In a passage which might seem antiquated to our modern sensibilities, the apostles deal with a controversy in the early church that proved as a landmark case in understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Tag: sermons
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Sermon: Something New – John 20:10-18
The risen Christ is a paradigm shift for the world. In this passage, we are pointed to the revolutionary newness of what comes with the risen Christ. In this passage, we look at the atonement, holiness and glory which were needed to approach the Lord and how all of that has been achieved through the cross. We also see a new ways to relate to Christ in light of the resurrection.
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Sermon: The Ministry of the Holy Spirit – John 16:4-15
Throughout the Gospel of John, we see Jesus pointing to the activity and ministry of the Holy Spirit. On the night before going to the cross, Jesus will give his last major teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit when he’s gone. We learn that the Spirit comes in fulfillment of God’s promises, he brings conviction of sin, and he points believers to truth.
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Sermon: The gospel and providence – John 7:25-36
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
You are the creator and the sustainer of all things.
Nothing has happened or will ever happen outside of your sovereign providence for your creation.
Lord God, we continue to pray for our nation in all of the uncertainty that we’re facing.
Lord, we continue to pray for this season that we’re in. It’s been a long year. It’s been a tiring year. It’s been a trying year.
Lord, we ask that you use this experience and this season in all of our lives to refine us and perfect us. Lord, we are imperfect people. We cling to various idols and hopes. We rely on ourselves and not on you. We look to the world for our protection and security. Lord, we have different vices and different struggles. But regardless of what we think of this virus, we’re in this season as a church and as people. Regardless of what we think, we are all impacted by the fallout. And through that, through changes, through uncertainty, through unrest, through all that we’re facing, may we more and more rely on you and trust in you. May our security be in you.
Lord, we ask that you bless our time in the study of your word. May it point us to you and your gospel.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Introduction
The providence of God is one of the great themes that we see running throughout the Bible.
It is so prevalent that it’s almost easy to to take for granted and overlook.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
And for the rest of the Bible, we see God’s work of sustaining his creation. It’s providence.
God maintains the universe. He is providential over the ongoings of the nations. He is sovereign over life and death. Over the significant and the seemingly insignificant events in our lives. Over the monumental and seemingly random events, God is providential. He is the Lord in the victories and the defeats. It is because of God’s divine providence that we can pray to him with confidence and that we can take assurance in his promises. And it is through his guiding work of providence that he has woven his gospel throughout human history.
On the subject of providence the late theologian J.I. Packer said “If creation was a unique exercise of divine energy causing the world to be, providence is a continued exercise of that same energy whereby the Creator, according to his own will (a) keeps all creatures in being, (b) involves himself in all events, and (c) directs all things to their appointed end.”
There is nothing that happens outside of God’s providential governance of his creation.
As Proverbs 16:33 says:
The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the Lord.
It is because providence that we can have assurance in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good for those that love the Lord and who are called according to his purposes.
And it is for that reason that God’s providence should be a great joy to all Christians. We have a God who is powerful enough to work all things together for good and who works all things according to the council of his will (Ephesians 1:11).
Providence is something that we see throughout the Bible and it should influence our understanding of the Bible, of human history, of the natural world, and of the events in our lives, society, and the world today.
This morning, we continue in the Gospel of John. Just like last week, Jesus is still speaking at the Feast of Booths, but I was struck this week as I looked at this passage and the thread that’s throughout this section is God’s providence in the ministry of Christ.
And so we come to this wonderful passage in God’s word that we’ll look at in three scenes this morning.
Just a reminder to give the setting for this event.
It’s the Feast of Booths, one of the great high holy days in the Jewish calendar.
Jesus has grown in popularity to this point in John’s Gospel but he has also grown in infamy and the ruling religious authorities are already plotting against Jesus.
John 7:1 alerts us of the plot to kill Jesus and how Jesus was keeping a low profile.After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
First scene – divine providence in sending
With that, we come to our first scene which reminds us of the divine providence in sending Jesus.
Verses 25-26. The crowd sees Jesus openly speaking in spite of the fact that there is a plot against this and they’re confused about how this can be. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
Something that’s interesting about verse 25. John says some of the people of Jerusalem.
Quick note. As Jesus has been speaking in this section, there are three different groups of people whom the Apostle John has identified. Leon Morris is helpful with this.
John refers to the Jews, which are the ruling Jewish authorities. And that’s the group whom Jesus was calling out at the end of our last section when he questioned their application of the Sabbath. That’s the same group who is seeking to kill Jesus at the beginning of chapter 7.
