The Gospel of John 6:1-40
John 6:1-40 · Vern Peterman · Apr 14, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 14
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926348497210

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

But we're in John 6, we'll be going verses 1 through 40, so actually in terms of the amount of material we'll be going through it, a lot of it is more story kind of account, except for the last of it where Jesus speaks. I think it's fairly straightforward, and these events, you know, the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on the water, these are fairly well-known events. I think what we want to do is pay particular attention to some of the things that John brings out, and then take a side glance to what the other Gospels reveal about these. So here's John 6, 1 through 4.

After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias there, and we'll explain what that means. A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick. 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."

So what do we have from this? We have a map there. Let me get there on the slide set so we can take a look at it. Jesus went from Jerusalem up to the area around Galilee. And so this is the map that's also on your handout. And one of the things the advantages we have here with the color coding is a little easier to pick out what the different political districts and lines were. on this. And so here we have a kind of a dramatic presentation of Jesus, you know, crossing with the boats.

And you think about it, if you've got disciples and a lot of them are in the fishing business and they've got boats, it's going to make a lot of sense to get around the lake by getting on the boat. and traveling that way versus doing all the, you know, walking through all the paths and going around the long way and getting over the creeks and rivers and things of that sort. So that's going to make a lot of sense. There's one other thing, and that is when you get in the boat, you're at least for a time away from all the crowds. You can have some personal time with the other disciples, with Jesus, and so there's some value just in spending some time on the boat there, even if it means just that's some time that you set aside for spending time with Christ and among the disciples, and not having any disruptions and interference. So that's one thing. The other thing we see here, this is also known as John makes note of the Sea of Tiberias. The history goes like this.

Herod Antipas, and you don't see the name Antipas in the Bible, but this was out of the family of Herod who ruled Galilee from 15 to 35 AD. He had begun construction of the city of Tiberias in 20 AD. So here's this city of Tiberias, named after Tiberias, I-U-S, the emperor, and it was very much modeled as a Roman and Greek-influenced city, not Jewish. And so one of the things we make note of here, Herod Antipas was a rather nasty fellow. He was the guy who jailed John the Baptist and ultimately had him beheaded.

And so one of the things that we make note of here is, as we look through the Gospels, there is not the slightest evidence that Jesus ever set foot in the city of Tiberias. It's like, I'm going everywhere around the Sea of Galilee, but not there, right? So that's one thing. You can see Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee there on the map and also here. And that was the one, it didn't exist as a city. Matter of fact, my recollection of studying it, there was some Jewish graves there that had to be moved in order to put the the city of Tiberias there, which of course upset the Jews even more. Now, so then we come to that Jesus was going across to the far side, that is the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. That eastern side of the Sea of Galilee had relatively fewer Jews and relatively more Gentiles and more Gentile influence. So it's with John 6 5 through 9 that we see next here.

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? This he was saying to test him for he himself knew what he was intending to do Philip answered him 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them for everyone to receive a little 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? It so happens that Philip was from that general vicinity of the Sea of Galilee. Philip, and Andrew, and originally Peter were from Bethsaida, which we see at the top end here.

So they were familiar with this general area on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. So this would have been home territory, home turf. This is where I grew up, right? So they would have been real familiar. So Jesus turns to Philip, who would have been, OK, this is your home turf. This is where you grew up. Tell us. Wait, where are you going to go buy some bread for these people? Is Jesus joking? Testing. Testing. Yeah, think about this.

Okay, we know from a little later on how many people are going to get served here. 5,000 men, which means that was the men, women and children on top of that would have been added to that. This is a large group, large gathering. And so you can imagine, if you were to have a meal, are you going to get even 12 disciples holding baskets? Are you going to have enough food? No. So what this requires is carts full of food from some nearby town completely unexpected. It's not like you called the caterer four weeks ahead of time, right? Where are we going to get food for all these people at any place nearby? And so the immediate thing that impresses Philip is that Jesus asked him about where, right? And he starts answering as if, forget the where, we don't have enough money to afford this, right?

