More Than Bread: Finding the True Sustenance in John 6

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:05] I'll let you open your Bible to our main scripture for today. It's John 6. John chapter 6. One of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible.
[00:00:14] While we're turning there, we're going to record for today. It's from John Piper. He says, Jesus did not come into the world mainly to give bread, but to be bread. The multiplying of loaves points to the eternal sustenance only He provides.
[00:00:31] Today we get to see Jesus taking a small thing, a little bit of bread, a little bit of fish, and multiplying it so that he can feed the masses.
[00:00:40] This is the fourth sign in the Gospel according to John that testifies about who Jesus is.
[00:00:47] We know that Jesus does way more than just seven miracles in his ministry.
[00:00:52] In chapter 21, John says, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
[00:01:01] That's a lot of miracles.
[00:01:03] So John puts a special emphasis on just seven of them as signs that point to Jesus' divinity as its own God.
[00:01:12] He does this so that we might believe.
[00:01:15] And in believing in Christ, we would receive eternal life in him.
[00:01:19] Our scripture today is going to focus on the fourth of those seven signs we're going to read throughout this book.
[00:01:24] this is a real event we're reading today but what jesus does here it points to a much much bigger spiritual truth that shows us jesus as the bread of life it shows us the way that the son of god
[00:01:38] can take these small things and do something abundant and huge with them it shows us the messiah providing everything that we need and it foreshadows jesus's sacrifice on the cross This scripture puts an emphasis on Jesus' divinity
[00:01:54] and his identity as the sovereign creator and sustainer of all of his creation.
[00:02:00] It is Christ alone that can give us what we need.
[00:02:04] What we get to read here is a reminder that it is Jesus who has the power to provide everything that we need, both physically and spiritually.
[00:02:13] And this gets us, as his people, as Christians, to put our eyes on the cross, where he provides himself as the ultimate sacrifice that gives salvation to his people that cannot save ourselves.
[00:02:26] Let's all stand as we read the word of God.
[00:02:29] Our main scripture for today is John chapter 6, verses 1 through 15.
[00:02:34] John 6, beginning in verse 1.
[00:02:38] After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias.
[00:02:43] A large crowd followed him, because they saw signs which he was performing on those who were sick.
[00:02:50] Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
[00:02:54] Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.
[00:02:57] Therefore Jesus, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these may eat?
[00:03:07] This he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do.
[00:03:12] Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.
[00:03:19] One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?
[00:03:29] Jesus said, Have the people sit down.
[00:03:31] Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in number about 5,000.
[00:03:37] Jesus then took the loaves and had them given thanks.
[00:03:40] He distributed to those who were seated, likewise also the fish, as much as they wanted.
[00:03:47] When they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.
[00:03:53] So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.
[00:04:01] Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, this is truly the prophet who is coming to the world.
[00:04:09] So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.
[00:04:17] Let's pray.
[00:04:19] Our Father in heaven, Lord God, we praise you.
[00:04:22] Father, we thank you for these Bibles that you've put in our hands.
[00:04:25] Lord, we pray that you would open up the scripture to us today.
[00:04:27] That you would give us eyes to see.
[00:04:29] That you would give us an understanding of what it is that we're reading today.
[00:04:32] That you would grow us in our faith.
[00:04:33] and that we might be capable of going boldly into the lives that you've given us and sharing what we've learned today with the people that we love.
[00:04:40] Father, please guide us as we seek you in your word.
[00:04:43] Please bless the way that we would do that and help us to come together and worship you in a way that would please you.
[00:04:48] Father, we thank you for this.
[00:04:49] We love you.
[00:04:50] We praise you.
[00:04:50] In Jesus's name, amen.
[00:04:53] You may be seated.
[00:04:55] With the exception of the resurrection, this is the only miracle that we see in all four gospel accounts.
[00:05:02] And there's a reason for that.
[00:05:03] There are certain miracles that you'll see in different books, and we'll be in two.
[00:05:07] This is the only one that's in all four.
[00:05:09] The other miracles that we get to read about, like Jesus turning water into wine, each of those serves a very specific purpose in those individual gospel accounts that we get to read them in.
