He Has the Words of Life

“Spirit and Life”

(John 6:41-71, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 26, 2009)

John 6:41-71 ⁴¹ 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'?" ⁴³ Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 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. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me- ⁴⁶ not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ 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. 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." ⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" ⁵³ 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. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ 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 as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." ⁵⁹ Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. ⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" ⁶¹ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) ⁶⁵ And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." ⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." ⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." ⁷¹ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

The Word from God (41-47)

In this dramatic interchange Jesus presents Himself plainly to the crowd as the answer to the deepest needs of mankind. If we need food for our bodies in order to live, Jesus of Nazareth claims that He is the bread of eternal life, meaning that people need Him if they are to have life beyond the grave. If everyone else marks his beginning with a conception and a birth on earth, Jesus of Nazareth claims that He had a life in heaven as a powerful and exalted being prior to his conception in the womb of His mother, and prior to his birth described in another passage. If everyone else seeks the mercy of the Almighty or some judgment of merit that they might be found to have come to God some day, Jesus says that the goal of existence would be that people would come to Him, and that will only happen by the express purpose and power of God, meaning that God Himself has the most extreme interest and takes the most diligent efforts in order to make certain that His chosen people will come to Jesus of Nazareth. If everyone looks to some power of divinity to give to him any spark of life that could be left to him after his body has given up mortal life, Jesus of Nazareth claims that He Himself will be the agent by which the dead shall be raised on the last day.

He then goes on to quote from Isaiah 54:13, “They will all be taught by God,” a portion of a larger passage that is plainly describing a world of the greatest eternal blessing. He quotes this to make the point that the teaching of the Father has as its object that people would draw near to Him, the Son, Jesus of Nazareth. He reiterates that He alone is from God, and has seen the Father, and that He speaks authoritatively about eternal life, and can be entirely trusted. In contrast, those who think they know Jesus of Nazareth are quite shocked to hear Him plainly claim that He came down from heaven. They think they know that He had a father and a mother just like everyone else who has ever lived after Adam. They are completely taken aback by the plain claims of this Jesus. As we have seen from the outset of this gospel, Jesus, the Son of God, is the divine Word from God, the Word that brings life to the soul, the Word that is to be received with eager hearts. To believe in Him as we need to is the work of God the Father. If they insist on rejecting Jesus, they are only displaying the fact that the Father has not chosen them to hear His Word with the gift of faith.

The Word and Heavenly Food (48-58)

Jesus is not embarrassed by these expressions of doubt directed toward Him, as if He might back down from the claims that He is making. If anything, His statements become even bolder, even more extreme, almost as if He were attempting to offend those who are already inclined to reject Him. He does this by using imagery that would sound savage to those listening to Him. After reiterating the claims that they have already found offensive, that He Himself is the bread of eternal life come down from the realm of heaven, He says this bread is so very much Him, that He can say that the world must eat His flesh in order to live. We easily make the connection now to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, but can you imagine how strange these words would have sounded in the ears of His hearers when He spoke that day, since He had not yet instituted the Supper for His followers. What could He have meant? He will save any explanation for the ears of a smaller group of disciples. In the face of a hostile crowd, He only turns up the intensity on statements that already have caused them great offense. He plainly believes what He has already said, that faith in His Word is something that comes from the Father, and is not a matter of making His message more palatable and acceptable to a crowd that is beginning to turn away from Him.

On come the more intense statements. He has already spoken of eating his flesh, now he adds that one must drink his blood. Then he changes the word that he uses for eating to a more graphic word, a word that could be translated “gnaw,” but is presented somewhat more gently in our translation with the word “feed.” “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood…” these are the words that He uses to describe the intensity of our partaking of His life for us, and the eagerness of the desire of the one who is in communion with Him. The promise of eternal life and resurrection existence are the same as He has been speaking of throughout this chapter, but the words that are spoken concerning our partaking of Him seem almost designed to repel, rather than to attract. Do we want eternal life? Do we want to live in the resurrection? Do we want to be in His life, and to have Him in our lives? Do we want the experience of life that He has from the Father? If we want these things then we must have Him. In fact, we are told that we must feed on His flesh and drink His blood.

What can this mean? It may help us to remember that there was a whole Old Testament tradition concerning the rules for consuming a sacrificial animal. There were certain offerings that no one was allowed to eat. There were others that only the priests could eat. Then there was the Peace or Thanksgiving offering that could be eaten by the one who made the offering, and there was the Passover lamb that was to be eaten in a family context. The way that Jesus is our eternal life is through the pathway of His sacrifice for us. The Old Testament priest presented animals to God on behalf of the people. Then, in the case of the Passover, and in the case of Peace offerings, the people were made partakers of this sacrificial food. They were taking in the forgiveness from God and peace with God that was based on the death of a substitute. It is in this sense that we have life from the death of Christ, and we become partakers of a heavenly meal that comes to us from the pierced hands of our High Priest in heaven. We are able to have a part in this as we eat at the Lord’s Table. We take in the Word from heaven, who gave Himself for us, that we might know eternal peace, and have the fullest thanksgiving. We are even permitted to be spiritual partakers in the blood of Christ, something that was not allowed in any of the Old Testament ceremonies. Now we have peace with God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

The Word and the Spirit (59-65)

Jesus did not explain His words to the crowd. Even His disciples knew that the things that He had spoken were hard to believe. He explains that the power was not in His actual physical flesh and blood. If we had a relic of a piece of flesh from Jesus, it would have no miraculous properties. It is by the Spirit of God that life is given, both now, again after our death, and in the age to come at the return of Christ. All life comes by the Spirit.

