advent, Love Sunday, the Sunday of preparation as we long for God’s presence. We will see the stark claims of Jesus to have God’s presence and authority as the Son of God.

We have seen Jesus in individual conversations with Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman. Now John turns our attention to an interaction He had with a Gentile official. There are some incredible contrasts in this passage between those who were looking for signs from Jesus yet didn’t believe and this man, who believed in Jesus along with his whole household. As we spend time in this passage, we are going to explore the nature of true faith, saving faith.