Here’s Your Sign! (Gospel of John Part 18)
Text: John 6:1-15
A few years back, the comedian, Bill Engvall had some success with a style of jokes where the punchline was – “Here’s your sign.” And basically what they were, were jokes in which he described a scene or event that was painfully obvious what happened, but people, for whatever reason, couldn’t get it. And so they needed a literal sign to tell them… or a literal sign to let everyone know that they were a bone head.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
He tells the story of how he and a friend had gone fishing, and they had just pulled the boat up into the dock. He lifted up a stringer full of bass, and some guy up on the dock says, “Hey, did ya’ll catch all them fish?” And Engvall says, “Nope, I talked them into giving up.” And then the punchline – “Here’s your sign.”
Or the time he had a flat tire, and pulled his truck into the Walmart tire repair center. The attendant walked out, looked at the truck, and then asked, “Tire go flat?” -- -- -- “Nope, I was driving around town and the other three just swelled right up on me.” “Here’s your sign.”
Well we’re in John’s Gospel, and so far John has given us sign after sign, after sign, and they’re all saying, “Hey – Jesus is God! He is literally and truly God! Jesus turns water into wine – Here’s your sign. Jesus heals the sick – Here’s your sign. Jesus knows everything about you – Here’s your sign.” And today’s text is another sign that points to Jesus being God in the flesh.
Let’s go ahead and look at it… It’s in John chapter 6:1 – 15 (READ).
So what we have here is another miraculous event. Jesus is doing something that only God could do. And I know there are some liberal theologians and pastors out there who like to twist this… I heard a “pastor” say, “The miracle here was that everyone shared.” He said, “Most of the people in the crowd had food, only the boy’s food was mentioned… and they all took their food and shared with one another.” Well I hate to burst that guys bubble, but he’s flat out wrong. This isn’t some kind of liberal text advocating Socialism. The Bible is clear that Jesus takes the FIVE barley loaves and TWO fish and miraculously increases them to feed the entire crowd. It’s not a miracle of everyone sharing… it’s a miracle of God’s CREATIVE POWER!
And also; in this instance, it’s not necessarily an issue of Jesus being compassionate. Though He was compassionate… that’s not necessarily why He performs this miracle. So it wasn’t like these people were all starving to death. And we know that for a couple of reasons. #1. Because they had followed Jesus around the Sea of Galilee… in other words, they had maybe missed one meal, two at the most; but they weren’t starving, like children in North Korea or other places. And #2… Look with me at verse 4 (READ)… Jesus is wanting to celebrate Passover. He wants to have bread in order to break it, in remembrance of the Passover…
So Jesus wants to celebrate Passover, and He sees the opportunity to do some teaching to His disciples in this as well. So He asks Phillip where they can buy bread – Again; you need bread in order to celebrate Passover. And if you remember; we talked about this way back when we first started this series on John. Remember; we looked at both Phillip and Andrew, and we talked about how these two guys needed help when it came to walking by faith and not by sight.
And so, Jesus is going to miraculously multiply the bread so that He and the crowd can celebrate Passover, and then… and this is what’s cool to me… He’s going to multiply the fish, so that they can eat after they do Passover.
And I think this tells us something about not only the POWER of God, but also the CHARACTER of God. Here’s what I mean by that… Jesus’ #1 concern is honoring God, and glorifying God, through celebrating the Passover… but at the same time, He is concerned with things; that to us, would seem insignificant and unimportant. Like providing a meal to these people. Like I said, they weren’t starving, they weren’t destitute. He could’ve said to them, “Go home and eat, and come back tomorrow, and I’ll do more teaching.”
But instead He’s like, “I’m going to bless these people. I’m not only going to make enough bread so that we can celebrate the Passover together, but I’m going to make enough fish, so that we can all have a meal together.”
Church – are you catching that? God is concerned about the little things… He’s concerned about everything. It’s super interesting to me, because when I look through Scripture, what I see over and over again, is the Lord saying, “Don’t worry about the little things… God’s got you covered. Focus on the primary things, because God’s got all the little things already taken care of.” Let me show you… IT’s in Matthew 6:25-34 (READ). So even in our text; that’s what we’re seeing. We need to keep the main thing, the main thing, and trust that God is going to take of the rest.
