Who Is This Man? - Part 3

      The sixth chapter of John is another one of those mind-blowing chapters. It begins with the miraculous feeding of a huge multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish. Scripture records that there were 5,000 men, not counting the women and children.
        Then Jesus walks on the water to get to the disciples’ boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. It doesn’t take long for the people to figure out that Jesus and His crew have gone back to the other side of the sea. So they follow suit and sail across to the other side as well.
       They want to know how Jesus is able to perform such miracles. They want to see more. So they demand, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’ ” (John 6:30-31). A sign? The feeding of the multitude wasn’t enough for you? You see, signs are not enough. Many, many people witnessed the signs that Jesus did, but they did not all believe.
         Listen to Jesus’ answer. “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from Heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.” They’re minds are preoccupied with the things of this world. They want to eat this kind of bread always. Apparently, they have forgotten how their ancestors got tired of the manna.
         Jesus tries to shift their thinking to their spiritual lives because He knows many are starving for lack of spiritual food. “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe” (Jn. 6:35-36).  
          The Chronos Lesson: It is another play on words.  In Jesus’ time, bread was the staple food. Certainly, the Rabbi couldn’t be talking about eating Him, could He? More on that to follow. Jesus explained one aspect of this word picture when Satan tried to tempt Him. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ ” (Matt. 4:4). Where do we find the words God has spoken? In the Scriptures.
          The Bible is not like any other book. In its original form the Bible was “God-breathed,” which means God gave the writers the inspired words to write. Those words were saturated with the God-kind of life. Since each human being is uniquely designed by God—as evident in our fingerprints—He inspired the words to also fit each writer’s distinct personality. When we come to the Bible with a humble spirit and an open heart, its words can spark life in us. They can feed our spirit, sustain us in difficult times, reform our corrupted soul, and heal our broken bodies.
          We have often stated in our blogs that we need to see both the chronos times and the kairos signs to get the complete view of the end-time events. In practice, however, most end-time ministries focus on the kairos signs. They look at the events happening around the globe and compare them to what they see in the Scriptures. Things get messed up because it is not the full view. They’re ignoring the chronos times delineated throughout God’s Word.
        The people in Jesus’ time kept asking for signs because they overlooked the specific time-related passages that foretold when the Messiah would come. They failed to take note of the pre-determined length of time that would pass. If they had paid attention to God’s Word, they would have recognized the time of His visitation.
        The same is true in our own time. The reason there is so much confusion concerning the end-times is that we’ve failed to take note of the appointed times stated in the Scriptures. We’ve ignored the “one thing” that Peter told us to remember when looking at the end-times.  That is, how God counts the passing of time. “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).
         For the most part, the Church has ignored the chronological passing of time in terms of God’s plan of redemption as expressed in the great Week of seven 1,000-year Days. And then we wonder why there is so much division and disunity?