[00:05:20] But this miracle shows up in all four books.
[00:05:24] There's something special about what Jesus does here and what God is using it to illustrate to us as we read it.
[00:05:30] The scale of it, the way that it points to the new covenant and the Lord's Supper that we get to partake of as Christians in remembrance of Christ.
[00:05:39] The way that it fulfills promises from the Old Testament and the way that Christ sends us as his people out into the world as workers in the harvest to feed people in his name with his word makes this miracle especially relevant to all four of those gospel accounts in our Bible.
[00:05:56] This one stands out because of the way that it reveals Christ and points to the covenant that he gives to us.
[00:06:03] In verse 1 of John 6, the Bible says, after these things, that's after the events that we read in chapter 5, where Jesus proves that he is the Son of God to those Jews that were unwilling to believe him despite the proof that he gives them.
[00:06:18] After that, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee or Tiberias.
[00:06:24] The people that lived there called it the Sea of Galilee because of where it was located.
[00:06:29] There's this giant lake, one of the great lakes that we see up north in America.
[00:06:33] There's this giant lake right there next to Judea, right next to Galilee.
[00:06:39] And so they called it the Sea of Galilee.
[00:06:43] The people that lived there had a certain way that they had known it their whole lives.
[00:06:48] But the Romans didn't call it that.
[00:06:49] They called it the Sea of Tiberias because of Herod Antipas.
[00:06:53] He was the Roman important ruler of Galilee.
[00:06:56] He's the guy that later will have John the Baptist's head cut off.
[00:06:59] And around 10 years before the words that we were just reading, Herod founds this city in his territory in Galilee on the shore of that great lake, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
[00:07:10] And he names that city Tiberias in honor of the Roman emperor.
[00:07:15] And because that city was such a notable place on those Roman trade routes, The Romans would call the Sea of Galilee the Sea of Tiberias.
[00:07:24] That was the name that they would use on all the Roman maps.
[00:07:26] So anyone who wasn't from that region that was looking at the maps to see where things were would go by what it said on the map.
[00:07:32] It's kind of a Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of America type of thing where some people would call it one thing and other people would call it another thing.
[00:07:39] But it had an official name to the people who ruled over that place.
[00:07:43] So to the locals that lived there, it was always the Sea of Galilee.
[00:07:47] But to the Romans, they use that other name.
[00:07:50] This is a place that's really important.
[00:07:52] There's a lot of important events that happen in Scripture in this place that we're reading about today.
[00:07:58] And the Apostle John, he was an old man when he wrote down the things that happened in this book.
[00:08:04] At this point, when he writes this gospel account, the gospel is quickly spreading to all the corners of the Roman Empire.
[00:08:12] It's going everywhere.
[00:08:13] People are fervent and excited to share their faith in Christ with anyone that God puts in front of them.
[00:08:19] It's spread like wildfire.
[00:08:21] So John, and he's an old man at this point, writing these words, he knows what's happening.
[00:08:26] He knows that to some people they'll know it this way, to other people they'll know it the other way.
[00:08:29] So he uses both names for this place when he describes it here.
[00:08:33] He does this so that those new Christians in those far off parts of the Roman Empire who had never been to Galilee and probably never going to go will have a reference for where these things are taking place.
[00:08:45] And this location is way more relevant to the overall story of the Bible that we get to read here.
[00:08:52] We look at it and go, oh, this is just happening in Galilee.
[00:08:54] We don't really think of why it's happening in Galilee.
[00:08:57] This was a mixed Jewish and Gentile region.
[00:09:01] There's plenty of Jews that live here in Galilee, but the Bible calls it Galilee of the Gentiles for a reason.
[00:09:08] This is a place where Jesus grew up, and it's the place where he first preached.
[00:09:13] That's not an accident.
[00:09:15] That's the word of God pointing at the universal scope of the gospel.
[00:09:20] The gospel's for all of us.
[00:09:21] It's for the whole world.
[00:09:22] It's not just for Jews, and it's not just for Gentiles.
[00:09:25] We're all made one in Christ as his people.