So what we find, let me skip ahead here, he says 200 denarius would not be enough to give everybody a tiny snack. Now, a denarius is an average laborer's pay. In fact, that's what the lowest level Roman soldier got paid for each day of work. So, we're talking a good portion of, in fact, a better portion of a year's wages for a lowest-notch Roman soldier or a day laborer to buy a small, not satisfying snack for everybody present. So, first of all, this is...

You can't answer where, because even Bethsaida, which is the nearest big city to the north, or here's, let me go back up, here's Gergesa and Hippas. Hippas was the city on the hill. Remember a city on a hill that cannot be hid? That's the city on the hill, that you can see across from the Sea of Galilee.

All those places, none of them are going to have food enough, just readily available at no notice to feed all these people. And then you've got to either borrow, rent, or buy a bunch of carts and animals to pull them, probably, and get them out to this rough and tumble place where there's a bunch of rocks and grass.

So this isn't happening, is it? So Jesus asks where, and Philip's mind is reeling. He's thinking, oh my heavens. Where? I mean, that's not the start of the problem. We've got, how are we going to afford this? If we're going to have it so that the disciples carry it, we don't go with carts and donkeys or oxen or something. This isn't happening. And to keep it down to a scale where we can sort of afford it, you're still looking at almost a whole year's wages for anybody here to come some kind of a minor, small, tiny snack. You see how difficult this is getting? These guys are kind of like, whoa. It's like, Jesus, why are you even asking this question? Are you out of your mind?

So, what we have here, look at page 2. So now, second paragraph, at that point Andrew, Peter's brother, who was also originally from Bethsaida, brought up that a boy had offered five barley loaves and two fish. But then immediately admits, of course that doesn't even begin to touch the need for all these people. How much What is each of these going to get if this is what we've got?

Here is your crumb. I can't find it. I can't see it. Here is your crumb. Here is your little tiny, tiny morsel of fish. Hope you like it. Enjoy. By the time you break this up into thousands of pieces, you haven't got anything worth serving. Pray the wind doesn't blow. It'll blow it away. So how's this looking? This is looking bad. This is looking bad.

And Jesus' question of where are you going to get this is like, you must be kidding. You're joking, right? So there's the mentality. Alright, now, do you get the impression that the disciples are thinking, oh, Jesus is going to pull this off. Do you get that impression? No, you do not get that impression. Why not? Why don't the disciples think, oh well, Jesus is just going to make this food multiply and what would have been tiny, tiny crumbs is going to turn into having their fill and parts left over.

Yeah, so far as we have any record, this is the first time, right? And they hadn't had some incremental thing. Well, he did it with 50 people, or he did it with 100, or we saw him do it even with us, right? There was nothing to have any kind of a precedent. The closest that we've had any account of at all is turning water into wine. And probably right there, they had plenty of water. That wasn't the issue. It was the food, right? So they hadn't had any precedent, the closest was the water to wine incident several chapters back.

Andrew thought it was noteworthy to bring to Jesus, look, there's this kid who's got this little bit of food. If he thought there was nothing that could happen, he wouldn't have mentioned it. So at least entertaining the notion that maybe Jesus could do something. Okay, alright. So Andrew is at least bringing it forward as a possibility.

Now, let's make a comparison. Here is Mary at the wedding at Cana. Is she expecting Jesus to do something? Yes. Right. Here with Andrew, there might be an implication that he's expecting Jesus to do something. But he readily admits there's no way that we have enough here to do anything. He does bring it forward. That's what we've got. Available resources? Nowhere near adequate.

So, Jesus next turns around and tells them, okay, everybody better go home and better go to the nearby towns and fish up something, right? So what does he have them do? Sit down. Everybody sit down. So we go to John 6, 10-13, Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down and number about 5,000.

Jesus then took the loaves and having given thanks, he distributed to those who were seated, likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. When they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.

Okay, so how did this turn out? How did it happen? It was a miracle, yes, no doubt. By the way, if you were there, what would that have looked like? Of course, there's some degree of speculation in this, but what do you think that would have looked like? Did it reproduce when Jesus broke it and distributed it? Did it reproduce while they were carrying the baskets around to people? How do you think that might have taken place? We don't know for sure. Pardon? They just didn't run out. Yeah, they didn't run out.