Secondly, we have the crowd. This seems to be people from all over Israel who had traveled to Jerusalem to participate in the Feast of Booths.
In verse 19, when Jesus talks of the plot to kill him, we see the response of “the crowd.”
7:20: The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”
They’re not even aware of the plot. And that makes sense because they’re not all from the Jerusalem area. They’re not all familiar with Jesus.
But in our passage, John introduces a third group of people when he says the people of Jerusalem.
They’re the locals. They’re not the ruling authorities. They themselves are not the ones who are seeking to kill Jesus here. But they’re aware of the plot. And they’re aware of Jesus and know a bit about his reputation.
We see in chapter 7 that there are people from all three groups in the audience to whom Jesus is speaking.
Those who oppose him. Those who don’t know him. And here we have people who know him but don’t oppose him.
So they have awareness of the controversies surrounding Jesus in verse 25 when they ask: is not this the man whom they seek to kill?
But there’s confusion.
If there are people who want to kill this guy, Jesus, and he’s right here, why don’t they just do it?
Jesus is here, out in the open, speaking and teaching and yet they do nothing!
And so they ask Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
Consider that question. The Jerusalem crowd is wondering if some of the ruling authorities have actually believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
That doesn’t mean that the Jerusaemites believe. In fact, they generally don’t believe, as the passage will tell us.
Verse 27: But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
In their understanding, they’re explaining why Jesus can’t be the Christ.
But ironically, they’re wrong in their assessment.
For instance, they say they know where Jesus comes from. They don’t.
Where is Jesus from?
Heaven.
So they don’t know his true origin.
But we’ll see in this passage that they also don’t know his earthly origin. They’ll say he’s from Galilee. It’s true that he grew up there but Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
So they don’t actually know Jesus’ origin.
And we also see another point that the crowd gets wrong.
They say that when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.
That’s a statement that is a little bit odd to our ears. D.A. Carson suggests in his commentary that many Jewish people in the first century believed that the true Messiah would be a person who was an unknown. But they knew who Jesus was – or at least, they thought they did – and so in their thinking, a little familiarity with Jesus meant that he could not possibly be the Messiah.
But the irony is that they actually don’t know his true origin.
Jesus responds with irony in verse 28.
Verse 28: Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from.
“You know me and you know where I come from.”
There’s a double meaning. In one sense, they do know about Jesus and his origins. They know a little bit about his ministry and where he grew up. But in another sense, they don’t know his true origins or his true purpose.
Jesus continues speaking.
28 into 29:
I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
Jesus reiterates the idea that he’s brought up at other points in this gospel. That Jesus is not acting of his own accord, but is acting in accordance with the will of God.
He says twice in those two verses that he has been sent.
It is something that he has explained time and again in this gospel.
John 5:30: I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
John 6:38-39: I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.He continually points to himself as one who has been sent.
And as one who was sent, Jesus lived in total fidelity to the will of God.
In our current passage, Jesus tells the crowd that God is true but they do not know God. And this is exemplified in their failure to understand Jesus and who he is.
The fact that Jesus has not come of his own accord shows the unity within the Trinity. We do not have competing wills within the Godhead
I want to look at that again in the light of the providence of God. Because the fact that Jesus was sent was the divine plan for all of eternity.
We see it going to Genesis 3 and right after the fall.
Genesis 3:14-15, a passage that many theologians refer to as the protoevangelium, or “first gospel.”
We see the curse upon the serpent.
14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
That’s pretty striking that in the same passage as the fall, we learn of an offspring of the woman who will bruise the serpent. And throughout the centuries, theologians and scholars have correctly understood this verse as a verse pointing forward to Christ as the one who would overcome the devil and evil through the gospel.
God providentially purposed his gospel since the fall, but even before the fall, he knew humanity would sin.
We see this talked about in 1 Peter 1:18-20:
you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world
The gospel was the eternal plan of the Lord.
And throughout the Old Testament, we see God at work in preserving the family of Abraham through whom he made his promise. We see him intervening in the order of the world to bring forth Isaac, despite his parents’ old age. We see God calling upon Abraham to sacrifice his son, with God knowing all along that he would provide the sacrifice which pointed to the true sacrifice.