[00:09:29] That's why Galilee plays such an important role as a location for Jesus' ministry and the miracles that he did there.
[00:09:35] There's a purpose for all of this.
[00:09:37] Everything that you read about in your Bible points to Christ and what he came to accomplish.
[00:09:42] And the fact that he does these things, when he first starts out, when he calls the world to repentance, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
[00:09:48] He does that in Galilee because there's people from all these different groups of people that are all represented there.
[00:09:56] it's not just in jerusalem where the jews are it's not just out in the roman empire where the gentiles are this is a place that had a mixed population and that symbolizes that the gospel
[00:10:06] goes out to all the world for all the different people groups in verse 2 the bible says a large crowd a large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who
[00:10:18] were sick this large crowd is following jesus you think oh look at this big group of people that's following him. It must be a good thing, but these guys are following him for the wrong reasons.
[00:10:29] They're not trying to draw near to the Messiah. They're not seeking the truth.
[00:10:33] They're looking for a show. These are people that saw those miracles that he's done and they want to be entertained. So they're coming to Jesus so they might see something really cool. And later in this chapter, when Jesus tells these
[00:10:44] people what those miracles that they witnessed are for, what he came to accomplish, and why he does the things that he does, the majority of the people in this crowd that are coming to him to be fed here are you know deciding to hear his words
[00:10:58] and decide that they don't like him so they're going to walk away from him and they're not going to follow him anymore they're not true disciples they say they're his disciples at one point and
[00:11:07] then he says things they don't like and they're like i don't like that who can hear it and they just walk away and there's a lesson to be learned in that not everyone that claims to follow jesus
[00:11:18] actually follows Jesus.
[00:11:21] So many churches treat worship and this time of fellowship that we get with God's people like it's some kind of show that we go to watch.
[00:11:29] We had a man in a church that we used to be in that said, my dad doesn't like to go to little churches because they expect you to worship.
[00:11:36] He said he liked big churches instead because you could just go to those big churches and watch other people worship.
[00:11:42] You could watch it like it was a show.
[00:11:44] He wasn't going to church to worship the Lord.
[00:11:47] That man was looking for a church that was a spectacle.
[00:11:50] He wanted to be entertaining there.
[00:11:52] And that's a common thing for insincere people.
[00:11:54] And lots of false teachers, they take great advantage of those people and their attitudes because they think a spectacle will draw a crowd, and it usually does.
[00:12:04] But it's not the crowd that's there for God.
[00:12:06] It's the crowd that's there for a show.
[00:12:09] A big spectacle might attract people to the service.
[00:12:11] It might get them in the door.
[00:12:12] but they aren't leading anyone to Christ by focusing on anything else besides Christ should be Jesus at the center of everything that we do in our life but especially in the way that we worship Charles Spurgeon once said we must not
[00:12:27] try to attract the world to the church by offering them something other than Christ itself the gospel is the magnet that draws sinners to salvation he says let the gospel be its own bait if it does not draw sinners no human device
[00:12:41] will avail this crowd that we see here in verse 2 is the example that we look to for what that looks like when people are coming to Christ for different reasons they're not coming because they're seeking God they're not coming
[00:12:55] because they want to hear the message of the gospel they're not looking for salvation they're looking for a show these people have some God right there in front of him but they weren't there for him they didn't come to seek God to
[00:13:10] encounter him or to hear his word they came to be entertained they wanted to see something we dare not make the same mistake in our church as we point sinners to jesus sincere believers will respond to the word of god his sheep will hear his voice and he knows them and they will
[00:13:28] follow him the good news of the gospel will stir something in people that have ears to hear when they hear it they're going to respond to it just like you did when the lord decides to give one
[00:13:40] of us, his grace, and draw us to himself. It is him and his word that we're going to respond to.
