Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
January 15, 2023
INTRO
We are continuing in our series in the gospel of John, and today we are coming to a dividing line moment. Up to this point in the gospel of John, crowds of people have been flocking to Jesus to hear his teachings and see him perform miracles. But by the end of our passage today, most of the people will turn back and abandoned him. This is a moment where we are going to be challenged where we stand with Jesus. We need to be confronted with how we will respond to him, with whether we are desperate for him day-by-day.
ILLUST — What is your most precious earthly possession? What is one thing you feel like you can’t live without? If your house was on fire (and all the people were already out!), what thing would you run back in to save?
For me, besides my Bible, it would be pictures of my family and especially my wife and kids. Or maybe it would be heirlooms that my grandparents have given me, some special gifts that make me think of them.
Chances are you thought of things that have sentimental value too. Or maybe you thought of your pets, or books you love, or favorite hobbies, or special items that make you think of a loved one.
But how many of you thought of going back into your burning house to save your pots and pans? Probably not! How many of you would call your cookware or the items in your pantry your most precious possession? We typically don’t think like that!
That’s because we live in an era of history with supermarkets and fast-food restaurants! We don’t need to worry about our daily provisions of food because food is so readily accessible!
But in the ancient world, procuring food was incredibly hard work and required huge amounts of time and energy. There was no agricultural industrial complex, no airplanes to fly your bananas from the southern hemisphere, and no guarantee that food would be available when you needed it. For the people of the ancient world, being able to produce food at home was a matter of life and death. The stores of grain or flour and the pots and pans used to make bread were your most important possession. Without them, you were toast! (Get it?)
Well this morning we are going to be challenged with this same question in our passage: What is the one thing you can’t live without? What is the one thing that provides your daily sustenance and the one thing that is a matter of life and death? The answer: Jesus.
Open with me to John 6:22. We are going to read a follow-up conversation between Jesus the the crowds of people who ate the loaves and fishes from earlier in John 6. You see, our text today is Jesus’ explanation of his feeding of the 5000, and it is an object lesson, a Disciple-by-Doing moment, that prompts the crowds to think deeper about their hunger. Jesus performed this miracle to satisfy their hunger physically in order to cause them to consider how they can satisfy their hunger spiritually.
ORG SENT — We are going to read this conversation in four parts because it is fairly long. We are going to see the conversation go back-and-forth from the people searching, then Jesus teaching, then the people grumbling, and then Jesus calling them out on where they stand with him. In these four parts of the conversation, we are going to be challenged by four questions that will reveal where we stand with Jesus. Let’s jump into the first part.
MAIN 1 — People Searching (vv. 22-24). (SLIDE 2a)
READ vv. 22-24.
This is the day after Jesus feeds the 5000 and walks on the water when the disciples were headed back to Capernaum. (SLIDE 2b) Capernaum was where Jesus and the disciples were living as a home base.
The crowds were still on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee waiting for Jesus. They knew the twelve disciples had left the night before alone, and they assumed that Jesus was still around somewhere. But as soon as they put the pieces together, they got into the boats that had come from Tiberias (another city across the lake on the western shore) and they head over to Capernaum to search for Jesus.
So far so good. The people are eager to find Jesus! (SLIDE 2c) They are willing to pursue Jesus across the lake and they desperately want to find him. John reports this background in order to set up the conversation that follows.
APPLY — But here is our first question that confronts us about where we are with Jesus: Are you in pursuit of Jesus? (SLIDE 2d) Are you seeking him, are you willing to go wherever he goes, are you focused on being near to him? Are you desperate for Jesus yet?
This crowd of people eventually finds Jesus, and so let’s move on to hear how the conversation unfolds between Jesus and these people who are (supposedly!) hungry for him.
MAIN 2 — Jesus Teaching (vv. 25-40). (SLIDE 3a)
READ vv. 25-40.
Ok, the crowds find Jesus. (SLIDE 3b) And if you glance over at verse 59 you’ll see that this whole event happened in the synagogue in Capernaum. Apparently the crowd of people walked into the synagogue service where Jesus was seated in the place of teaching authority, and they immediately asked him, “When did you get here?”
Jesus doesn’t even answer, he simply gets to the heart of the matter: They are looking for him because he did a physical miracle: He miraculously fed them the day before.
Remember what happened after the feeding of the 5000? Verse 15 says the crowd wanted to make Jesus king by force. They were so fixated on the supernatural power of Jesus that they couldn’t understand the deeper meaning behind the miracle.