So again… in our text; we see the POWER of God, in that Jesus does this miracle of multiplication… and we see the CHARACTER of God, in that He is concerned even with the seemingly insignificant things, like blessing you with a single meal. Our God is powerful enough to not only multiply a few loaves of bread and some fish and feed over 5000 people, but He’s the God who creates the universe, and sets the planets in orbit, and flings that stars across the sky and places them where He wants them. He’s the God who created time and space, and light, and who created plants, and animals, and insects, and birds. He created human beings, and continents. Mountains and oceans. Sun and rain. His power is without limit.
He is Almighty, and All Powerful.
But at the same time, He’s also the God who holds it all together. Who makes sure that those planets stay in their orbit, and that those black holes don’t consume our sun, and that those stars’ shine when and where they’re supposed to. He makes sure that those plants feed the insects, and that the insects feed the birds, and the birds fertilize the plants. He provides for you and me, and blesses us with both sunshine and rain.
And what John is doing here is saying what he’s already said way back in John chapter one: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through HIM, and without HIM was not anything made that was made.”
He’s saying the same thing that the Apostle Paul says in Colossians 1:16-17:
“For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
In other words – this God who makes all things, and sustains all things is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ! He is God the Son, come in the flesh. The Second Person of the Trinity.
And that brings us to the response of the people. Jesus has shown them sign after sign… unmistakable sign after sign, proving that He is the Son of God, what they should do is fall on their faces and worship Him as Lord and God. Instead, they act in a much more, worldly way. If you go back up and look at verse 2, you see the whole reason they were following Jesus in the first place was because He had healed the sick. And then once Jesus feeds the multitudes, they’re like, “Yup, let’s get Him as our king.” But not in the sense that He would be their sovereign Lord. Not in the sense that He would rule and reign over their lives. They are thinking that with Jesus as their king, He would free them from Roman rule. He would just make miracle food, so no one would have to work for a living, and He would heal them when they got sick.
Kind of like AOC’s Socialist, utopian, dream.
Basically; they’re wanting to do what Satan had already tempted Jesus with. If you remember, back when Jesus first began His public ministry, after His baptism, Satan tempted Him, and said to Him, “I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the world if You will just bow down and worship me.” And remember what Jesus said, “Be gone Satan! For you shall worship God and God alone!” Well here the devil is again, acting through these people, and they’re trying to make Jesus their king. Pilot later on would ask Jesus, “Are you a king?” And do you remember what Jesus tells him? “My Kingdom is not of this world.”
The plan, the purpose, and intention of Jesus’ first coming, was to die for our sins. This plan to make Him a king was an attempt to side track Him and get Him off mission. Over and over again the devil tried to get Jesus off course. He tried it with his first temptation. He’s trying to use the people here to do it. He tries it later on with Peter, when Jesus finally tells the disciples that He is going to Jerusalem to die, and Peter says, “No way Lord.” And Jesus says… you remember… “Get behind Me Satan!”
So these people, they had been following Jesus for the wrong reasons from the get go… because of the healing they’ve seen Him do, and now they wanted to make Him into some kind of “super-natural, vending machine, king”. When what they should’ve been doing is bowing down in awe and wonder, and repenting of their sins. They should’ve been saying, “Jesus, it’s obvious that YOU ARE GOD. How should we live our lives in order to glorify You? How can we live our lives to honor You? How can we live in a way that brings praise to Your Name?” They should have asked Him, “How can we, who are sinners, be made right with our holy and sovereign God?” That’s what they should’ve asked Him… because Jesus is the only One who can answer that question. And that’s the question we should ask as well this morning. Because even today, Jesus is still the answer. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one will come to the Father except through Him.
Ultimately; these crowds that were following Jesus will turn around and leave Him. They’ll be confronted with the fact that God’s plan for humanity isn’t to make them healthy, and wealthy, and famous in this world. God’s plan is to make them righteous, and holy, and prepared for the world that is to come. If you’re coming to Jesus to get “things” you’re not coming for the right reason. The real, true treasure is CHRIST HIMSELF. If you want to marry Jesus for money, He’s not interested. But if you want HIM… He says come all you who are weary and heaven laden, and I will give you rest.
CLOSING