[00:13:46] It's nothing else. It's not the light show, the fog machine. I saw an Easter celebration at a megachurch once where they dressed up all the staff in the church like they were Avengers and they crucified Iron Man in the middle of the service. It was so blasphemous watching these
[00:14:03] things, but they had a huge crowd of thousands of people that were cheering along. They weren't there for the gospel. They weren't seeking Christ in that. They were seeking to be entertained. Those that do
[00:14:13] find themselves in churches looking for anything else, they're not there for the right reasons. And as we're going to see later in this chapter in the next few weeks, many of these people in this crowd
[00:14:23] are not really believers.
[00:14:25] We see that so often in churches that are just social clubs as opposed to being a house of worship.
[00:14:31] In verses 3 through 6, the Bible says, Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples now the Passover the feast of the Jews was near therefore Jesus lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming
[00:14:47] to him said to Philip where are we to buy bread so that these may eat this he was saying to test him for he himself knew what he was intending to do it's no coincidence that the Passover feast is near when this miracle happens Jesus
[00:15:04] is the Passover man that takes away the sins of the world. He is the bread of life that nourishes us and sustains us, not just physically, but spiritually. He gives us eternal life in Christ. So the timing of what we get to see next, right after he sees that crowd coming
[00:15:20] to him, it's perfect in that regard because he is the Passover. The Passover and all the other festivals, they all point to him. He goes up on this mountain with his disciples and he sees this big crowd
[00:15:32] come to thousands of people and he asks Philip where they should buy bread from these people. Do you notice that he does that sometimes? He'll ask a question that he already knows the answer to.
[00:15:42] He does that because he's making a point and he's getting that person that he asked that question to, to think about the things that he's asking. Remember when he asked Adam, where are you when he's in the garden? We know
[00:15:54] that God knew where Adam was.
[00:15:56] He knows everything. He's on mission.
[00:15:58] So questions, some of the questions that he asked aren't supposed to get an answer he already knows what the answer is he's asking them because he's doing something and in verse 6 it says he was testing Philip with that question he wanted to see
[00:16:12] where Philip was at he really knew but he does it for our benefit as we read his word so that we can see where Philip was at this point he's already seen all these miracles but he's checking him and seeing revealing it to the rest of us
[00:16:25] even those who walk with Christ have to grow in their faith and understanding just like we do.
[00:16:31] Jesus knows exactly what he plans to do next year.
[00:16:35] He's getting his disciples to think about the magnitude of what's about to happen before he does it.
[00:16:41] This is a big thing he's about to do.
[00:16:43] He wants them to chew on it for a second before he shows them what he intends to do.
[00:16:47] Verse seven, Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.
[00:16:57] There's a lot of people in that crowd.
[00:16:59] Just the men, number 5,000.
[00:17:01] Plus there's women and children.
[00:17:03] And we know that there's women and children in this crowd too because Matthew 14, 21 tells us there are.
[00:17:08] Remember, this miracle is in all four books, all of the gospel accounts.
[00:17:12] And you can see a little bit different details depending on whose perspective it's being told from.
[00:17:17] Seeing this massive crowd coming to Jesus and his disciples.
[00:17:22] Jesus asked his disciples, his disciple Philip, where they should get the bread to feed this massive group of people.
[00:17:29] He knows what he plans to do here, but he's asking this question to get Philip to think about it.
[00:17:34] And in asking him, all the other disciples with him get to hear it, and they're thinking about it as well.
[00:17:39] In the Gospel of Mark, we get to see Peter's perspective on this miracle.
[00:17:43] And in Mark 6.36, he tells us that the disciples told Jesus to send that crowd away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.
[00:17:55] Peter, Peter's one of those guys in the Bible I really identify with because he's constantly tripping over his own feet but he's sincerely seeking the Lord but he's so human like he has that he's so flawed and we see how God takes a man
[00:18:08] like that and then sanctifies him and by the time we get to Peter's epistles that's what it looks like to be a true teacher of God's Word that's what it looks like to follow Christ as a disciple but as we read through the
[00:18:21] gospel accounts Peter's one of those guys when he sees that big crowd he's like, send them away. Let them get their own food. It kind of shows you where he's at when this is written. But Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't send these people away.
[00:18:34] He's going to work a miracle to the glory of God. And Philip answers Jesus' question here in verse 7 by saying 200 denarii is not enough money to feed all these people.
