What Happened to the Crowd?
Fortifying the Foundations #15
John 6:14-70(1)
In John 6 a large number of people begin a journey with Jesus. They have experienced His goodness. They are among the 5000 men plus women and children who enjoy loaves and fishes courtesy of the King of Kings.
Can you imagine the excitement they felt when Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes?
What an experience! They had already heard Him speak as no man had ever spoken. They had already seen Him heal the sick and deliver the oppressed. They were thrilled at what Jesus has done and eager to see what He will do next.
We begin this morning with the
I. Excited Crowd.
They are so excited they want to make Jesus their king. He must be their king. They will insist that he lead them as king.
Notice what they are saying in verse 14, “Surly this is the Prophet who is to come...”
Moses had prophesied that God would raise up a prophet like himself to lead God’s people into liberty.
Deut 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”
Surely this is the Messiah. Surely this is the One we have been waiting for.
Surely Jesus will free us from the tyranny of Rome, just like Moses freed Israel from the tyranny of Egypt. This is exactly what we need.
Their Excitement is based upon what?
To some extent it was based upon what they had already seen Jesus do—the healings, the miracles, the feeding of the five thousand.
But mostly their excitement was based upon what they EXPECTED Jesus to do for them.
If you’ve got a leader who can supercede the laws of nature— if you’ve got a leader who can heal sick bodies and multiply food supernaturally, you’ve got a good start toward great success.
Life could really get good under Jesus’ leadership.
It’s a wonderful thing to be excited about Jesus. Every one of us should live with a sense of expectation and anticipation of God’s goodness. God is good—all the time.
He is a good God and it is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom.(2)
But the assumptions behind the excitement are crucial. If I am excited about becoming a millionaire this afternoon at 1:00 o’clock, that is good cause to be excited.
But if that excitement is based upon a false assumption then what is going to happen?
If I have assumed that Donald Trump is sending a representative to give me a million dollars this afternoon and if Donald has no intention of doing any such thing, how am I going to feel this evening?
This crowd is excited—but their bubble is about to be burst.
Their excitement is based upon some false assumptions about Jesus—the assumption that Jesus has come to be their political leader, the assumption that Jesus has come to make life easy for them, the assumption that Jesus has come to give them what they want.
How does Jesus respond to their excitement?
First, he sends the disciples away.(3) Why? Because they are vulnerable to the influence of the crowd.(4) They too want Jesus to be a political activist. They too want to move from the bottom of the social ladder to the top. They too want earthly power and influence. That will be evident when the mother of James and John makes her request that each of her boys sit on the right and on the left of Jesus. The disciples’ response to that request and the disciples’ argument over who will be greatest in the kingdom give us a glimpse inside their minds.(5) For their own good Jesus sends them across the lake away from all this excitement.
Then, instead of seizing the momentum of the crowd, Jesus withdrew to the mountain by himself. This crowd saw Jesus send the disciples away on the only boat to the other shore.
They knew Jesus had not gone with them.(6) They did not know about Jesus walking on the waterand rescuing the disciples in the storm. They did not know about how the boat miraculously, immediately arrived at the other side as soon as Jesus joined the disciples.(7)
Eventually the crowd got into boats in search of Jesus. They are looking for Him everywhere.
“How, Jesus, are we going to make you our king when we can’t even find you?
It is a good thing when people search for Jesus. I’m glad for every person sitting in a church this morning. But if there is one thing this chapter teaches us it is this—why we are there searching for Jesus is also important. These people were not apathetic. They were passionately and aggressively trying to find Jesus. They are an excited crowd. You and I would like their church services—lots of energy in the air, lots of enthusiasm, lots of expectation.
When they find Jesus they ask Him a question. It’s not exactly the question they want to ask.
They want to ask, “Why did you leave?” They want to ask, “How in the world did you get over here without a boat?” But instead they ask a safer question—one that might yield the answers they seek without much risk. John 6:25, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
If you look closely at verse 26, you’ll find that Jesus didn’t even bother to answer that question.
Instead Jesus addresses the much more important issue—the issue of why they were seeking Him in the first place. “...You are looking for me, not because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” You are excited about all the wrong things.
You are seeking me for all the wrong reasons. I gave you a miraculous sign. Within that miracle was a message about who I am. You totally missed the point.