Jacob and Rebekah plotted to trick Isaac into giving him the birthright but even through that dishonesty, God accomplished his purpose of exalting Jacob over Esau. We see Jacob and his sons who represent the 12 tribes. They were on the verge of extinction but God intervened through the dreams of Joseph to save his family, to save Israel, and to save the line that led to Christ.
And throughout the Old Testament, God preserved his people and preserved the family line that led to Christ.
We see divine providence in the Exodus. It was God who showed his power and dominion over creation in the plagues. Quoting from Joel Beeke in “Reformed Systematic Theology” “God’s divine control is universal. The plagues upon Egypt demonstrated that the Lord controls rivers, frogs, insects, livestock, storms, light, and darkness, and human health and life.”
God is over all things. Big and small.
We see God’s providence in sustaining the Israelites during their time in the desert, in God fulfilling his promises. We see his providence in providing prophets who warned Israel. We see his dominion over the nations when Israel was conquered.
We also see in the prophets a long history of foretelling the coming one. Nothing by accident. It is because of God’s providence and sovereignty over creation that there could be certainty that all of these events would come to pass.
God orchestrated human history to bring forth his son.
Galatians 4:4-5: when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.God exercises his providence over the family which led to Christ, over our salvation, through the nations of the world.
And all of this is reason why we should take such great joy and confidence in the promises of God. Because they’re rooted in the character of God who is providential and sovereign over creation.
And it’s true in our lives.
If you’re alive, you’re a living example of God’s providence and provision.
Our lives are examples of God’s divine providence.
Do you see it that way?
Nothing has been random. All of it has been in accordance with the will of God.
That’s not to say that we’re robots.
The famous analogy given is that it’s like we’re living on a great ship. You eat, you spend time on the deck, you enjoy the sights and entertainment but God is the captain of the boat and the ultimate destination of the boat is outside of your control.
We’ll never know on this side of eternity how our difficulties really were used for our good. We’ll never know on this side of eternity all of things we were protected from or saved from.
But all throughout life, God is working and he is good.
So that’s our first scene. The ministry of Christ looked at in light of the will and providence of the Lord.
The second and third scenes will be briefer than that first scene.
We continue in our passage.
Second scene – the attempt to arrest Jesus
Vere 30, they’re seeking to arrest Jesus. But the text tells us: no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
His hour had not yet come.
This is a phrase that we’ve seen elsewhere in this gospel which always points to the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. And again, that points us to the providence of God.
There was nothing left to happenstance in his ministry. There was an appointed hour at which time his ministry was to come to its culmination.
But it’s not that God has a very specific plan for Jesus and is then leaving all of our lives up to chance. God is providential through all of time and all of creation.
Psalm 139:16 says:Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
It’s amazing how much of our time we can spend worrying and fearful.
Time where we could be fellowshipping with God, serving God, spending quality time with our loved ones. We so often let so much of our precious time be ruled by worry and stress.
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:
do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
My point isn’t to beat you up if you’re someone who does struggle with anxiety or worry.
I’ll be the first to admit that I stress out far more often than I should.
But we are called to trust in the Lord.
Psalm 9:10 says: those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.We should all take comfort that there is absolutely nothing that will ever happen in our lives that is outside of God’s providence.
That’s not to say that everything is pleasant or enjoyable.
There are horrible sins that we can fall victim too.
And that’s confounding to the world. And that’s offensive to the world. That God could possibly allow bad things to happen.
But that is where the trust comes in that God really does work all things for good for those who love him and are called according to his purposes.
It’s an easy verse to quote. It’s an easy verse to love.
But when the going gets tough, it can be one of the hardest verses to believe.
But we must believe it.
It must be at the core of our faith.
Trust in God’s providence and goodness must be at the core of what we believe about God.
Again. I realize that there are times for many of us, where that can seem easier said than done.
But maybe part of that is because it can be so easy to go through life and look at it as if we’re largely in control of what happens. To look at our talent or effort as the cause of any successes we have. To look at our talents and skills as being things we can take credit for.
Instead of daily remembering that it is all from the Lord.
James 1:17-18: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truthWe must consider God’s providence as it is seen all throughout scripture and all throughout our lives.
Isaiah 46:9-10 says:remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
Nothing happens outside of God’s providence.
Martin Luther said “He is almighty because it is His power alone that works in all and through all and over all…this is a most important article of faith, including many things; it completely puts down all pride, arrogance, blasphemy, fame, and false trust, and exalts God alone.”
There are sufferings that we face, but in them, we see God’s providence. That is true in the gospel as God took an evil and worked it for good. And it is true in our lives.