So Jesus say plainly: What you need most is not physical food, but spiritual food that endures to eternal life. (SLIDE 3c) He says, “Believe in me.”
Hold on. We need to stop here to think about what Jesus is saying.
Remember that this whole chapter of John is alluding to images and metaphors from the Exodus from Egypt. The feeding of the 5000 was full of allusions to the Exodus:
Jesus and his disciples had crossed the Sea of Galilee and went up into the mountains where the Lord miraculously fed them with 12 baskets full leftover, just like the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and going into the mountain wilderness of Sinai where they were miraculously fed by the Lord with manna.
The whole point is that Jesus is demonstrating that he is the greater Moses, that he has come to lead a new Exodus from the bondage to sin, and that is establishing a new people of God who he will provide for and protect as they navigate the wilderness of this life on their way to the promised land of the new heavens and new earth!
So, we need to remember that Jesus’ teaching moment here with the immersive learning of the feeding of the 5000 has the Exodus from Egypt as its backdrop, and the supremacy of Jesus’ redemptive work to satisfy our spiritual hunger is the prime emphasis.
Now that we’ve got that background, look again at how the crowd responds and what Jesus says in return: READ vv. 30-33.
They ask for a sign. (SLIDE 3d) Wait a second, wasn’t the loaves and fishes enough of a sign? Jesus already fed thousands of people the day before. The very people who literally tasted that miracle were the ones asking for more proof!
KEY — They are confused. As we’ve seen repeatedly in the gospel of John, they are bringing their expectations to Jesus and expecting him to meet their demands. They don’t really understand who Jesus is.
What is manna anyway? (SLIDE 4a) Let’s stop here to make sure we remember the story of the manna in the wilderness.
If you’ve read the book of Exodus, immediately after the Israelites are released from slavery in Egypt they begin to grumble because they don’t have any water or food.
Exodus 16:2-4 says, “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’S hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.”
This was the manna that God provided miraculously each morning, and they were to gather only what they needed for each day, except double on the 6th day so they could celebrate the Sabbath. Then the text says in Exodus 16:15, “When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.”
You see, (SLIDE 4b) the word “manna” literally is the words “What is it?” in Hebrew. The bread was simply called “What’s it?”…“Gee, this Whats-It is delicious!”
KEY — It is a gift from God, it is enough for each day and requires daily trust, it preserved them for decades until they entered the promised land.
Key themes of manna:
Gift from God (SLIDE 4c)
Enough for your needs (SLIDE 4d)
Requires daily trust (SLIDE 4e)
Will last through the wilderness (SLIDE 4f)
SAME FOR JESUS — (SLIDE 4g) He is God’s gift, he is enough for each day, he asks for daily trust, and he will preserve you until you reach heaven!
But don’t miss this element of the connection to manna in John 6: The Israelites were confused when they encountered the manna…they literally said, “What is it?” It is the same with Jesus! The crowds now are seeing the True Bread From Heaven right in front of them and they are once again saying “What is it? We don’t understand”
You can see it in their response in verse 34: “Sir, always give us this bread.” Just like the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 who thought Jesus was offering her literal water to drink, the crowd still thinks Jesus is going to give them physical bread. They aren’t getting the point.
This is where Jesus gives the first “I Am” statement in the gospel of John. (SLIDE 5a) There are 7 “I Am” statements and this is the first overt revelation of who Jesus is: READ v. 35.
Remember my question to you earlier: What is something you can’t live without? (SLIDE 5b) It’s no accident that Jesus uses bread as a metaphor here. You literally cannot live without food, and bread was the staple food in ancient Israel that was a matter of life and death. Without bread you would never make it. It was your most treasured possession day-by-day, your means to stay alive, your only hope to survive.
Look at Jesus’ statement here: How do we receive the Bread of Life? (SLIDE 5c)
Whoever comes to me (SLIDE 5d) — we need to approach Jesus in humility and surrender! We need to repent and ask for forgiveness!
The image here is of open hands, ready to receive what God has given. God has given Jesus as the True Bread that we need.
Whoever believes in me (SLIDE 5e) — we need to trust in Jesus daily for our survival! We need to walk by faith in him.
The image here is of whole-hearted devotion, waiting upon the Lord. God has given us to Jesus as our deliverer and protector.
APPLY — So, here’s our second question to challenge where we stand with Jesus: (SLIDE 5f) Have you surrendered and trusted in Jesus as the one thing you truly need day-by-day?
MAIN 3 — People Grumbling (vv. 41-59). (SLIDE 6a)
READ vv. 41-59.