In December 1903, after many attempts, the Wright Brothers were finally successful in getting their "flying machine" off the ground. Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine back home in Ohio. "We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas."
Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, "How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas."
He totally missed the big news! Man had flown!(8)
Jesus has given the sign of the provision of bread. It was a revelation of Him as the Bread of Life. It was a revelation of Him as the spiritual provision every person needs. It was a revelation of Him as the compassionate Messiah that He is. But these people were blind to the true message. They had preconceived ideas of what God through Jesus should and would do for them. They were very busy trying to push Jesus into the mold they had prepared for Him.
I have seen this many times in people’s lives—excited about Jesus—not the real Jesus but the Jesus they have assumed. It is a very unstable form of excitement.
So Jesus confronts it. He addresses their motive for following Him. Jesus always does that in our lives one way or another. It may come through a sermon like this. It may come through the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit during a time of personal prayer and devotion.
It may come through some event in our lives that challenges our faith—an event in which God does not behave the way we think He ought to behave.
But Jesus will not lead us based on false assumptions.
When Jesus began to address these false assumptions, they became the
II. Grumbling Crowd
Their first question was rather benign. Verse 28, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” “OK, Jesus what do you want us to do? We want you to be our king. How do we get this show on the road?”
The answer was not what they expected. “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.” They were believing in the Messiah they had conceived, not the One the Father has sent.
The Sent One is standing before them revealing Himself as He truly is. If they will accept Him as He really is, if they will abandon their own agenda and allow Him to truly lead, if they will place all their trust in Him and simply obey Him because of their confidence in Him, everything else will fall into place.
I think I hear the conversation becoming a bit strained in verse 30, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?” They have just experienced one of the greatest miracles ever recorded in human history. That did not satisfy them. Now they are putting demands upon Jesus. Now they suggest to Him what He needs to do to convince them.
“Moses gave our forefather manna in the wilderness! Can you match that? “
It was commonly assumed by the Jews at that time that when Messiah would come he would give manna like Moses did. In their writing (2 Baruch 29:8) it was written, “It will happen...that the treasury of manna will come down again from on high, and they will eat of it in those years.”(9)
So, Jesus, this is what you need to do to get us to follow you, make manna come down.
Have you ever tried to make Jesus do something so you will follow Him?
He is full of grace and sometimes He will accommodate our frailties. But Jesus has already done everything He needs to do to prove His love to us and to expect us to follow Him.
“Greater love has no one than this, that He would lay down His life for His friends.”(10)
Jesus laid down His life on the cross for you and me. He voluntarily took the punishment for sin that each of us deserves. He has nothing else to prove. No miracle, no answer to prayer can compare to that demonstration of love toward us. It is on the basis of that sacrifice and the miracle of His resurrection that He expects you and me to believe on Him.
So Jesus corrects these people on a couple of crucial points:
First, God was the one who gave you the manna, not Moses. Moses was simply an instrument in His hand. Second, My Father, who is God, has now sent you the true bread from heaven.
They are still on this “What’s in it for me track”. So, they answer Jesus, “Ok, then from now on give us this bread.” Do you realize what it would do for your personal budget to not have to buy any food? Food was an even more significant part of the budget for these people. These guys are thinking of how easy life would be if the food budget were just provided miraculously.
They are trapped in a materialistic mindset.
Jesus is offering them something eternal—something of more value than anything in this world.(11) But they are so caught up in their own materialistic world that they cannot seem to hear it. Carl Marx said that religion was the opiate of the masses—something to keep the poor happy and ignorant of their economic oppression. But for these people the opposite is true. It’s actually materialism that’s their narcotic; materialism has deadened them to their spiritual state.(12)
Here is the revelation that they must receive—John 6:35, “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life.” In the book of John, Jesus uses the term “I am” to declare His deity(13) and to reveal Himself to the people. It is the same term Moses heard from the burning bush.(14) This is the first of seven “I am” metaphors in the book of John:
John 6:35 I am the bread of life.
John 8:12 I am the light of the world
John 10:7 I am the door or sheep gate
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd
John 11:25 I am the resurrection and the life
John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life
John 15:1 I am the true vine(15)
Jesus is using bread to illustrate Himself as the giver and sustainer of spiritual life.
Just as bread, especially in that culture, sustains physical life, Jesus is sent down from heaven as the bread that gives and sustains spiritual life.(16)
Rather than embracing Jesus’ correction of their understanding of Him, they begin to grumble.