So again, we often face a temptation to fear and to worry. But maybe part of the reason for that is because we don’t take enough time looking at our lives, what has happened, and where God is bringing us in light of his providence.
There is nothing that happens in our lives which is not providential. And all of it is meant for our ultimate good.
So the people seek to arrest Jesus but they’re unable.
7:31: many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
We see that some people are drawn to Jesus. They consider the signs that he’s done. Some want to arrest Jesus but there are at least some in the crowd who rhetorically ask if another person could do such wonderful signs?
That’s almost a quick aside in the middle of the passage.
Because the story quickly shifts to the attempt to arrest Jesus.
The temple guards had thus far been prevented from arresting Jesus. But finally, their officers are sent. Between verse 30 and 32, it’s unclear if a little bit of time might have passed.
7:32: The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
Jesus has been teaching. What he’s said is not popular with the religious authorities. They seem to tolerate it up to a point, but as people start to respond favorably, they desire to put a stop to what Jesus is saying.
And that’ll bring us to our third scene.
Third scene – Jesus’s return to the Father
They are continuing to attempt to arrest Jesus but Jesus will explain the reason it will be fruitless.
Verses 33-34: Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come
He is pointing forward to the time of his death when he says I will be with you a little longer.
It’s not yet the hour of his death. But Jesus is on the home stretch of his ministry. As we’ve said, the Feast of Booths is in the fall. Jesus would be crucified the following spring.
From the end of John 11 until his crucifixion, eight full chapters are dedicated to the final week of Jesus’ life.
And when we’re not in that week, so much of John’s Gospel is pointing forward to his hour, his death.
There are over 15,000 biographies of Abraham Lincoln. His life has been covered in seemingly exhaustive detail. His early life, the tragic loss of his mother in childhood. His many failures. His time in the White House. The complexities of his faith, of his relationship with Mary Todd. His leadership in the Civil War. The personal tragedies he experienced.
I’ve used this example before but perhaps the longest biography written of Lincoln is the 5,000 page Life of Lincoln by his two former secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay. And in 5,000 pages, they cover his assassination on just 20 of those pages.
But when the gospel writers wrote about Jesus, they didn’t have the luxury of writing a 5,000 page book. In fact, Jessu did so many things in his ministry that the final verse of this gospel says:
John 21:25: there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
But when you consider the sections which cover the final week of Jesus’ life and everything that points to it, in the gospels, one third to one half of each of the gospels is dedicated to his crucifixion.
And the reason is because that is the only way to God. That is the culmination of his ministry.
It is the only way to redemption. It is the only way to God. It is the only way to forgiveness. It is the only way to heaven.
There’s no other way than through the presence of God on earth who was torn down and raised back up three days later.
And it was all in fulfillment of the divine plan.
The temple guards are bearing down on Jesus to arrest them but his focus is on a different time when he knows he will be arrested, where he knows he will be tried, where he knows he will be betrayed, where he knows he will be crucified.
Because Jesus came into the world to save the world and he came into the world to fulfill the divine will.
It is the only way to redemption. It is the only way to God. It is the only way to forgiveness. It is the only way to heaven.
There’s no other way than through the presence of God on earth who was torn down and raised back up three days later.
Jesus talks throughout this gospel of being sent but here he talks of his return to the one who sent him.
As we often see in this gospel, people don’t understand what Jesus is saying.
35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
Once again, that ends up being an ironic statement.
They think that Jesus might just give up on his Jerusalem ministry and try to reach non-Jewish Greeks.
That’s ironic because the gospel would be for them too. The gospel is for the whole world. The gospel would extend beyond Israel.
But that also was on the divine timeline and the fruition of that plan would wait until after Jesus had died and rose.
There’s also irony in that they think that Jesus might try to get away as if he’d need to hide from them. He’s their creator and their judge. It is not because Jesus is fearful.
Jesus concludes this passage by pointing to the divine mission. From beginning to end, this passage points us to the providence of God.
We see it throughout this passage, throughout the ministry of Christ, and throughout the Bible.
And it is my hope that we will be a church who see God’s providence throughout our lives.
Nothing in life happens outside of the providence of God. And may we be people who let that influence our thinking about God, his story of redemption. May it enhance our faith. May it give us greaterner boldness in our prayers. May it give us greater assurance of God’s promises.
All to the glory of God.
