Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 420
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
5:39–6:15
not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the
one he sent to you.
“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life.
But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive
this life.
“Your approval means nothing to me, because I know you don’t have
God’s love within you. For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and
you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly
welcome them. No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each
other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who
alone is God.
“Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse
you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. If you really believed
Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But since you
don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also
known as the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick.
Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him.
(It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) Jesus soon saw a
huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked,
“Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip,
for he already knew what he was going to do.
Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough
money to feed them!”
Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy
here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this
huge crowd?”
“Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy
slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the
loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward
he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After
everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that
nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets
with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed,
“Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” When Jesus saw that
they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the
hills by himself.