You can imagine them, no matter how you would have envisioned it, these people must have been, woo, rather amazed, right? And whether it was the disciples right there with Jesus and then perhaps helping out distributing this, whether it was as they had the pieces and were carrying those out to the people that they reproduced there, we're not really told. One way or another, you would think at least the disciples would have been impressed and impacted. So. It's a good example that as long as we're passing out the word feeding, it multiplies. When we quit passing it out, it quits multiplying. Okay, yeah. Let's ask this question.

What were the lessons that we think that the Lord would have wanted them to have learned from this? What were the lessons that we think that the Lord would have wanted them to learn from this? The master of quantity. He's the master of quantity. The quantity is not an issue. He's a provider. He's a provider God.

Yes. basic point, that's very unusual for anybody to be able to do that. So what about the retention, at least on the power level? They may not understand that, oh, he's going to provide. But given the amount of stuff that's out there, how would somebody be able to do that, just at the very basic level?

So there must be someone. Some sort of power behind this person, Jesus. It should have stirred in their minds, wow, what kind of power is it that makes it so that the amount of material is not an issue? Let's ask one other question. Could Jesus have pulled this off even if the boy had no loaves or fish to offer? Yeah, he could have. Didn't he turn the water into wine? It wasn't like he started off with a glass of wine and multiplied it, right? He started off with something that wasn't wine and turned it into it. So yes, he most certainly could have pulled it off that way.

Go ahead. The disciples saw him as an earthly king, a possible earthly king. Okay, alright. And that's something we're going to see here shortly. What lessons did the Lord intend And from that, what did they get? What did they take away from it? Did they get the lessons that the Lord intended? Yeah.

But in each case he took earthly things and made a miracle out of it. He didn't create the boy and the loaves and the fishes that he just appeared. But he took something physically earthly and then created a miracle out of it. Just like he took the water and he created the wine. So he deals with earthly things and then creates a miracle. Here's something comparing the water and the wine. One of the things that Jesus did is He took things that were there and the people had to be willing to go through this process that really from a human, from a very skeptical standpoint, wouldn't have made any sense.

You know, sit down? Nah, we're not doing that. Why sit down? We're all going to just sit here and get hungry. Distribute these things? Nah, it doesn't make any sense. There's nothing to distribute. The crumbs will fall through the holes in the basket. It is possible from a skeptical standpoint to simply dismiss what Jesus is doing.

With the water turned into wine, what did the servants of the house have to do? They had to go get the water. It says that they went and did it, and that took repeated back and forth trips in order to get the jugs filled. They were large jugs and couldn't reasonably be carried filled, so back and forth and back and forth to get the job done.

Yes? The interesting thing, it seems to me, is how was it distributed? It says that there were 5,000 men that were seated. Yes. And then Jesus said, gave thanks. Right. And he distributed those. Yes. Who were seated. Yes. Yeah, we aren't given the details. We might presume that it's the disciples, since they collected, who also distributed. But yeah, we're in truth not given the details on that. Exactly how that happened?

Good question. Yes. Well yes it does and matter of fact what we're going to see very shortly ties in with that very well. Think about it, a lot of the difficulty that Jesus had in getting a message across to people is people would think of him in terms of kind of parts and pieces. Oh, he's a prophet. He's a teacher. He's this, he's that. Instead of saying, whoa, this is all of who he is. Very good point. And we're going to see here shortly how important a point that is. He makes exactly that point with this bread. So, let's take a look here.

They gathered up twelve baskets full of leftover barley loaves, one for each disciple, if you will. Why did he have them gather up the baskets full? So they could see how much was left over. Okay. Because it shows, you know, the abundance. Okay. I think, I mean, anything that Jesus does, there's an abundance. Right.

Way too much wine. Yeah, all of a sudden, boy, and you've saved the best for the very last, right? And so abundance, high quality, when you would have expected, I'm barely going to get a tiny crumb of this stuff that this boy happened to bring, and instead everybody ate their fill. They had plenty. And there's some left over. The message of abundance and the message of continuing quality, not just quantity, both, comes through here. Let's ask one other question.

