Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Greetings…

Theme for this year, here on Sunday mornings, is “The Life of Christ.”

Our goal has been to help us draw closer to our God by studying him who was “God in the flesh,” the “Word incarnate.”

Today, we turn our attention to the fascinating account found in John 6:1-15.

Here we find Jesus preaching, feeding, and then leaving a group of 5,000 men.

In John 5 we read of Jesus teaching in Jerusalem during a “feast of the Jews.”

Jesus healed a sick man who had been trying for years to get into the pool by the Sheep Gate.

This was on a Sabbath so “…the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him…” (John 5:18).

In John 6, we find in our account that Jesus is back in the region of Galilee.

So, with that in mind, let’s examine our lesson.

The Biblical Account

Jesus’ Popularity.

By this time in Jesus’ ministry his popularity was soaring.

People continued to talk about the miracles “signs” he was performing.

In this verse there are three verbs in the Greek imperfect tense which indicates continuous action.

“And a large crowd kept following him, because they continued to see signs that he was continually doing on the sick.”

Now, remember the crowd here is 5,000 men not counting the women and children there.

Jesus was extremely popular.

We also see…

It Was The Passover.

In John 6:4 we see that it was “the Passover, the feast of the Jews.”

Why is this significant?

This little detail helps explain a great deal of the context of our account.

The Passover season for the Jews, during this time, was a time of great patriotism.

Each year the Jews would gather in Jerusalem and wait and see if this was the year the Messiah would arrive and overthrow the Roman empire and restore Israel to its former glory.

So, when Jesus excited the people of Galilee by performing all these miracles and you have the P,assover taking place, the Jews were filled with strong expectations for Jesus, that he might just be the King of Israel they had been waiting all these years for.

These 5,000 men were farmers who had put their hoes down and shopkeepers that had closed up shop, to come and see if this was the King they had been waiting for and were willing to “fight” for that kingdom.

Next, we see Jesus’ compassion for the people there.

The Miracle.

Jesus asked Philip, a native of this region (John 1:44), in John 6:5…

John 6:5 (ESV)

5 …Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?

Although Philip was aware, like the crowd, of the miracles Jesus had done, he had little faith in Jesus at this moment.

Philip said eight months of daily wages wouldn’t be enough to feed this crowd.

In comes, Andrew and he tells Jesus of a boy who has five barley loves and two fish.

These barley loaves were about the size of dinner rolls and the fish, as this was a boy, wouldn’t have been very big.

Andrew interestingly enough, in the book of John, is always seen bringing people to Jesus.

Now, as we know Jesus takes those loaves and fish and feeds the 5,000 plus people with 12 baskets full left over.

When the people saw the sign, they knew who he was.

This is in reference to Moses’ prophecy about the coming Messiah in Deuteronomy 18:15.

Now…

The Rest Of The Account.

Now, let’s put ourselves in these men’s shoes for a moment.

They are feeling extra patriotic.

They are hoping to see the Messiah due to it being the Passover season.

They have just seen this man feed them, whom they are suspecting to the “Prophet and King of Israel.”

These farmers and shopkeepers are ready to take Jesus with them to Jerusalem and make him their king.

Remember, because it’s the Passover season there would be a Roman garrison stationed in Jerusalem to assure the peace.

These guys are willing to take on the Romans with their king and fight for their freedom, clean the Temple of its pollution and abuses, while overthrowing those in power that have corrupted so much.

In their minds, in a spectacular and decisive victory they would smash the Romans and come the new world power.

Summary

However, that isn’t what happened.

Jesus had something else in mind.

That leads us to…

Their Mistake & Ours

The Unexpected.

With all these expectations and excitement Jesus did the unexpected.

John 6:15 (ESV)

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.

Let’s think about this for a moment.

Imagine in 2020 with all the hype over Trump’s “reelection.”

The expectations and excitement as it were.

What if, after all the campaigning and speeches, on election day Trump had just bowed out of the presidential race.

This couldn’t compete with the confusion these Jewish men would have felt at this moment.

Jesus shows us here, again, his unparalleled ability to stay focused on his goal.

He knew the men’s intentions, as flattering as they were, would not save the world from their sin.

That brings us to…

The Lessons Taught.

More often than not humanity tends to try and force Jesus into “our” mold.

We want to place “our expectations” on Jesus.

Americans think of Jesus as “American.”

Even speaking English.

Italians think of Jesus as “Italians.”

Spanish think of Jesus as “Spanish.

The rich think of Jesus as rich, the poor as poor.

The educated think of Jesus as educated and the uneducated as one who is anti-education.

Emotional people see him as emotional while calmer people see him as calm.

Seeing Jesus walk away from the 5,000 reminds us how wrong we can be when we think like this.

Jesus insisted on doing the Father’s will, even if the whole world misunderstood.

We cannot let “our expectations” of Jesus distort us and cause us to miss the “real Jesus” and his word.

We cannot take our baggage into bible study.

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

We cannot take our baggage or opinions into our prayer life.

The second lesson we find from this is that we cannot let “short-term problems” make us ignore “long-term solutions.”

The Jews “short-term problems” of being under Roman rule and desiring political freedom got them to overlook the Messiah’s actual “long-term solution” of being…

John 1:29 (ESV)

29 …the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Summary

Do we ever become so concerned with the immediate problems that we overlook or lose sight of “life’s biggest issues?”

Do we ever find ourselves wanting deliverance from taxes, pain, conflict, stress, or work more than longing for deliverance from sin?

Conclusion

When we insist on making Jesus fit our expectations and follow our agenda, we are doing what the 5,000 did that day on the mountain, and Jesus walked away.

Several years ago, 4-D stereograms were all the rage.

These were hidden pictures within what looked like just a jumbled mess of patterns at first glance.

At the bottom was a title so you could have some idea of what you were trying to see.

When they first came out, people in malls could be seen grouped around the display, with everyone trying to see the image.

John 6:1-15 is like a stereograms.

At the bottom of the picture is the “Victory.”