John’s Gospel Shows Jesus as The Fulfillment of the Feasts And Of All Creation

Typology: the study and interpretation of types and symbols, originally especially in the Bible.

Hebrew Concept of Time is cyclical

John 20:30–31

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

GENESIS

Genesis 1:1–4

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

Psalm 33:6

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

John 1:1–5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John compares Jesus, the Word of God, to the Word spoken at beginning of Creation by God in Genesis one and John 1. He declares that is Jesus, by whom and through whom all things were created. “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3, ESV)

Jesus is the Divine Word of God. The Logos, in Greek, means the not just the Word but the reason behind all things and for all things. Jesus is the Reason, not just the reason for the season, but the reason for All Life.

THE WEDDING FEAST

John 2:9–11

When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Jesus turns water into an ABUNDANCE of wine (120 gallons of the best!), signifying the completion of the ages, with the Creation restored to God with  a marriage feast (John 2)

TABERNACLES: THE FEAST OF BOOTHS

John 8:12

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

During the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) there was a great ceremony called the “Illumination of the Temple,” which involved the ritual lighting of four golden oil-fed lamps in the Court of Women. These lamps were huge menorahs/candelabras (seventy-five feet high) lighted in the Temple at night to remind the people of the pillar of fire that had guided Israel in their wilderness journey. All night long the light shone their brilliance, it is said, illuminating the entire city.

During this ceremony the priests and Levite’s would use their own worn out clothing for wicks. Some believed that the light represented God’s Shekinah glory that once filled the temple.(2)

John 7:37–39

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus as the New Altar  – The Rock that was Struck

During Tabernacles, there is something called the Willow Ceremony. This ceremony was not prescribed by the Law but was a tradition of the festival. Priests would cut down willows and bring them to the altar and walk around it. At one point, the altar is struck seven times and the willows are laid against the altar.  This action is reminiscent of Moses striking the rock to release the waters of life in Exodus: 17:6, which is a prophetic sign that Jesus will also be stuck so that life may flow from him.  But just as Moses called the place “waters of contention,” because of the grumbling of the people, Jesus also must hide himself during the festival because of those who seek to kill him. There also may be a reference to Ezekiel 47, where the waters of the Temple flow forth to heal all the land and the seas.

JESUS THE NEW PASSOVER LAMB

Jesus Feeds the 5,000 (John 6:1-15)  Note: not counting women and children. Also, feeds Jews and Gentiles.

John 6:30–36

So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave 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 said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

John 6:48–51

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

 Jesus  feeding of the 5,000  during Passover (in John chapter 6) is a sign that He will become a living substitute for the Passover meal…  (p.109-111.) Jesus will become the Bread of Life,  as the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He becomes the bread of the passover meal in the giving of his “flesh” to eat.

Just as the Law required every Hebrew eat of the Passover meal to remain part of the covenant community (Nu. 9:13),  so Jesus’ new covenant meal of bread (his body) and wine (his blood) becomes the means of entering the new covenant community.

Jesus’ death during Passover, sacrificed at the same time as the Lamb’s were being slaughtered in the Temple, confirms Jesus as the new Passover.

John 13:1

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

HIS BODY IS THE NEW TEMPLE

John 2:13–21

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

JESUS DECLARES HIMSELF TO BE GOD

John 8:53–59

Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

I AM, is the Divine Name: Yahweh/Jehova. The people recognized he was claiming that He is God and so they wanted to stone him.

John 9:1–7

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.