Did he do this because all the people in the crowd had faith? No. Did he do it because all the disciples had faith? No. Why didn't he not include Judas? Because after all, Judas was going to bail, right? even betray. Why didn't he just say, everybody but Judas is going to do this? Why did he include Judas too? There's no indication that he excluded him. Why would Judas also be included?

I think it's a demonstration of his grace. Before we've seen how he He continuously talks to the Jews and gives them chances to believe. He talks to guys and explicitly says, They don't believe, they do not have the love of God, and they don't believe, but he's telling them so that they can be saved. Even though we have no indication that they ever believe. But he gives them the truth anyway.

Here are people who are, they're pleased to have a show. They're pleased, they're saying, man, this is impressive. Yeah, I mean, this is cool. And the free food. I mean, this is better than we can get at the local McDaniel's. Right? And the Romans don't tax it or anything. I mean, this is phenomenal. This is great stuff. We've got to keep this gravy train going. It doesn't get any better than this, right?

So the people who are there do not seem to have a lot of faith. The disciples themselves, tough to say that they have a whole lot of faith either. And Jesus does it anyway. Let's take a look here. Here's John 6, 14 and 15. Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, This is truly the prophet who has come into the world. So Jesus perceived that they were intending to come and take him by force and make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone. The area of Galilee had been the location of tax revolts against the Romans repeatedly since before Christ was born. About every six to twelve years there had been a tax revolt starting in the area of Galilee, starting from before Christ was born.

And now, boy, here is the guy, this guy can give us Roman tax-free food. And he just makes it right there. Tastes good. I'm full. I like it. And so they're ready to make him king. Yeah. Maybe the 12 baskets were for the IRS. The IRS? Yeah. The RRS, the Roman Revenue Service, right?

Think about when, all right, look, we've got this guy at Tiberius, right? Across the lake. Here's this guy over here. Herod Antipas. He's over there and he takes food from us. Wouldn't we really, all of us, rather have a king that gives us food instead of taking it from us?

That sounds good to me, right? And so they're saying, hey, this is the best arrangement yet. We can get rid of this Herod Antipas nasty guy, filthy pig-eating, you know, man, and get rid of him and have this guy who gives us are full of good food and it has baskets left over? It doesn't get any better than that. And no Roman taxes? Of course, it's a natural, it's a perfect fit. So that's what they're opting for here.

Deuteronomy 18, 15 through 19, Moses had written of another prophet who would speak and act like Moses so the people were seeing Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophecy. That's why THE prophet. They had a series of prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. They had a series of prophets, but this was the prophet, the one that Moses had spoken of. The one that Moses wrote of. And they say, this is the one. They had asked John the Baptist, are you the prophet? He said, no, I'm not him. Here he is. And this guy gives us free food. Plenty of it. No taxes. Oh, He sure liked that.

Jesus was indeed and will be the King of Israel. Why didn't He say, why didn't Jesus say, I'm the King of Israel, perfect opportunity. Go for it. Why didn't He do that? Why didn't He just say, hey, now is my moment? Ah, one of the things we found early on in John, and we're not done looking at those exact passages, it wasn't his time. What's got to happen first? Pardon? His suffering had to happen first. That was his time. When asked, are you the king of the Jews? He said, yes. What were the magi, the wise men, going around asking, where is he who is born? King of the Jews. So he was born King of the Jews. He was to be King of the Jews. But at this point in time, the priority was his time was that time of suffering. His time was the time of paying the price for you and me. And that had to happen first. This was the right thing at the wrong time. One more thing, in the wrong way.

When Christ comes as King, how is that going to happen? Is that going to happen because there's a local revolt that spreads? No. How's it going to happen? It's going to happen at a time that God dictates, not man. It's going to happen at the right time.