[00:18:45] To put that in context, one denarii was a whole day's wage for your average worker in Judea at the time that says something about how massive this crowd was 200 days wages wasn't enough money to buy just the bread for all these people you
[00:19:03] could work for over half a year and not be able to afford just bread for how big this crowd was these disciples they had seen Jesus do amazing miracles they've heard him preach the good news of the kingdom they know that nothing is
[00:19:19] impossible for Jesus but when he asked them that question it shows us how far along they are and their understanding of who Jesus is at this point in their journey with him yes then we're going to get bread from these guys and instead of
[00:19:35] immediately thinking well God's gonna provide we're walking with the Messiah if you're walking with Jesus and you know who he is you're assuming that he's gonna take care of all the details that's what it looks like to follow him
[00:19:45] wholeheartedly perfect again and not most of it a little bit yourself you're putting all your faith in him. Instead, these guys are immediately thinking, like, how are we going to pay for this? What are we going to do to feed all these people? And Jesus
[00:19:59] is right there asking this question about the bread. They're thinking, how do we come up with the resources to feed these people instead of looking to God to take care of it and just trusting the Messiah to provide what needs to be given? They are with the
[00:20:15] Messiah. They're with the Son of God that created all things.
[00:20:19] And at this point, they're still approaching these problems when they come up as if the solution relies on them. The gravity of who it was that they were following is slowly washing over these disciples,
[00:20:31] but it hasn't clicked yet. It will, but it hasn't clicked yet.
[00:20:35] Verses 8 through 12 say, One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish.
[00:20:45] But what are these for so many people?
[00:20:48] Jesus said, have the people sit down.
[00:20:51] Now there was much grass in the place.
[00:20:53] So the men sat down in number about 5,000.
[00:20:57] Jesus then took the loaves and had them given thanks.
[00:21:00] He distributed to those who were seated.
[00:21:02] Likewise also of the fish.
[00:21:04] As much as they wanted.
[00:21:06] It's a little tiny bit.
[00:21:07] But everybody got as much as they could eat.
[00:21:10] They could fill their bellies.
[00:21:11] And when they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.
[00:21:18] Peter's brother Andrew tells Jesus, there's a boy in the crowd that has five barley loaves and two fish.
[00:21:23] But he's looking at this, what God has provided from a worldly perspective.
[00:21:29] So to him, in that moment, there's a little bit of food, these couple loaves of bread, there's a little bit of fish.
[00:21:35] That's nowhere near enough food to provide for all of these hungry people who are coming to him.
[00:21:40] But Jesus knows exactly what he plans to do.
[00:21:44] He says, have the people sit down.
[00:21:46] Then he takes the bread and the fish, and he thanks God for it.
[00:21:51] Just like you do before you eat a meal.
[00:21:53] You know where it's coming from.
[00:21:54] You might have worked hard to get that money to buy that food in the grocery store.
[00:21:57] But it's God who provided it.
[00:21:59] So when we thank the Lord for our food, we're saying, Lord, I know this came from you.
[00:22:03] I worked hard, but it was you who moved me to do that.
[00:22:06] You're the one who may be capable of working to earn this money to buy that food.
[00:22:10] I know that every breath of my lungs, every bite of food, everything that I have in my life comes from you.
[00:22:16] So when he thanks God for this food that he has there, it looks like a little, but he thanks God for it.
[00:22:22] We get that because we do that throughout our days.
[00:22:25] We're thanking the Lord for everything that he's given us.
[00:22:28] And miraculously, he distributes it to every person that is there soon.
[00:22:33] And by the grace of God, he takes this tiny portion of food.
[00:22:37] He makes it this abundant thing that is more than these people can eat.
[00:22:42] He makes it so abundant that everyone there gets to eat as much as they want.
[00:22:46] And that is a lot of food for thousands of people.
[00:22:49] Imagine catering a party with thousands of people and they're all full.
[00:22:52] You go to some of these catered events, you get a plate, but you're not getting seconds.
[00:22:57] He gives them as much as they can eat to where they have to pick up the leftovers when it's done.
