Interpreting the Miracles of Jesus

00:00:00.000 | Pastor John, here's a question about Bible reading and interpretation. It seems

00:00:08.720 | that the miracles of Jesus can be so situational that it can be hard to know

00:00:12.700 | what the takeaways are from the stories as we read them in the Gospels. How do

00:00:16.480 | you process the miracles of Jesus in your own personal devotions? I was

00:00:21.480 | reading, I think day before yesterday, in my trek through the Bible with

00:00:27.080 | McShane's Bible reading plan, Matthew 16, and Jesus says to the disciples, "Beware

00:00:36.560 | of the leaven of the Pharisees." So clearly he's using a metaphor. I say

00:00:42.440 | clearly, it wasn't so clear to the disciples. They start squabbling with each

00:00:47.440 | other about, "Oh, we didn't bring any bread, we didn't bring any bread, and Jesus is

00:00:52.400 | concerned or upset with us that we don't have any bread with us." And Jesus hears

00:00:57.320 | them, and he says to them, "Hey, don't you remember the 5,000 and the 12 loaves

00:01:03.560 | left over, and the 7,000 and the seven loaves left over? How is it that you

00:01:09.920 | don't understand that I did not speak about bread?" Now, when I read that in my

00:01:15.520 | devotions, I just stopped and said, "What is Jesus saying?" That if they had

00:01:22.840 | really understood his miracle, those two miracles where he fed thousands with a

00:01:29.520 | little bit of bread, if they had understood that, they would have

00:01:32.880 | perceived the meaning of his metaphor. And what might take away, I haven't

00:01:37.360 | thought through to the bottom of this yet, but Jesus said, "Beware of the leaven

00:01:41.360 | the Pharisees." They totally misunderstood him, missed the metaphorical meaning, and

00:01:46.200 | went straight to the literal meaning. And Jesus says, "That was stupid, because if

00:01:51.160 | you'd understood my miracles, you wouldn't have made that mistake." Which

00:01:54.160 | means that there are mistakes we make in the language of Scripture, in

00:02:00.120 | understanding the language of Scripture, because you don't grasp the power of

00:02:04.440 | Jesus, or certain things about the miraculous working of Jesus. And so the

00:02:08.920 | principle that I came away with was, "Oh God, let me know you. Let me know Jesus in

00:02:16.360 | all his works. Let me discern what the point of the feeding of the five

00:02:22.160 | thousand was, so that when he says something oblique or metaphorical over

00:02:27.600 | here, I won't make the same mistake that the disciples did of just totally missing

00:02:32.080 | that he's talking about the teaching of the Pharisees and not bread. That has

00:02:37.360 | held my attention for the last two days, trying to figure out what the

00:02:42.160 | hermeneutical implications of missing out on the power of Jesus in one of his

00:02:49.600 | miracles. And clearly, they didn't get his miracle, and that had a bad

00:02:56.520 | interpretational effect on how they understood his other language. One of the

00:03:02.680 | takeaways is, slow down. Slow down in your reading. And when you finish a

00:03:09.600 | miracle, opening the eyes of the blind, or causing the lame man to stand up, or

00:03:15.160 | causing people to be fed, five thousand people be fed, slow down, pause, and stop

00:03:21.400 | and say, "Jesus, show me what this is saying about you." Fall down and worship

00:03:29.360 | him, and let it have its humbling effect, let it have its strengthening effect. I

00:03:35.480 | have a friend, and I have a Christ, who not only feeds five thousand, but

00:03:41.760 | gives twelve loaves, or twelve baskets, to the twelve men who were distributing it.

00:03:48.880 | That's just huge. In other words, I will take care of all your needs. I think,

00:03:53.160 | frankly, that's the essence of what they missed. The point of the feeding of the

00:03:57.080 | five thousand for the disciples was the twelve baskets of bowls left over, which

00:04:01.440 | means if you go ahead and give away what you don't have, and think you don't have,

00:04:04.680 | you're going to get everything you need. So now when we come later, and he says,

00:04:08.280 | "Watch out for the leavening of the Pharisees," their first thought's not going to be,

00:04:11.240 | "Oh, shoot, we don't have any bread." Their first thought's going to be something about,

00:04:15.400 | "Okay, what is it about the Pharisees that are going to undermine our faith?"

00:04:19.360 | Then they'll start to see. So, the takeaway is, slow down and meditate.

00:04:25.680 | Nothing that I have said here demands any scholarly training. You don't need to know

00:04:31.480 | Greek here, you don't need to go to seminary here, you just need to slow down and pray,

00:04:36.680 | and think, and worship over the miracles of Jesus.

00:04:41.280 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. If you have a

00:04:44.880 | question for Pastor John, please send it to us via email. Send those to

00:04:47.760 | askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Please include your first name and your hometown.

00:04:51.720 | You can find thousands of other free resources from John Piper online at

00:04:55.000 | askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.

00:05:00.600 | (Thanks for watching)

Interpreting the Miracles of Jesus

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