Please open your Bibles to John 6:25-42 which we will read in a few minutes.
As we prepare to read this text that Jesus has miraculously fed the five thousand with five small barley loaves and two small fish, and, after everyone had eaten their fill the disciples picked up twelve baskets of fragments left over from the five small barley loaves.
These people were following Jesus even before He fed them because they had seen Him heal a bunch of sick people.
Then we read the whole miracle of Jesus walking on the water and now He’s arrived on the other side of the lake but many have followed Him there looking for another free lunch.
With that in mind let’s go ahead and read: John 6:25-42
John 6:25-42
25 When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.
27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”
30 So they asked Him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe You? What will You do?
31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.
36 But as I told you, you have seen Me and still you do not believe.
37 All those the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away.
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me.
39 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.
40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about Him because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
May God bless the reading of His Word.
(Short prayer)
Today I want to focus on verses 26-29 so please follow along in your Bibles.
John 6:26 NIV
“Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.’”
Jesus has just been asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus doesn’t even answer their question but He gets to the heart of why they are looking for Him; they want more food!
These folks had actually seen, with their very own eyes, the miracle of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 with two small barley loaves and two fish.
These folks had also been filled with the bread and fish that had been provided by this miracle and “if He did it once, He can do it again!”
They had seen the supernatural work of the Lord and they had eaten the natural, earthly result of that supernatural miracle.
They had experienced the divine and the natural.
Which were they seeking more of; divine or natural?
We love the natural, don’t we?
These folks had been hungry and had been fed and it felt great to be well fed!
Now it was morning time and they were hungry again.
OK, Rabbi, feed us again.
Think about your prayer life.
What does it consist of, divine or natural?
I mean, let’s look at the prayer the Lord Jesus taught the apostles.
The vast majority of the prayer divine.
The prayer starts with worship, yearning for God’s kingdom, asking for forgiveness and the ability to forgive, protection from temptation, deliverance from evil or the evil one, and ending with worship.
There’s only one verse that pertains to the natural, material aspect of life, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And, that’s not just talking about food.
That’s asking the Lord for all we need for this day so that we can serve Him faithfully without fretting about what we will eat or what we will wear or where shall we live.
What we need not what we desire or crave.
Are we seeking the divine or the natural?
John 6:27 NIV
“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”
In this verse Jesus is NOT telling them (or us) that we should not work for the natural food our bodies require.
The Lord obviously expects that anyone of His children to work who is capable of any kind of work. He provides the strength to work and through that work we can then acquire food for our daily needs. That is the natural. We need food and through the strengthening of the Lord we can and should work for the food we need.
But, Jesus is saying that there is a higher, divine, priority.
That there is a spiritual food that endures to eternal life.
“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Who said that?
Who did He say it to?
Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3.
It seems from the next verse that the crowd only heard Jesus say, “Work for food that endures to eternal life.”
Wouldn’t you want to ask, “Who is the Son of Man?”
How is He going to give us this “food that endures to eternal life?”
How do we know that “God the Father has placed His seal of approval” on this “Son of Man”?
But they don’t ask those questions or anything like them. What do they ask?
Before we see what they do ask let’s ask ourselves, “Are they seeking the divine or the natural?”
John 6:28 NIV
“Then they asked Him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’”
It seems like they were certainly seeking the divine by asking, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Now we need to put ourselves into the shoes of these folks. They have called Jesus “Rabbi” so they expect Him to teach as other Rabbi’s they have heard.
In their experience the Jewish religion has been reduced to a set of laws.
The Ten Commandments and the 613 laws or traditions of the Pharisees.
You were a good Jew by doing.
Pharisaic Laws
In contrast to the two commands of Christ, the Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 365 negative commands and 248 positive laws... By the time Christ came it had produced a heartless, cold, and arrogant brand of righteousness. As such, it contained at least ten tragic flaws.
(1) New laws continually needed to be invented for new situations.
(2) Accountability to God was replaced by accountability to men.
(3) It reduced a person’s ability to personally discern.
(4) It created a judgmental spirit.
(5) The Pharisees confused personal preferences with divine law.
(6) It produced inconsistencies.
(7) It created a false standard of righteousness.
(8) It became a burden to the Jews.
(9) It was strictly external.
(10) It was rejected by Christ.
Outlined from Fan the Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 52.
So, you see that when the followers asked Jesus, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” they were thinking along these lines.
What they were taught and what they were thinking was there was a natural way to reach the divine.
We can NOT follow human made (natural) rules and achieve a godly (divine) outcome.
We can NOT follow the traditions of the elders (natural) and achieve a godly (divine) righteousness.
So, here comes Jesus’ answer:
John 6:29 NIV
“Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.’”
Even in this verse Jesus seems to give a strange answer.
He has been asked, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
What must we do? (natural – in our own strength) to achieve eternal live (divine).
John doesn’t say, “This is the work you must do: believe in the One He has sent.”
Instead the Holy Spirit says through John, “The work of God is this …”
This is so much like a marriage that it’s ridiculous that we would even miss it!
God proposes and we either accept or reject the proposal.
The Lord has set everything up.
- He has loved us enough to send Jesus
- He has pursued us by extending His prevenient grace to us
o Making us aware of His presence
o Introducing Himself
o Courting us
- He has quickened our souls by the work of the Holy Spirit
- He has proposed
- He has enabled us to accept but will not force us to do so
Some have come so close but have chosen not to do so to their own eternal loss.
John 12:42-43 NIV
“Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.”
They put the “natural” above the “divine”.
You see, using the marriage metaphor, these folks “believed” like a fiancée who is engaged but too embarrassed to tell anyone about it. No marriage is going to happen there!
Jesus calls us to a belief that results in full commitment. FULL COMMITMENT!
Nothing less. No prenuptial agreement. No looking back.
You may not fully understand it. That’s OK.
The most basic Christian creed is this; Jesus Is Lord!
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior." Titus 3:5-6
Closing comments - possible invitation - closing prayer