For now, during this mortal life, that spiritual life especially comes through the Word. As Jesus says to His disciples in verse 63, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Throughout the rest of the New Testament we are told that it is through the preaching of the Word that people come to spiritual life and grow in that life. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” They were instructed, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If we have trouble with the Word of God, we would not believe even if our eyes were to see Jesus of Nazareth ascending again to the heavens. We must hear the Word and believe, but this a work of God, and can only come from the Father.

To whom shall we go? (66-71)

We are told that this was it for many in the crowds and the larger group of disciples who had followed Him. They turned their backs on Him, and no longer walked with Him. They could not receive His words. It is at this point where the Lord speaks so movingly to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” This question is for us as we stumble over any matter of faith, or any passage in the Scriptures. We simply do not understand everything. Will we use this as an excuse to walk away from Jesus? Do we have another Savior waiting in the wings? Does Jesus have an understudy? Everything that we could count on under the sun can so quickly be taken away from us.

We need to say finally with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.” This is the confession of the church throughout the ages, though there may surely be a Judas hiding in her midst. There simply is no place else for us to go. Our confidence is in the Father who has drawn us to the Son, in the Son who has given Himself to be our peace offering and our Passover Lamb, and in the Spirit-filled Word that came down from heaven as the Bread of Life. We see Him on every page of the Bible. He is our one story. His cross is our peace. His resurrection is our life.

1. Why did the crowds have a problem with Jesus saying that He came from heaven?

2. How did Jesus respond to their concerns? Did He back away from any of His claims?

3. Why would Christ speak words that seem almost designed to repel, and then explain these things only to a few?

4. How can people grow in their spiritual life?

Wanting Jesus more than what He gives us...

“The Food that Endures”

(John 6:16-40, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 19, 2009)

John 6:16-40 ¹⁶ When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, ¹⁷ got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸ The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. ¹⁹ When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. ²⁰ But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." ²¹ Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. ²² On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. ²³ Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴ So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. ²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." ²⁸ Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" ²⁹ Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." ³⁰ So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" ³² Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." ³⁴ They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." ³⁵ Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. ³⁶ But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸ For 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. ⁴⁰ 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."

Jesus walking on the sea (16-21)

We have been talking about seven signs of Christ and the kingdom of heaven, seven signs chosen by John for his purposes in this gospel. So far we have seen heavenly wine, the healing of an unseen son (“Your Son lives!”), the healing of an invalid (“Do you want to be healed?”), and most recently, heavenly bread for thousands. In the chapters that follow we learn of a man born blind, the raising of Lazarus to mortality, and then finally the sign of all signs, the resurrection of Jesus Christ to immortality as the heavenly Man. All of these seven signs have something of a public element to them, something for everyone to see or to hear about. There were many things that Jesus did that were for the disciples alone, and then for later recording in the accounts of his life that we call the gospels. At the time, these miracles were not presented as matters of general knowledge. Our Lord’s walking on the water was one of those amazing, but private, deeds. This was something for the disciples to think about and to remember. The fact that Jesus was able to come to His disciples at night by walking through the sea was for them alone to know.

The seas that night were rough, and the disciples were in the middle of a large body of water. We’re supposed to be able to think about that, and to feel it. The world can be a frightening place, and a tumultuous and threatening sea on a dark night is a good metaphor for that danger. More than likely, these men were already on edge, but verse 19 uses the word “frightened” to describe their reaction when they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. But in verse 20, He says to the disciples, “It is I,” or literally, “I AM. Do not be afraid.” And we are told that “immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.” They were glad to take him into the boat, to have this one and only I AM with them. In a dangerous storm it is of some comfort to have a Captain who can walk on the sea. Even now, we are encouraged in our efforts to seek God’s kingdom throughout this life by these words, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” It is not hard to imagine how this special private display of divine authority over the elements would be a help to those who had been sent forth as ambassadors of this great King.

On Him God the Father has set His seal (22-27)

The people in the crowd that had earlier been fed with heavenly bread were watching the coming and going of boats very carefully, apparently because they wanted to stay near Jesus wherever he went. They had seen the disciples go off in a boat without Jesus, and they waited, but Jesus did not come. They went looking for Him on the other side of the lake, and they found Him, at which point they asked Him, “When did you come here?” The question they were getting at, but were apparently afraid to ask was, “How did you get here?”