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Sermon: Our Eternal bread – John 6:1-15; 22-59
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
You are the mighty God from whose presence earth and sky flee. Your awesomeness and immensity is that great. We praise your great and glorious name.
Lord God, we come to you as fallen people in a fallen world, but may we be reminded of your gospel that though we are sinful and fallen, though you are holy and hate sin, you loved us enough to send your son.
Let us rejoice that there is eternal life through what Christ has done.
Lord, we pray for our missionaries today. We pray for the work to which you have called them in various parts of our nation and throughout the world. As parts of the world become increasingly hostile to the gospel, as parts of the world and parts of our nation become less receptive to the truth of the gospel, Lord God, we pray for their work, we pray for their safety, we pray for their families and the balance of family and ministry. Lord, we thank you for people we’ve partnered with who are committed to doing your work and serving your kingdom.
But may we also be a church that has a burden for our own community and the surrounding communities to serve, to share the Good News, to connect with new people, to push ourselves outside of our comfort zones.
Lord, we ask that you bless our time in your word. May we be pointed to truth and life that is only found in Jesus Christ Our Lord.
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Introduction
We’re resuming our series in the Gospel of John this morning.
I’ve loved studying this book with you all and I hope that it’s been a blessing to you.
As we go verse by verse, it does take time and I know that’s time well spent but I also think it’s good to sometimes break away, which is why we did our Forensics of Faith series. But happy to be back in John chapter 6 this morning.
Certainly, that was a long passage that we just read. Part of this passage we’ve already preached.
Today we’re going to be looking at a long section of John 6. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a 90 minute sermon or anything.
But I think it’s helpful sometimes to get the 30,000 foot view of a passage and look at how a section works together.
And so we’re going to be looking at the passage this morning in three scenes.
Certainly part of this passage we’ve talked about before, but I think it’ll be helpful considering the whole section as we build up to Jesus profound statement in verses 53-54: 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.
So we’re going to look at three scenes and each of the scenes, we will see bread as a focal point in the story, we will see allusions to the Old Testament, we will see people misunderstanding who Jesus is, and we will see Jesus progressively revealing his nature to the crowds.
First scene – Jesus feeding the multitude
Jesus feeding the multitudes is the catalyst for everything else which follows in this chapter.
To remind us of the passage, Jesus has been teaching and he’s near the sea of Galilee and a large crowd comes to him to hear his teaching.
The passage tells us that the group included 5,000 men, not including wives and children so it could easily have been 15,000-20,000 people.
They’re in a remote area, and as Jesus is teaching, they run into a logistical problem.
How are these people going to eat?
They find a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish.
And then John records the miracle in verses 11-13: 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.
Illustration – 70-80% increase
The Lord Jesus does this miraculous sign when he feeds this large multitude of people. He takes a little bit of bread but then feeds thousands. Verse 13 even tells us that there were leftovers. Now, certainly that would be astonishing to see in person.
But I still think it’s hard for a lot of us to truly appreciate that miracle. I think we only get part of why this is amazing. We get the part that’s amazing in the sense that Jesus has made a lot of bread when he had relatively little bread. But I don’t think that we see this as a lot of people throughout history would.
D.A. Carson talks about this and I found it helpful. Imagine if I told you that I could increase your income by 80%.
You’d be probably be interested in that. Well…in first century Galilee, about 70-80% of a person’s working labor went to either growing food or some other form of work in order to be able to acquire food.
And for much of human history, 70-80% of your income simply went to buying food so you could live.
By comparison, the average American today spends about 9.5% of their income on food today, according to the USDA. And that includes going out to restaurants and that includes the fact that we buy a lto fo luxuries that we could easily live without, simply because we like them. 9.5% when a lot of people aren’t just sticking to a staple diet of bread, rice, beans, pasta, potatoes, and eggs.
And so the point that D.A. Carson makes about this passage is that we’re reading a story that was written in the first century. And they had views of food that were very different than our views of food. And while we might think that it’s neat that Jesus could feed this large group of people, if you had been in the crowd, it wasn’t simply that Jesus had given you a meal, it’s that you saw someone crete the thing for which you toiled and labored and he did it basically out of thin air.
How interested would you be if you could increase your income 70-80 percent? I think that the multitudes Jesus fed had thoughts that were much more along those lines than simply being impressed that he gave them a meal.
This passage alludes to the Old Testament in a few different ways. First, the beginning of the story mentions that it was the time of Passover. The time when God had used Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. As God had provided bread called manna during the Israelite wanderings, we see Jesus providing bread.