[00:23:02] In the middle of context and in the culture of the time, sitting at someone's feet usually meant that you were learning or being discipled by the person that was above you, that you were listening to.
[00:23:13] When Jesus would teach, oftentimes people would come and gather around him and sit at his feet.
[00:23:18] When he goes to the synagogue, the teacher that was sitting in Moses' chair, people would sit on the floor around him just to hear what God's word said and be discipled from that teacher.
[00:23:27] The Bible doesn't tell us that this crowd was specifically sitting at Jesus' feet, though.
[00:23:32] But the act of sitting in his presence, it does carry this heavy symbolism in what's happening here.
[00:23:40] Especially since this crowd of people was following him because they just saw him doing these amazing miracles.
[00:23:46] They saw those signs, and then they were sort of following him.
[00:23:49] So them sitting down and being fed from Jesus, it points at a much bigger spiritual thing as we read it.
[00:23:54] this miracle is itself a teaching moment because it points to so many things about the Son of God as our Messiah and when everyone's belly is full Jesus gets his disciples to gather the leftovers they start with such a small amount of
[00:24:11] food but through Jesus that small thing becomes abundant it spreads and there's enough for everyone that would sit at his feet they would sit there and receive what it is that he's offering. It's so much that it's more than they
[00:24:27] could possibly eat. Think about how that applies to the walk together with Christ.
[00:24:32] He gives you way more than you need. He blesses you in so many more ways than we realize. Jesus is the divine provider. All things, all of it, comes from him and through him all that is sustained and held together. The leftover food here is
[00:24:48] very much a picture of the manna that God provides for his people in Exodus 16. And the way that Jesus gives it to the people here shows that he has power over his creation. So that when things
[00:25:00] look scarce, oftentimes they do, things will look thin sometimes. When you feel like you don't have enough to pay your bills or to feed your children or whatever it is, things will look like, oh, we don't have enough.
[00:25:12] When they look that way, we look to Christ. It takes a little bit and makes it abundant. He provides a sustenance to those that come to him and ask him to help them. This miracle is something that only God himself could do. It points to Jesus
[00:25:28] as our creator. He's the one that provides everything that we need, whether it's physical or spiritual. And what he does here, it also foreshadows the new covenant that we have been given in Christ. It points to the way that we need to come together and share the
[00:25:43] Lord's Supper as a family of believers in remembrance of Christ. We give thanks to him And then we eat the bread that symbolizes his body, that feeds us spiritually.
[00:25:54] In verse 13, the Bible says, So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.
[00:26:04] The number of baskets here points to the provision that God gave to those twelve tribes in Israel.
[00:26:11] And it looks to the mission that Jesus' apostles had been called to as his servants that he sends out in his name to feed this world spiritually by proclaiming the good news of the gospel to them.
[00:26:23] There's this beautiful picture being painted here.
[00:26:25] You get the surface level of the story, and then you go a little bit deeper, and you see how it connects to all these other things in Scripture.
[00:26:32] You and I are called in the same way those apostles have been called, but we've been called to follow them.
[00:26:37] Jesus sent them up personally.
[00:26:39] And then thousands of years later, we are called to follow what God sent them out to do as workers that he sends out into this world as part of his great commission to share our hope in Christ with a world that needs him as much as we do.
[00:26:53] In verse 14, the Bible says, Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, This is truly the prophet who is coming to the world.
[00:27:03] In Deuteronomy 18.15, Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen.
[00:27:12] You shall listen to him.
[00:27:14] Ever since Moses said those words in Deuteronomy 18, the people have been waiting for that prophet to arrive.
[00:27:21] They assumed that he would be a great leader like Moses who would come to his people and set them free from their oppressors.
[00:27:27] Just like Moses led them out of slavery, led them out of captivity in Egypt into the promised land.
[00:27:32] They were looking for another prophet to do something very similar.
[00:27:36] So when Jesus shows up, they assume it's him, and it is.
[00:27:40] But they've applied that prophecy to their present circumstances.
[00:27:44] And they assumed that he was going to come and then set them free from the grip of Rome.