They grumble because he said that He came down from heaven—verse 41.
“Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He say, “I came down from heaven?”
Again they are operating out of false assumptions about Jesus. They assume Joseph is His father. But Jesus was not conceived by Joseph. God is Jesus’ Father.(17)
They are beginning to draw back from Jesus.
Even when Jesus clarifies His statement significantly—even when Jesus contrasts Himself as the bread from heaven to the manna in the wilderness— still they don’t receive His correction.
The manna in the wilderness only sustained physical life and only did that for 40 years. Those people still died. In contrast, Jesus offers eternal life to all those who partake of Him.
“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God.”
“In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God and the word was God”(18)
John 1:14 “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
Jesus specifically tells them in verse 51, “...This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” The cross is clearly in mind when He says those words—“my flesh...which I will give for the life of the world.”
Now the grumbling crowd is becoming the
III. Offended Crowd
They begin to argue among themselves. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Notice, in verse 52, they are no longer calling him Rabbi, and they are certainly not calling him Lord— “this man”, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Jesus is communicating a spiritual truth about Himself using the metaphor of bread and now his own body. They are carnally minded and can only think in terms of the physical.
“I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
Here is the cross before Jesus.(19) On that cross He will give His flesh and His blood for the salvation of humanity. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.”(20) Without the sacrifice of Calvary there is no salvation. Jesus will give His flesh and blood on the cross that we may have eternal life.
But that sacrifice must be appropriated by faith. That’s what Jesus means when He says,
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life...” The sacrifice must be received.
God’s means of salvation must be embraced.
There is nothing in this that is appealing to man’s prideful heart. This is not what these people wanted to hear. They are repulsed by the very thought. Their law forbids the drinking of blood.(21) They are not cannibals.
But Jesus is not talking about a physical act of eating and drinking. He is speaking metaphorically.(22) He is talking about a spiritual act of faith whereby we receive the sacrifice of the cross— we receive and assimilate into our spiritual being the life of Christ that is ours through the cross.
The cross is a stumbling block that cannot be ignored.(23) Either one accepts God’s provision and receives it or one is offended and insists upon his own ideas of what must be done to do the works of God.
Jesus is not specifically talking about the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, Communion—whichever term most familiar to you. But His message here looks forward to the same event that the Eucharist looks back to in remembrance.(24)
It is all about Christ crucified. It is not about political power and social advantage. God may grant those things according to His purposes. He did so for Joseph and for Daniel.
But following Jesus is about His Life—it is about a quality of life that is above the things of this world.
“This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
They were not saying they could not understand his message. They were saying we understand it but do not accept it.(25) Of course, they were understanding it on a physical, materialistic level
rather than on a spiritual level the way Jesus was saying it. But to put it bluntly, they did not at all like what they were hearing.
So, Jesus asked them the question, “Does this offend(26) you?” They were no longer the excited crowd. They were now the offended crowd. Verse 66 “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” They turn back from following the Lord.
When we follow Jesus for the wrong reason, when we’re excited about Jesus but that excitement is based upon false assumption, what will happen?
We may become offended when Jesus does not fulfill our expectations.
Is Jesus fulfilling your expectations? Are those expectations based upon biblical assumptions or
false assumptions? Over the years of pastoring I have seen many people become offended at God. I’ve been a little offended at Him at times myself. In most cases the problem goes all the way back to false assumptions—false assumptions about what my journey with Jesus is about, false assumptions about what God wants to do or is doing. That’s why we need to be biblical when we call people to follow Jesus. We need to be honest about what it means to be a follower of Christ.
We may initially be drawn to the Lord because of the loaves and fishes. Maybe our early experiences are all about me and what I want and need. But if I follow Jesus just for the loaves and fishes, if I follow Jesus with only a though of “what’s in it for me”, I have missed something very significant.
Christianity is not about using Jesus to fulfill all my carnal desires. It not about getting God to give me more stuff and make life more pleasant.(27) That is a byproduct of our relationship with the Lord. It is not the objective. We don’t need loaves and fishes, we need the great “I am”.
We need the Bread from heaven. We need Jesus! It is all about receiving Him and the love relationship that follows.