God sent His Son when? At the right time. Christ died on the cross at the right time. He will come again at the right time, the time the Father calls. He'll come again. So it won't be a human-level movement. It'll be God moving and God deciding when's the right time. This was not the right time and it's not the right way. Where will Christ come when He comes as King? Where will He come from, rather? Heaven. He will come from heaven in order to be King, not from the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. it won't be a spreading revolt against the Romans. Okay, so now page 3 at the top. This is John 6, 16 through 21. There are parallel passages in Matthew 14 and Mark 6, which we referenced there. Now an evening came as disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Then when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I, or the Greek words, I am. do not be afraid. So they were willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. So this is a well-known account of Jesus walking on the water. I've even heard it in jokes. You ever heard those walking on the water jokes? You know, should we tell them where the rocks are? That kind of thing. So at any rate, so here's this well-known account. It was nighttime.

The waves were becoming rough, and that can fairly easily happen there in the Sea of Galilee. It was blowing against their intended direction. Blowing against their intended direction. The disciples were likely expecting that Jesus would walk around the northeast quadrant of the sea, so when they saw him walking on the water, they were frightened. As a matter of fact, one translation has them terrified. Terrified. Jesus responded by identifying himself, I am, and telling them not to be afraid.

So, what we get also from the accounts of Matthew and Mark, which add some detail not here in John, is that Peter requested to walk on the water, but sank when he took his eyes off of the Lord. He did fine as long as he was looking to the Lord, and as soon as he looked down, Gravity and fluid dynamics had their way. So the Lord rescues Peter from sinking.

The other thing that we get, we also learn from these other accounts, that though in the short term the disciples declared Jesus to be the Son of God, in the end they did not learn the lesson from the loaves. This is an important thing to get. The remark about their not learning the lesson of the loaves gets told when? When they're fed?

No. When they doubted and were frightened when they saw Jesus walking on the water. What's their problem? What's their problem? It actually says they're hard-hearted or hardened of heart. Yes? I was going to say their lack of belief. Yeah, let's think about that.

The remark doesn't come until here out on the water, but the problem happened back in the feeding of the loaves. So yeah, the belief is core to it. What were they supposed to have learned there that should have kept them from being frightened when they saw him walking on the water? He had control over matter and he also had control over nature. Yeah.

Was the fact that you had a very tiny, tiny number of loaves and number of fish, was that an issue? No. This is the one who spoke creation into existence. And God created the great sea monsters, just one, by His spoken word. You think He can make little fishes? And He has a problem with that? All the different things that grew out of His spoken word, does He have a problem making a few loaves of bread?

No. No, not at all. So, yeah, they didn't get that. He is, if he can do that, can he walk on the water? Is that a problem? Can he walk on the water that he created? It's a mystery to them. Yeah, yes. The other part of that is that those 5,000 people, the cycles on the water, he created them also.

He was intimately aware of their conception, their birth, their lives, who they were, so it was no issue. I understand that, but it wasn't just the being dissatisfied, it was the people themselves that we understood. He knew all the details. Do you think that there was anybody there at the feeding of the 5,000 plus, because we have to put a plus there, Do you think there was anybody at the feeding of the 5,000 that he didn't know? He knew their hearts intimately to the person. As a matter of fact, you can find passages where all three persons of the Trinity searched the hearts of people. Searched the hearts of people.

Was there any blade of grass, was there any rock at the scene, was there any loaf, was there any fish that he lacked power over? None whatsoever. If he can feed 5,000 people largely out of nothing, is it a problem for one man to walk on the water? Is there another miracle here?

It said they rode out three or four miles and then they immediately came back. Now that's an interesting one too. Immediately. Mark is the one who is known for using the word immediately, not John. But I think this is another one of these things where, yeah, he immediately came there and John wasn't accustomed to just throwing in the word. Yeah, good point. Boom, they arrived.

Let's think about this as well. How would we have responded if we had just observed that day? Let's just suppose that the group of us here were invited, you know, I'm going to take you on a little adventure and you're going to watch as Jesus talks to Philip, and talks to Andrew, and instructs the disciples on what to do and not do, and as Jesus just prays. Did He give them any kind of a description of, here's about what I'm going to do? I'm about to do this and that?

