Asking the Wrong Question

John 6:22–34

22 The next day the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone.

23 There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

It is not clear exactly what the situation. How many boats did Jesus and the disciples have at their disposal?

What is clear is that they have no way to account for how Jesus got to the other side of the lake.

24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus.

25 When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

“Rabbi”, teacher. It’s the wrong title.

26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Jesus doesn’t answer the question, because it is the wrong question to ask. He did this with Nicodemus, and with the woman at the well. Jesus

They are still standing at the sign to the Grand Canyon, the granduer and splendor and beauty and wonder of the sign is at the other end of their contemplation if they would. The views of the Grand Canyon are just around the corner a few miles ahead……

This is us today. If it weren’t for the bitter pill of confessing your own vileness and sinfulness, if it weren’t for the call to take up your cross, to die daily, people would come flocking to the gospel. In fact they do all the time all around the world. Where they heae a damning message and false gospel

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

And this is further demonstrated by the language John uses. The term he used earlier implied the satiation, filing, and satisfaction, here he uses the term of gross filling of animals. “They were moved, not by full hearts, but by full bellies” one writer.

27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”

Chrysostom says: “Don’t be nailed to the things of this life.” That’s what Jesus calling them to. You are so attached to the things that perish. I am bringing in imperishable things. I am that imperishable thing you need. I hold it out in front of you. Take it!

There is nothing more practical for you than to think on all that the Lord Jesus Christ is for you. To some of you this may sound silly, only because perhaps you haven’t the slightest clue of what practical means in the Christian life. Useful, is meditating on Christ useful? is feeding on Christ useful? is eating his flesh and drinking his blood so that he abides in you useful?

All of us need to repent because we have given to much to the persihable this week and not enough to the imperishable Christ and his imperishable glorious gospel. Rather than increase in the knowledge of the grace of God in Christ, we have spent hours on things which perish and things which are not even profitable.

Objection: Pastor, I have to work, and I have duties, I am busy with this and that. Is the goal of your life that? Do you strive to know the one true God, and his Christ? Is your life on the whole marked by the pursuit of eternal life, which you have now, and will possess in it’s fulness in the future. Or are you regularly consumed with other endeavor's to the point where the reality is, all you have for considerations of the good of your soul is a few hours on Sunday. The old man seeks to do what? Gratify the flesh. While the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

“The Father has set his seal on the Son of Man.”

Don’t just come, come with confidence, the Father has set his approval on me. It’s his doing as much as it is mine.

28 Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?”

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?

31 “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’ ”

32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

33 “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”

“No believer ever fed too much on the bread that came down from heaven, the hidden manna, which is Christ the Lord.” ~Plumer

34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.””