And we see their response at the end of that section.
Verses 14-15: When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 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.
Verse 14 calls this miracle a sign. And as with the other signs that Jesus has done in this gospel, they always point beyond themselves. And as we’ll see as the passage unfolds, the sign is not simply about the bread.
We also see in the passage that after Jesus has fed this multitude, they want to make him their king. It’s easy for hungry people to be drawn to the one who can feed them. After Jesus withdraws from the crowd. After he performs the miracle of walking on water, we see him and the crowd together again on the following day in verse 22. And that brings us to our second scene. In the first scene, we saw Jesus providing bread. In the second scene, Jesus will reveal that he himself is the true bread.
Second scene – the bread of life
In verse 26, Jesus rebukes the crowd who had wanted to make him king. 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.
Jesus says they’re drawn to them because he fed them. And while that’s significant, it’s not the ultimate need which Jesus came to address. He came to a world that is dead in sin to bring eternal life. They wanted Jesus to be a king, and while Jesus was – and is – a king, he did not come to become king on their terms.
As he continues speaking to the crowd, Jesus elaborates on his previous statement in verse 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.
And so the crowd asks Jesus what they must do. And the answer is that it’s not about our goodness, our actions, our behaviors.
Verse 29, Jesus explains to the crowd whom he’s just fed: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
But the crowd asks for a sign. Forgetting that Jesus had fed them the day before.
But they reference the Old Testament. Verse 31: Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’
Again, we see the Old Testament as they specifically mention Moses and the manna in the wilderness. The Exodus story was well known in the Jewish world. They were familiar with the manna in heaven. The miracle which Jesus has done reminds them of that.
In Exodus, the Lord had promised an abundance of bread.
Quoting part of Exodus 16:4:Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you
Yes,they had seen Jesus provide bread once but God did it everyday for decades. Perhaps that was part of the thought process. If Jesus is supposedly greater than Moses, shouldn’t we see greater things? But Jesus will explain why he’s greater.
In verse 33, Jesus says: the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
And the people ask for this bread. But they still don’t grasp what he’s saying. Just as we saw when Jesus told Nicodmeus that you must be “born again” and he was referring to regeneration not to entering your mother’s womb a second time. Just like when he told the woman at the well of the living water he provided and she thought that he was talking about liquid when he was talking of the cleansing and renewal that comes from the Spirit and faith, here again the crowd thinks that the bread Jesus provides is simply physical nourishment.
In verse 34, the crowd pleads “sir, give us this bread always.”
In his commentary on John, Colin Kruse notes that they want a continual supply of bread as had been given to the Israelites so they would not have to toil and labor for their sustenance.
And that’s when Jesus explains to the crowd: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Jesus is the eternal nourishment and the daily bread without which we will Spiritually starve.
The world wants to just satisfy your body. The world makes idols of what is fleeting and feeds the body. Jesus feeds the soul. And it is because he is the bread of life that he is greater than the bread. Jesus continues speaking to the crowd.
He again rebukes the crowd in verse 36: But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
The crowd is following Jesus but not for the right reasons and not out of faith. They’re drawn to the spectacle and the hope that he can meet their physical needs. As Jesus continues to elaborate, he will make several references to his mission and purpose in connection to the will and plan of God.
The crowd might have an incorrect theology but the truth of the divine plan does not depend on man. Jesus has come to do the will of God. Those whom God has given him, he will not cast out. Jesus will tell the crowd in verse 38 that he has been sent from heaven. And with that, we come to our third scene which is the culmination of Jesus giving bread to the multitudes and explaining that he is the bread of life.
He explains the bread in its relationship to eternal life.
Third scene –
In verse 40, Jesus says: For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
As we’ve seen many times throughout this gospel, Jesus is not seeker sensitive with his statement. He speaks in absolutes and does not leave any gray area. And the crowd is taken aback. He’s telling the crowd of the necessity of faith in him.
There’s irony that the crowd thinks they know Jesus. They’re taking in the claims he’s making that he is the bread of life, that eternal life is found in believing in him.
Verses 41-42: So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
They question Jesus’ credentials. But Jesus responds to the group. And he largely picks up his train of thought from a few verses ago. Verse 43, he rebukes the crowd for their grumbling. The Israelites would grumble during their wanderings in the desert. They would question God’s goodness and faithfulness.
Jesus is the Lord on earth who they question.
