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We’re going to be looking this morning at John 6.
But before we dive in, let us pray.
Prayer for illumination
We have a lot to cover this morning, so I won’t be reading every single verse in this chapter, but I encourage you to go home this afternoon and read over it again.
Also, don’t forget to do your homework from Hebrews 6 for tonight as well!
Since John 6 is a rather long passage and has a couple of different stories woven in through it, I want to give you some idea of where we’re heading this morning to help you understand what John is doing in this passage.
As you skim through the passage this morning, you’ll see that in the first section of John 6, verses 1-15, Jesus miraculously feeds the 5,000.
This takes place, like most of Jesus’ actions in the early part of John, in the region of Galilee where Jesus spent a significant portion of his ministry.
Then, his disciples cross the Sea of Galilee to head over to Capernaum on the other side.
In verses 16-21, Jesus meets them in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, walking on the water.
Next, in verse 22, Jesus and his disciples are at Capernaum and the crowd that Jesus has just fed follows them.
So, everything from verse 22 all the way down to verse 59 is Jesus speaking with the crowd and exposing their sinful motives for following him.
Then, in verses 60-71, Jesus has an aside with a smaller group of his disciples and explains some of the puzzling and offensive things he had just spoken to the crowd at large.
We’re told then that many of his followers stopped following him from that day on, but Peter and the rest of the 12 disciples reaffirm their commitment to follow Christ.
So, for those of you who have been in our evening Bible study on interpreting the Bible—one thing that ought to jump out at you is the fact that verses 1-15 and verses 22 through the end of the chapter are really one story.
It’s a story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and then rebuking them for their sinful motives.
The story of Jesus walking on the water in vv.
16-21 is there to serve as a contrast which shows Jesus’ divinity against the backdrop of unbelief.
And the reason that we’re looking at the whole passage today instead of just a smaller segment of it is that it all works together as one cohesive story with one main point.
And the main point of John 6 (and the sermon this morning) is this:
FCF: As fallen creatures, we tend to view Jesus as a ‘genie in a bottle,’ as someone who is there to satisfy our physical needs and desires.
But John 6 shows us that Christ’s Kingdom agenda is what matters most and we need to put it first in our lives.
Jesus cares more about saving your soul than saving your life.
(vv.
1-13, esp.
v.12)
The crowds followed Jesus “because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.”
(v. 2)
They saw the signs but they missed what the signs pointed to.
Imagine that you’re riding in a car with your spouse, rolling down the Pigtrail in NWAR.
Your spouse is driving, and you both notice a sign that says, “15% grade next 2 miles” and then as you begin going down that steep hill, you see another sign with a hard left arrow.
Your spouse says, “You know, that sign reminds me, I think we have about 15% of our gas LEFT in our tank, maybe we should think about finding a gas station.
Meanwhile, they haven’t slowed down at all and you’re barreling towards a hairpin turn at the bottom of the hill.
How absurd!
But that’s precisely what the crowds had done with Jesus.
They saw the signs and thought, “This is great!
Here’s a man who obviously has a direct connection with God—maybe he can heal that wart I can’t seem to get rid of!”
Our illnesses and physical needs are more than just “warts”—they’re serious issues that we have a right to be concerned with.
But, when we’re standing in the presence of God Almighty, don’t you think there are bigger, more important issues?
Jesus fed the 5,000 as another sign—a sign that he desired not to lose any of his followers.
Jesus’ feeding the 5,000 wasn’t merely an illustration of his divinity—it was that, of course, but it was also the occasion of an object lesson to his disciples.
Note that there were 12 basketfuls taken up afterwards and Jesus says:
Is it for spoiled food that Jesus is concerned?
No—it is a metaphor for his disciples.
Jesus performs miracles for the disciples so that they will believe in him.
When Jesus performs a work of healing in your life—or perhaps allows illness to strike you—it is not your physical wellbeing that he is most concerned with, it is your spiritual wellbeing.
Jesus cares more about who is King of your heart than who is King of your nation.
(v.
14-15)
Yet again, the crowds miss the point and seize the opportunity to try to fix their political woes.
They had no small political issue.
They had been invaded by foreign armies and sent into exile.
They were now occupied by the Roman empire who taxed them, used their tax money to fund the army that they sent to “keep the peace.”
The Roman empire had set up evil puppet rulers like Herod, who exterminated babies in an entire city just to try to eliminate a challenge to his throne.
History tells us that at one point, over 2,000 Jews were mass executed on crosses lining the highway in and out of Jerusalem.
The Jews had political problems.
There were, legitimately, conspiracies in Jesus’ time.
The poor were being exploited, the innocent condemned.
Their freedoms were taken away.
Evil rulers occupied high positions.
And now, here is the Prophet we’ve been waiting for all these years!
Here’s the one who can oust the Romans and heal our land!
Here’s the one who can eliminate the corruption and establish God’s Kingdom here on earth!
But what does Jesus do?
As he stands accused before Pilate, Jesus tells us why:
Jesus didn’t come overthrow rulers in the government, he came to overthrow the ruler of their hearts.
He isn’t interested in establishing a physical, geopolitical kingdom, but a spiritual one.
Jesus cared more about who was King over their hearts than who was King over their nation.
The Jews wanted Jesus as King of their nation, but they wouldn’t let him be King of their hearts.
The fact that you want Christ to rule over your nation is no evidence at all that he is ruling over your heart.
Forget for a moment about the debate that is currently swirling around about who is “king” over America and let me ask you this: Do you desire to have a godly leader as the ruler over our nation?
If so, who is ruler over your heart this morning?
Satan has an ingenious plan—he desires to keep you distracted with worldly things, and in the name of having a nation that honors God, no less!—if
only he can keep you distracted so that he can steal away your heart.
Jesus cares more about being your peace during the storm than about keeping the storms at bay. (vv.
16-21)
Note that Jesus did not go with the disciples at first—he allowed them to enter the storm, so that he could display his glory through that situation.
There’s a common saying that goes, “The Lord will never give you more than you can handle.”
I imagine that it comes from a misunderstanding of I Cor 10:13 where God promises
But Paul didn’t mean that you could handle the temptation or trial in your own strength.
He meant that God will always BE your way of escape during temptation or trials.
God often does give us more than we can handle so that we will depend upon him to save us.
God allowed the disciples to enter a storm so that he could calm it and demonstrate to them that he is God.
When Jesus walks upon the water in the midst of the storm, and in another instance calms the storm, he demonstrates that he fulfills these passages from the OT which speak of God:
And as the disciples tremble in fear, look at what Jesus says:
v. 20-- “I AM, do not fear” The first of four “I AM” sayings in John 6.
The presence of the I AM removes all fear.
The one who is in their midst is the Great I AM
If God is allowing you to go through a storm right now, look for his presence in the midst of it.
Jesus never promised us life would be easy, but he did promise this:
Jesus cares more about feeding your soul than about feeding your body.
(vv.
22-59)
PARAPHRASE of 22-25: The crowd notices that Jesus is gone, so they follow him to Capernaum.
PARAPHRASE vv.28-34:
The crowd asks Jesus for another sign.
They say, “Moses gave us manna, what will you give us?” Displaying their unbelief.
PARAPHRASE vv.41-46:
The crowd begins to complain about Jesus claiming to be from Heaven.
Jesus tells us that the reason they
Jesus gives us eternal life, he feeds our soul, and that is more important than all our physical needs.
Again, Jesus gives us three more “I AM” statements, in verses 35, 48, and 51.
He does this in context of talking about the manna that God provided
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