[00:27:48] They're like, oh, this is obviously, he's waiting for Rome so that he can set us free from these oppressors that have us locked down.
[00:27:54] We're paying them taxes.
[00:27:56] Their military is all throughout our lands.
[00:27:58] We can't do anything against Rome.
[00:27:59] So they're thinking the prophet's going to come, and that's what his role's going to be.
[00:28:03] but they've misunderstood because they're looking at it through the lens of their circumstances instead of looking at their circumstances through their lens of god's word that's where people get twisted that's where they get it backwards don't look at your life don't look at scripture through
[00:28:16] the lens of your life look at your life through the lens of scripture and you'll see it the way that it really is this massive crowd of people sees those signs that jesus is doing and they're
[00:28:26] like, this is the guy. This is the prophet that Moses told us was going to come. In 2 Kings 4, we see Elisha the prophet doing a very similar miracle to what Jesus does here. Elisha feeds
[00:28:39] 100 men from 20 barley loaves. He even has food left over just like Jesus does in this miracle here. But the miracle that Jesus does is significantly bigger than what Elisha does.
[00:28:51] And Elisha is what we call a type and shadow of Christ. All those prophets in the Old Testament, So many characters that we read about in the Old Testament, their lives are lived in such a way that it points to Jesus.
[00:29:02] We see little elements of their lives pointing forward to the cross and what God used those people for.
[00:29:08] And the miracle that Jesus does here follows that pattern that Elisha does perfectly.
[00:29:15] But Elisha's ministry and those miracles that he did, besides Jesus, Elisha does the most miracles in the whole Bible.
[00:29:21] Everything that Elisha did was meant to point to Jesus.
[00:29:25] And this miracle that Jesus does here off the Sea of Galilee is so similar to what Elisha does.
[00:29:32] That those people in that big crowd see what he does.
[00:29:35] They're very aware of that Bible story from the Old Testament.
[00:29:38] They look at what Jesus does and how it matches what Elisha was doing.
[00:29:41] And they go, this must be the prophet that Moses was speaking about.
[00:29:45] This must be the guy that we've been waiting for that's going to break us free from the bonds of our captivity.
[00:29:52] They were half right.
[00:29:53] They didn't understand the context of what spiritual captivity they were going to be broken free from.
[00:29:58] They thought it was the physical bonds from Rome.
[00:30:01] But Jesus came to set us free from something so much bigger and more profound than that.
[00:30:06] In verse 15, this is the last one of our scripture for today.
[00:30:08] It says, So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force, to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.
[00:30:20] Jesus knows that these people realize that he is that prophet.
[00:30:25] He's more than that.
[00:30:25] He's prophet, priest, and king.
[00:30:27] He's the Messiah.
[00:30:28] But in that, he is that prophet that Moses spoke of.
[00:30:32] And he's very aware that these people, they want to come and just take him.
[00:30:36] They want to grab a hold of him and force him to be their king because they are ready.
[00:30:40] They don't like Rome.
[00:30:41] They're ready to break free.
[00:30:42] They're like, this is the prophet.
[00:30:44] Let's snatch him up, put a crown on his head, and then fight those Romans.
[00:30:48] He's very aware of what they want to do.
[00:30:50] But what these people in that crowd expect him to do and then what he actually came to accomplish that we're going to read later in the same chapter, those things are at odds with each other.
[00:31:01] These people aren't looking to Jesus as a king because they're seeking God.
[00:31:05] They're not doing it because they want to know God more, because they want to follow God in the way that he's called them.
[00:31:10] They don't understand what he's come to accomplish.
[00:31:14] They don't want him to be king because they've heard his message and said yes to it and embraced it.
[00:31:20] It's not because the gospel has read the whole of them, that grace has changed them.
[00:31:24] They're looking at him for different reasons.
[00:31:26] They're looking at him for a selfish thing.
[00:31:28] On the surface, they like him because of the miracles that he's doing and the free food that he just gave them.
[00:31:33] But on a deeper level, they're mostly excited about him and want to make him king because they think that he's going to break them free from being under that physical boot of Rome.