The Israelites would eventually complain about the manna, grumble, and complain about that as their daily food source. Jesus is the true bread who they are not looking to for their Spiritual sustenance. He has already established that nothing thwarts the divine plan of the gospel. Jesus has already said that he cannot lose any who come to him in true faith.
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Jesus is saying that one cannot come to Him, the source of true life, unless the father draws them.
In the New Testament, we see this idea in action in Acts 16 when Paul is ministering to Lydia. The passage says: One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. (Acts 16:4)
In verses 47-48, Jesus again says that it is belief in him that is the basis for eternal life and that he is the bread of life.
There is a lot of repetition in this passage. Keep in mind that the original audience to whom Jesus was speaking were only listening and if you’re speaking versus writing, you sometimes will say things more times for emphasis and to get the point across. Jesus keeps reiterating that he is the bread of life, he keeps reiterating in this passage that he is the one sent from heaven.
With all of the discussion in this passage about Israelites and the manna, Jesus reminds them of an important fact.
49-50: Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
Yes, the Israelites had manna, but they still died. Jesus promises eternal life. In verse 46, Jesus talks of him as one who has seen God. Moses never saw God. Earlier in this passage, the audience incorrectly attributes provision of the bread to Moses instead of to God.
What Jesus is saying is that he is greater. He is greater than Moses. He gives greater bread. He brings something that will be greater than the Old Covenant. He gives a greater revelation of God.
And here we come to the fruition of Jesus’ teaching point. In the first scene, Jesus provided the bread. In the second scene, Jesus said he was the bread. And here he says that it is the consumption of this bread which causes eternal life.
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.”
The one who eats the bread Jesus provides has eternal life and also the bread he gives is his flesh. Obviously, he was not speaking literally. Certainly, for observant Jewish people, the idea of cannibalism would have been just as grotesque as it is for us today. The audience tries to understand.
Verse 52: The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
He’s raised the stakes. It’s not just eating his flesh, he says, but also drinking his blood.
How do we do this?
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.
Some take his language of eating his flesh and drinking his blood to be a reference to communion. That’s certainly the Catholic understanding of this passage.
I can see how it appears that way but the setting and language do not fit the other gospels. It’s not in the context of a meal where he’s breaking bread and giving wine. Communion is instituted just before Jesus dies, and this is a Passover which is at least a year before Jesus died. Communion is instituted as a sign of the New Covenant, this is not yet the time of the New Covenant.
When we take communion, while the bread is a symbol for the body of Christ, in this passage Jesus refers to the bread as his “flesh,” and so even the terms are different. Furthermore, when Jesus talks of the necessity of consuming his flesh and blood, to associate that with partaking in communion, that does not fit the context of this entire passage.
Consider again verse 35: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Coming to him and believing in him are the reasons why a person will not hunger or thirst.
Consider verse 40: everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life
And then consider again verse 53: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Everything in this passage and this gospel has ultimately hinged on belief in Jesus. And so it’s the wrong interpretation to take verse 53 as Jesus saying that a person must participate in communion or the Lord’s Supper in order to be saved.
Communion is important. But it’s not salvific.
So while he’s not talking about communion, I think it’s important to consider that communion and this passage are both referring to the same thing which is Jesus’ sacrificial death. So this passage doesn’t refer to communion, but communion and this passage refer to the same thing. Hopefully that makes sense? Both things point to the gospel.
In the Spiritual sense, the flesh of Christ is eaten, and the blood of Christ is drunk by the means of having faith in Jesus. And it is that which is the culminating point of this section. Jesus is the bread of life that we must consume and that is done through having faith in him.
As he’s done elsewhere in this gospel, he uses an example from the physical world to communicate a Spiritual reality. And so when Jesus says we must eat his flesh and drink his blood here, it is a metaphor for believing in him.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
There, Jesus points us to salvation and the promise of future resurrection.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Jesus points to our union with him as those who believe in him.
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.”
Just as the manna needed to be collected everyday. Just as the bread Jesus gave to the multitudes only sustained them for a meal, Jesus provides the bread from which we will never hunger.
And so in this passage, we see that Jesus provides something greater than Moses because Jesus is greater than Moses. And we see that Jesus is the bread of life and he’s the one whose flesh was given so that we could be forgiven. He’s the one whose blood was shed so that we could have life. And the belief that his life was given so that we could have eternal life is the ultimate consumption of the bread which Jesus provides.
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