No. He just did it. And then He sends them off, they go off by themselves, and everything is contrary. They're used to night time, by the way, because all the fishing is done at night. That's the only way we can keep the nets, in those days, invisible to the fish. So night time is fine. Going in a direction where this isn't fishing, this is transportation and the wind and the waves are all contrary. We're rowing hard and not getting very far very fast.

Okay, so you're invited along to observe all this. What are going to be your thoughts? Yeah? I think if I didn't know who Jesus was, my first reaction would be to want to look into the basket. Yeah, yeah. I mean, wouldn't you be real interested to kind of, okay, have you ever seen the magician's tricks? And of course what they do is they have something to distract you quite frequently. You know, here's the puff of smoke over here, or this bang, or something like that. There's always something to distract you. But I'm sure you would want to say, how does he do that? What's his trick? Guess what? There isn't any, right? There is no trick.

So here's Jesus, and I'm sure we would be very curious to see how this gets pulled off. If this wasn't a momentary miracle, can you imagine how long it took for 12 disciples to feed 5,000 people? That would be like all the people in a football field who had to walk up and down the road.

I mean, this had to take a long period of time. Yeah, you would think. Yeah, I mean, it would take a while. During which time you'd think they'd get even hungrier, right? Fairly quick, yeah. As the need gets greater, they're getting hungrier, right? As the time passes, the fish and the loaves reproduce even more, even to the point where when we're all said and done, and this has taken a while, We got leftovers. Could Jesus have speeded up the process of distribution too? It could be. You know, there's some details here we aren't given. But as we look at this, we say, well, this is beyond extraordinary. This isn't something that happens by accident. This is multiple un-accidents.

Multiple un-accidents. move on here John 6 22 to 25 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 the disciples had gone away alone There came other small boats from Tiberias, the place where Jesus stayed away from, near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 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. So they're chasing him all over, okay?

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here? How did you do that? Right? How did you do that? So the free food chasers and the ones who wanted to make Jesus their king went boating across the sea, first back to where they had seen Jesus.

But neither seeing Jesus nor his disciples, they headed across the waters to Capernaum. They were puzzled as to how Jesus arrived at Capernaum so soon. So their question was, when? They could not figure out the timing, but Jesus was about to address their motives. Their question was about timing. And how did you do this? And when did you get here? This doesn't add up. Calculate this whole thing and it doesn't make sense. Jesus doesn't address their question. He instead gets to their motive. Instead gets to their motive.

John 6.26-34 Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 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. Therefore they said to him, what shall we do so that we may work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, what then do you do for a sign so that we may see and believe you?

By the way, what had they already seen? Signs. What sign had they just seen? They'd already seen the fishes and loaves multiplied, right? But before that, they'd seen him do other signs, and it makes note of that. So they'd seen him do other signs, they'd seen him multiply the fishes and the loaves, and what did they ask for?

Another one! Give me another one! Hey, keep this show going, we love it! Right? Keep the show going, we love it! And so here he is, trying to answer them and get them to think spiritually, instead of keep the show going, right? So they said to him, what do you do for a sign so they may see and believe you? Apparently they don't yet believe, right? What work do you perform?

Our fathers ate. Man in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread out of heaven to eat. 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. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread.

Do they get it? No. What bread are they asking for? More physical bread. Yeah. We really like that and we'd like you to do it again. The Romans don't tax it. You give it to us for free. It doesn't get any better than that. It's better than the stuff we can get at McDaniel's. We love it.

So Jesus encounters more people who look at things from an earthly and physical standpoint, and Jesus talks to them about spiritual need. We saw it with Nicodemus, right? Nicodemus looks at things from an earthly standpoint. He's trying to get Nicodemus to see things spiritually. Jesus talks to the woman at the well. He's trying to get her to see things spiritually instead of physically. We run into the same issue here. where these people are still thinking physical, and he's trying to get them to see spiritually.

So John 6, 35-40, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe. So they believe or not? No. They said before, give us a sign so we can believe. And of course they'd already seen several signs. And now, he's telling them just flat out, you don't believe.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day."