Hold on again…we are supposed to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood? What does that mean? Contrary to some interpretations that this means we have to take Communion to be saved, like the Catholic Church which teaches that the Eucharist is the means of grace, we have to remember what Jesus has already said in the context here:
Jesus is doubling-down on his statement in verse 35: “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
ILLUST — 4th century theologian Augustine said about this passage, “Believe, and you have eaten.”
In other words, come to Jesus, believe in him! Repentance and faith is the act of partaking of Jesus’ body and blood, it is the spiritual union with Christ in his death as your sins are forgiven! (SLIDE 6b)
Later, the Lord’s Supper becomes a living metaphor for this: We eat the bread and drink the juice as a symbol of being united with Christ and in remembrance of his death in our place.
We need to grapple with an important emphasis on God’s sovereignty in this passage: (SLIDE 6c) READ vv. 43-44.
There is a strong emphasis in this passage on the sovereignty of God in salvation. God that Father draws us to Jesus (SLIDE 6d), it is his initiative, his power at work in us through the Spirit. We are lost and in darkness, unable to save ourselves, and God reaches out to pluck us out of darkness and sin, and choose us to be part of his family.
Yet this passage also says that we must come to Jesus and believe in him. Our volition is involved in our response of faith. (SLIDE 6e) We respond with surrender. We respond with trust.
You see the opposite in the crowd. They continue to grumble, they continue to argue. They can’t accept what Jesus says. They can’t understand how Jesus could elevate himself as the Son of God who is the only way to salvation.
ILLUST — Theologian Robert Lightfoot wrote almost 100 years ago about this passage, “So long as a man remains, and is content to remain, confident in his own ability, without divine help, to assess experience and the meaning of experience, he cannot ‘come to’ the Lord, he cannot ‘believe’; only the Father can move him to this step, with its incalculable and final results.”
In other words, as long as you approach Jesus as this crowd did in the synagogue in Capernaum with your pride and your demands and your expectations dominating your thought process, you will never truly be able to “come” and “believe.” You’ll always be looking at Jesus like the manna “What is it?” and never understand.
Come = humble yourself in surrender
Believe = trust wholeheartedly
APPLY — Here’s our third question to challenge where we are with Jesus: (SLIDE 6f) Once you find Jesus, are you willing to accept what he says? Are you ready to take the leap of faith that He is the only way?
MAIN 4 — Jesus Calls Them Out (vv. 60-71). (SLIDE 7a)
READ vv. 60-71.
This is the dividing line moment. And it is the same dividing line that is at the heart of debates about Jesus in our culture: Is Jesus the only way or not? (SLIDE 7b) Is full surrender and trust in Jesus the only way to salvation, or are there other ways to fulfillment and meaning in life?
IMPORTANT — If the people struggle to accept Jesus’ teaching about believing in him, the true Bread from Heaven, then what will they think when he is lifted up upon the cross? (SLIDE 7c)
It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1:23
The cross is a stumbling block to Jews — religious people can’t imagine a crucified Messiah, they can’t accept a failure king.
The cross is foolishness to the Greeks — rational people can’t understand conquering by dying, they can’t accept failure as the path to life.
ILLUST — New Testament scholar Don Carson summarized this dividing line moment like this: “How men and women respond to this supreme scandal determines their destiny.” (SLIDE 7d)
And guess what happens? The crowd turns back and abandons Jesus. (SLIDE 7e) They failed the test. They followed the same pattern of their Israelite ancestors from 1500 years earlier when they continued to grumble in the wilderness and they rebelled against God and were forbidden to enter the Promised Land and had to turn back to wander the wilderness until a new generation of God’s people was given another chance to surrender and trust the Lord.
Here is the same challenge: Jesus turns to the Twelve disciples, which is no accident. They represent a new people of God, replacing the twelve tribes, now with an opportunity to respond in faith.
Jesus’ asks them a question: READ v. 67-69.
APPLY — Here’s our final question that challenges where we stand with Jesus: (SLIDE 7f) Do you cling to Jesus and his words of life day-by-day? Have you come to be desperate for him? Have you come to know and believe that Jesus is the Holy One of God, the one thing you can’t live without, the one person who is the dividing line between life and death?
This is my prayer for you, dear church:
Pursue Jesus
Open your hands day-by-day in surrender and trust
Believe what he says, accept what he teaches
And live your life with the realization that He is your daily sustenance, your redeemer, your protector in the wilderness, and the one thing you can’t live without.