[00:31:44] Later in this chapter, it's one of the more controversial parts of the Bible.
[00:31:49] Some churches will just skip over John 6 altogether.
[00:31:52] There's some parts of the Bible you'll never hear some people talk about.
[00:31:55] John 6 is one of those parts.
[00:31:57] That's why we love it so much.
[00:31:58] And they say it's hard truth because people go, I don't want to hear that.
[00:32:02] Even in the scriptures, the disciples, the false disciples that hear him say certain things go, that's a hard saying.
[00:32:08] Who could hear it?
[00:32:08] They just walk away.
[00:32:10] He tells them what those miracles were for.
[00:32:13] They saw them.
[00:32:14] They're like, yeah, let's follow him.
[00:32:15] This must be the prophet.
[00:32:17] But they don't like it when he tells them why he does those miracles, why he came, and what he's doing.
[00:32:22] And most of the people that are in this crowd that Jesus has just fed with that bread and fish, they're going to, those people that want to make him king, they're going to walk away from him.
[00:32:32] and follow him no more because they don't like what he says.
[00:32:36] How many people do you know that at one point called themselves Christians and they bumped up into something hard in their life, whether it was persecution or pain or whatever it was, and they didn't like what God's word said about those things
[00:32:48] so they said, man, I'm not going to follow him anymore.
[00:32:51] These people in our scripture are a picture of that attitude.
[00:32:55] That's what it looks like and there's nothing to understand.
[00:32:57] There's plenty of people in this world that have an emotional response to the gospel but then something happens and they say, I'm going to do something else. And they'll walk away from him. But when the gospel
[00:33:06] takes root in your heart, when it really grabs a hold of you, when you've been given grace and a new heart with new eyes to see, when you were born again as a new creature
[00:33:14] in Christ, nothing that happens in your life will ever be able to take you out of his hands, to cause you to turn and walk away from him.
[00:33:23] These people that we're reading about today and all throughout this chapter are a picture of people that don't have the type of faith that a true Christian has you have been given grace god has changed you he's given you life in christ and there's
[00:33:37] no greater gift than that these people that walk away from jesus they want to make him a king but for all the wrong reasons he is a king whether you recognize him as lord and savior or not
[00:33:48] he's already the lord and savior of his people the way that we recognize that is very humble in our hearts we say yes because we now see him for who he really is at this moment this crowd wants to
[00:34:01] to make Jesus their king because they want something from him. This isn't the right timing for that though. So he slips away and he goes by himself up to that mountain. We know that God has perfect timing for everything. And you'll notice that Jesus is always right where
[00:34:16] he's supposed to be at. He's always talking with exactly the right person that he's supposed to be speaking to. He's always doing exactly what needs to be done according to God's perfect timing. This isn't the right moment in our scripture today for him to be declared king
[00:34:31] to Judea. But around a year after what we're reading here, we get to see Jesus ride into Jerusalem on a donkey in the week before he's crucified.
[00:34:42] And that is God's perfect timing for when Jesus is recognized as the King above all kings. If you have any questions about today's message, please come and see me after service.
[00:34:53] We'll go deeper into the text and see what the Word of God says about this. Let's pray.
[00:34:57] Our Father in Heaven, Lord God, be praising you. Lord, we thank you for these Bibles that you've given us. We get to read what it is you've shown us. We pray that you would give us an understanding of it.
[00:35:07] We thank you for saving us, for changing us, and for this path you've put us on as workers that you would send up to the harvest to share our hope in Christ with the world that needs you
[00:35:15] as much as we do. Father, we pray that you would make us bold. We pray that you would humble us. We pray that you would bring us closer together as your people, as a church
[00:35:23] family, as the body of Christ in this place.
[00:35:25] We pray that we might live our lives in such the way that it points to you that the way that we would live others would know who we are and whose we are by the way that you would shine your light through
[00:35:33] us father we thank you for the way that you've had great mercy on us we thank you for your grace and we thank you for whatever tomorrow brings Lord we don't know what that's gonna be but we trust you in it whatever that might be well we
[00:35:44] praise you we love you we thank you in Jesus's name amen