Jesus says previously, even in this passage, where he was walking in the water. He used the Greek egoimi. This is his first statement using it as a metaphor. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the gate, the good shepherd, etc. You see that on the insert there on the bottom of page four. And we're going to continue to track those from here on out because he's going to continue with that on into John chapter 15. Seven of these as a part of John's pattern, both in this book and in the book of Revelation, of referring things in sevens. So he has that pattern of sevens continue here. I am the bread of life.

And the way he says it is, I am, in the Greek, ego eimi, which is what God says in the Greek Old Testament as he speaks out of the burning bush to Moses. Who, should I say, has sent me? Ego Emi, I am. And Jesus uses those same words several times in Isaiah from chapter 40 to 48. God is speaking through Isaiah and says to the Jews in the Greek Old Testament Ego Emi, and in one place he even says Ego Emi, Ego Emi, I am, I am. In using these same words here.

So Jesus is abundantly clear. He is not just saying, I am the bread of life. What he is saying is, I being in fact God, am the bread of life. I being in fact God, am the bread of life. And he continues to make that statement all the way to, I am the true vine. I being in fact God, am the true vine. One of the other things we see, verses 39 and 40, are in a Hebrew parallel, that is a Hebrew poetry pattern. If you look at verse 39 and 40, they nearly repeat, and where they don't repeat, they rhyme. And one of the reasons for doing that, they didn't have underlining italics bold and whatnot like we do in our writing, and so one of the reasons for saying that is to emphasize something.

And one of the things he emphasizes, you guys want to be raised up on the last day? What's it going to take? You guys know what it's going to take to be raised up on the last day. You're worried about putting bread in your face. He says that's not the biggest issue. The really big issue is are you going to be raised up on the last day? And who's going to do that? You're looking at him. And the issue that really counts is not the bread you put in your face. But the bread sent down out of heaven, I am He. I am the bread sent down from heaven. Yes? What they're looking at here, notice what he says.

Jesus 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. So what distinction is he making? Is he denying what Moses did? No. That was physical man, and what he's pointing to is, look, you guys got bread and I reproduced bread for you, but you're missing the most important bread of all, and that's Christ himself. I am the bread of life. So they're missing the point that they need spiritual bread, and they need to stop just thinking about the bread they put in their face. So that's his point.

It's making the physical spiritual distinction. not so much denying that Moses had given them bread. In truth, the manna came, did that come because of Moses or because of God? God gave the manna miraculously. and provided it for them. Moses was the apparent agent and the one who told them about it. Yes.

That's kind of like manna being physical. It's kind of like the law was physical. And on the other hand, you have the bread of Jesus, which is spiritual. Grace is something that you can't see, touch, feel, or do. I mean, it's spiritual. And what's interesting is here in Christendom, I use that as the broad umbrella for what gets defined as Christianity, the difficulty that people have in embracing grace fully is that the law is so much easier to touch, feel, taste, everything else. It's so much more physical and sensory and it's something that I can do.

Tell us what to do! And he says, all you have to do is believe. Tell us what to do to do the works of God. We'll do it, because we're real doers. We're human doings. Right? And so for human beings, that just seems like the right thing to do. And of course, you've got to have the law. All 613, that's a little bit much, but you've at least got to do 10, or 9, or 11, or something. Right?

So that's the typical human tendency, is to go gravitate towards something I can handle. Christians want many laws so they can have many grace. That's not what God intended. So Jesus gives them full on, full out law, all 613 of them, so that they understand how desperately they need really massive, overwhelming grace. So Jesus works again to try to get these people to understand.

And notice He keeps using metaphors. You see on this chart there. He keeps using metaphors. He says, I am that. The bread that you're wanting, I'm the bread that really counts. You're wanting light? I'm the light that really matters. And he goes down as we'll see as we go through the Gospel of John. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you that we can indeed count upon you as true bread, as the bread we really need, as the bread our hearts long for and hunger for. And we thank you for the depth of insight here. And we thank you also for your Holy Spirit's work in our hearts so that we can have understanding that apparently wasn't evident to them back then. We thank you for your word that you've given to us. We thank you for the living word that you've given to us because you love us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.