Jesus turned to the disciples in verse 67 and asked a question, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” He anticipated their answer but the question had to be asked.(28)
When the going really get rough, Peter’s answer is a powerful truth to remember. When my faith has been most shaken, I hold to those words, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
We may not understand the circumstances we are experiencing. We may not understand why God is allowing us to go through what we’re going through. We may be tempted to toss in the towel and give up. But the truth is there is no place else to go. Jesus alone has the words of eternal life. If I turn to the world, I will come up empty. If I turn to things (material gain) I will not be satisfied in my soul. If I turn to sensuality and pleasure, I may enjoy it for a season but it will only lead me into bondage. Where can I go but to the Lord?
When it got rough, the apostles did not leave. They did not leave because they were there for a different reason than the crowd. They were not following Jesus for the fishes and the loaves. They were not following Jesus for material gain or for social prestige. They followed Him because they knew He has the words of eternal life. Down deep, with the exception of Judas, they were following for the right reason.(29)
You may be going through a severe testing of your faith at this time in your life.
We don’t always know what one another are going through. But it is my prayer that when the going really get rough—we will not be offended, we will not turn back from following the Lord.
We will realize as Peter did—where else can we go? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
There is no place else to go. When you’re happy go to Jesus and rejoice in His goodness to you.
When you’re sad and discouraged, go to Jesus because He alone has the words of eternal life.
Never turn back. No matter how perplexed you are with life’s circumstances. No matter how badly you may feel you have failed. Go to Jesus. There is no place else to go.
The old song that my great grandmother used to sing said it well,
“I will arise and go to Jesus,
He’ll embrace me in His arms,
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.”
Especially to that one who is discouraged, Jesus opens His arms to you and says—come and receive My grace—come and receive My strength. Instead of trying to earn my favor, instead of trying to understand My workings, come and trust me with it all.
To that person who feels guilt and shame—Jesus says come to Me today and I will receive you.
To that one who is tempted to turn back from following Jesus, He asks you the same searching question He asked Peter, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”
May we respond this morning as Peter responded—with a renewed commitment to follow Jesus?
Altar Call
Text: John 6:14-71
14After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. 16When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, "It is I; don’t be afraid." 21Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. 22The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.25When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" 26Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." 28Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" 29Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." 30So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: `He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’" 32Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, 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. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 34"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." 35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 41At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42They 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’?" 43"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: `They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" 61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." 66From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 67"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. 68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." 70Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" 71(He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
NIV
1 This lengthy text was read earlier in the service and is provided at the end of this message.
2 Luke 12:32 (also Ps 107 & 118)
3 Matt. 14:22 & Mark 6:45
4 Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody Massachusetts, 2000, p. 214
5 Matt. 20:20-28
6 John 6:22
7 John 6:21 UBS Handbook Series. Copyright (c) 1961-1997, by United Bible Societies
8 From sermon preached by Brian Atwood of Huntsville Free Will Baptist Church in May 2003 who got the illustration from December 23, 1991 issue of Our Daily Bread.
9 Leon Morris, p 224
10 John 15:13 NIV
11 Matt 16:26 “...what can a man give in exchange for his soul? NIV
12 Chris Appleby, http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos/sermon0411.htm
13 Leon Morris, p 217
14 G. Campbell Morgan, The Gospel According to John,, (Los Angeles: Fleming Revell Company) p 110
15 Leon Morris, p 228
16 A.B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, Grand Rapids: Kregel Publishers, 1971), p 140
Bruce’ work suggests a memorable outline of this chapter: Supper, Storm, Search, Sermon, Separation)
17 Luke 1:14-35
18 Matthew 4:4; John 1:1
19 Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Vol. II, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1984), p. 34
20 Hebrews 9:22
21 Lev. 7:26-27
22 Leon Morris on p. 239 points out the common use by Jews in that day of the language of eating and drinking to refer to taking teaching into their innermost being.
23 I Cor. 1:17-24
24 A.B. Bruce, p 144
25 John 6:60 UBS Handbook Series. Copyright (c) 1961-1997, by United Bible Societies
26 Greek: skandalizo- NT:4624 skandalizo (skan-dal-id’-zo) ("scandalize"); from NT:4625; to entrap, i.e. trip up (figuratively, stumble [transitively] or entice to sin, apostasy or displeasure): (Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
27 James 4:3
28 John 6:67 interrogative particle “mee” shows that a negative answer is expected (from Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
29 As stated earlier their fundamental motive did not exempt them from the temptation that the crowd experienced.
