How Did They Get There?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Have you ever thought about someone and asked, “how did they get there?”
Maybe it’s someone that you know from grade-school. You grew up together, but now you can barely recognize them.
Maybe it’s someone that you know from church. You were once a part of a church family, but now they are no longer faithful.
Maybe it’s a family member. You can remember when they were a lovable child, but now they are so different.
I think that this is an experience that most of us have gone through. Many of us have asked that question: How did they get there?
The reason that I bring this up is because this is exactly what I thought when reading through John 6.
In John 6, there are people who have been following Jesus. They’ve seen the signs and have fallen in love with him.
John 6:14.
14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
Here, we see that the people believe that Jesus is THE Prophet, the promised prophet like Moses. This makes sense when considering the surrounding context. John 6:1-13.
1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
John 6:15. They don’t just believe that he’s the prophet like Moses. They also want to make him king.
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
These people love Jesus…
...But this all changes, and it changes very quickly. John 6:60-66.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
The same people who once believed that Jesus was THE Prophet, the same people who wanted to make Jesus king, are now deserting him.
You can’t help but ask the question: How Did They Get There?
This is the question we are going to answer in the lesson. We are going to study through John 6 and ask, “how did they get there?”
They failed to see the spiritual.
They failed to see the spiritual.
John 6:25-34.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, 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 from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 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. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
So, all of these people are following Jesus, and he knows why they are following him. He knows that they are only following him because they think that he’s an unlimited supply of food. They focused on the physical bread, and missed the spiritual lesson that Jesus was trying to teach.
As a matter of fact, when Jesus tells them that he’s the bread come down out of Heaven, they are still thinking physically. “sir, give us this bread always.”
They have completely missed the spiritual point that Jesus was making.
Throughout this chapter, there are hyperlinks back to the Israelites in the wilderness.
This chapter takes place near the feast of Passover… which points back to the Exodus.
Jesus goes onto a mountain… like Moses.
Jesus feeds them miraculous bread… which is what happened in the wilderness.
It seems like the crowds see these connections because they call him THE Prophet like Moses.
So, what’s the point of all of these hyperlinks? Here’s the point:
A wilderness is like a desert. There’s no food, there’s no water, and there’s no life. Well, how did the Israelites survive in this lifeless place?
God sent bread from heaven and water from the rock, and these things gave the Israelites life while they were in a lifeless place.
Well, we are all in a lifeless place as well, and Jesus’ point is that he is life. He is the bread from heaven that gave life. Paul picks up on this in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.
1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
Jesus isn’t just the bread that gives life, he’s also the water that gives life.
So, if we want life, then we must rely on Jesus. We must consume him....
… and this is the point that Jesus is making, and they completely miss it. They are so focused on the physical, that they miss the spiritual.
Do We Do This?
Do We Do This?
Do we do this?
Are there times when we fail to see the spiritual because we are so focused on the physical?
Sometimes we fill our weeks with so many activities that we don’t have any time for the Lord. Sometimes our weeks are filled with so much ballet, karate, baseball, and piano, that we don’t have any time for prayer, Bible reading, or Bible lessons.
Sometimes we focus so much on our financial security, that we don’t focus on our spiritual security.
Sometimes we focus so much on happiness, that we forget about holiness.
We must remember to focus on the spiritual because that is the priority.
They refused to be satisfied.
They refused to be satisfied.
John 6:29-30.
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
This is such an interesting request because what had they just seen? They had just participated in Jesus’ miraculous feeding. They had already seen a sign of Jesus, but they refused to be satisfied.
Notice what the text says in John 6:1-2.
1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
Why were the crowds following Jesus in the first place? They were following Jesus because they saw the signs that he was doing.
So, these people had already seen the signs the Jesus had done, but now they are asking for more signs. These people couldn’t be satisfied.
“we want to believe in you, but we need more evidence.”
In reality, these people weren’t interested in following or believing in Jesus. They were only in it for the free food, so they would never be satisfied with the signs he performed.
Do you know someone like this?
Have you ever tried to bring someone to the truth, and no matter what you showed them, they still wanted more and more evidence?
These people aren’t really looking for solutions, they are just looking for more problems, and they will never be pleased.
Just like this crowd that followed Jesus, these people aren’t really interested following Jesus.
Do We Do This?
Do We Do This?
It’s easy to see the unrighteousness in others, but do we do this? Are there times when we refuse to be satisfied?
Am I the type of person who gets upset at everything?
When the elders decide to do A, I’m mad, but when the elders decide to do B, I’m still mad. (There’s a time to be mad, but we need to make sure that we aren’t the type of people who are never satisfied)
It reminds me of the example that Jesus uses. Matthew 11:16-19.
16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
17 “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
Are we like these children: Never Satisfied? If we are, then we are started down a dangerous path that leads away from Jesus.
They didn’t like what Jesus said.
They didn’t like what Jesus said.
John 6:50-60.
50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 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.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
Jesus says some difficult things in this chapter. On the surface it seems like Jesus says that you have to be a cannibal in order to have eternal life.
This is pretty gross. This is gross to us today. But this would have been especially repulsive to the Israelites.
The law of Moses forbade the drinking of blood… For Jews, it was even sinful to eat meat with blood still in it (no med-rare steaks).
So, Jesus telling them to eat his flesh and drink his blood was very difficult for them. It went against their culture and everything that they had known since birth.
They didn’t like what Jesus had to say, and that’s why they left him.
They loved Jesus when he was doing and saying the things that they wanted… They even wanted to make him their king.
But as soon as he says something that they don’t like, something that offends them, they leave. John 6:66.
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
There are so many people in the religious world who do this.
There are many people who love Jesus when they read about loving your neighbor or healing the sick, but they don’t love it when Jesus speaks about divorce or carrying your cross.
There are many people who love God when they read John 3:16, but they don’t love it when they read about Job or other stories where God allows his people to suffer.
It’s like they love God when God agrees with them, but as soon as God disagrees with them, they leave
Do We Do This?
Do We Do This?
Do we do this as well?
Are there times when we hear, or read, things that we don’t like, so we turn off our brains and ears?
We’ve got to be careful of this. During these times, we need to honestly examine ourselves. If someone says something that I don’t like, then I need to ask myself: “am I missing something? Is there a possibility that I could be missing something important?”
Our culture has an impact on the way that we see things, and it’s possible for us to miss something important.
This is what happened with the Israelites. Their cultural background blinded them to the truth of Jesus’ words.
And notice that Jesus didn’t say these things in the easiest way for them. He could have said, you need to rely on me for life, but he doesn’t. Instead, he says that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood.
Jesus intentionally says things that he knows goes against their culture and heritage.
It’s like he’s testing them to see who was truly listening (who was truly loyal to him).
The crowds in John 6 failed the test. They refused to listen to Jesus because they didn’t like what he said. We must be different kinds of people.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So, the question we began with was How Did They Get there, but that’s not the real question that we need to answer.
There’s a question that’s more important for us to answer. John 6:67.
67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
“Do you want to go away as well?”
I hope our answer is like Peter’s. John 6:68-69.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”