Jesus does not answer their question. That was a private matter. He turned to a deeper issue. The signs that He was performing were signs of Messiah in fulfillment of the Scriptures. It would have been good for them to be seeking Him because of that fact, because of who He was, so that they might have believed in Him in the fullest way. He knew their minds, so He spoke to them their real desire. They liked the bread that they ate, and they wanted more. They needed to love a different kind of bread, a bread that would not perish, and the Giver of that true Bread, more than the bread that comes and goes with eating. They needed to “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” in line with Psalm 34:8. There is only One whom the Father of lights has sealed with His seal of approval. Here was the One who was the authorized and full Representative of the Father. Here was the Son. Here was the eternal One. The loaves and the fish that fed thousands were not eternal. The Giver of loaves is.

Believe in Him (28-29)

In verse 28, they continued their conversation, seeming to ignore His instruction. They asked, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” It is not unusual for people to think that their right standing with God has everything to do with what they are doing. That is why the response of Jesus to this question is of such critical importance. In a very plain and clear way, Jesus indicated that any of our doing for God must flow out of the one work of believing in Him whom the Father has sent.

The Father sent the Son. Let that fact sink into your hearts. This Son is the central fact of the Christian faith. If we are to make any progress in doing, and we must, as many other passages tell us, all of our doing must start by looking to the Son of God in faith for life. He is the only One who can set us on this right pathway. Is He the Messiah who takes away our sins, or is He something else? This cannot become an irrelevant question to us, because Jesus Himself indicates that the work of God is to believe in the Son of God, whom the Father has sent.

There is no one way to do this believing in Jesus. There is no magic prayer with special words, but if you believe of course you will turn to Him in prayer. This believing in Jesus is seeing Him presented in the Scriptures as the only answer for the salvation of mankind, seeing Him as the only answer for you, and then resting your weary heart fully upon this solid Rock for your life, and for the life and ministry of the entire church throughout the centuries. This is believing.

The bread of God, the bread of life (30-35)

Is this such a hard thing to understand that the crowd needed to turn the conversation back to physical bread again? They give notice (yet again) that they will be most impressed if He will feed them (once again). They know that God did that for forty years in the wilderness to a people that He stated, “would not enter His rest” (Psalm 95:11), meaning that they were not allowed to enter into the Promised Land of Canaan. The Lord was not pleased with that generation, but now this generation was imitating them in their strange faithless behavior.

They could not be clearer about what they wanted. Jesus could not be clearer about who they needed. Does this sound familiar at all. We say to God, “Why don’t You give me what I want?” God says back to us, “Why won’t you receive the One you need.” Jesus says, “I AM.” He says, “I am the true bread who has come down from the Father. I am the bread that brings life forever. I can take care of you. I can fill your soul, your life. I can care for you body and soul forever. You need me or you will never be really satisfied.” They had a good meal from him not so long ago, but they become hungry and thirsty again. They need Him, and not just the things He can do for them.

I will raise him up (36-40)

When we want what Jesus can give us in this life, but we do not want Him, then we need to take another look at Him, at the One who alone has the Father’s seal of approval in the fullness of divine life. We need to believe. The odd thing is that we already admit the truth of so much of what we need to know, but we need to do what so many millions have done, resting in the One who we know to be God. We need to rest in Jesus Christ. This is believing; this is coming to Him; and the one who comes to Him, He will never cast out. That is a great promise.

Jesus has come down from heaven, where He existed in His divinity from before all time. He has come down from heaven to do the will of the Father. Adam did not do the will of the Father. God said to Him that He should not do something, but He went ahead and did that thing anyway when He ate the forbidden fruit. Jesus never had one thought like that. He never uttered one word like that. He never did one thing like that, despite all of the worst provocation and temptation, He was without sin. Not only that, He positively did all that the Father commanded. He came to do the will of the Father perfectly. And this was the Father’s will, that none of us who belong to Him would be lost, but that this same Jesus who died for us on the cross would raise us up on the last day.

Everyone who looks on the Son as He is presented in the Scriptures and believes in Him, has eternal life, and eternal life is a very blessed gift. This is the will of the Father, and this is what He sent His Son to do. This could only be accomplished by the one who has the Father’s complete approval, the Son of the Father in truth and love. He has the power of eternity in Him because He is the Son of God. He walked on the water in the view of His disciples. He did the will of His Father in every thought, word, and deed. He came from heaven to do these things, and He has accomplished these things for you. You really do know who He is, and it is your privilege to receive Him as the One who is of far greater worth than anything that He can give to you now, even that thing you want so very much.

1. Why did Jesus walk on the water? Distinguish between His private and public miracles.

2. What evidence in the passage tells us the great desire of the crowd?

3. What is it that God has for us above every other gift, help now, help later, or the Son of God?

4. How is it that Jesus has the power of eternity? What is He going to do with the power of eternity?

Resurrection - The Sign that Demands a Response

“The Sign”

(Jonah 2, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 12, 2009)

Luke 11:29-30 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, "This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

Jonah 2 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, ² saying, "I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. ³ For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. ⁴ Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.' ⁵ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head ⁶ at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. ⁷ When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. ⁸ Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. ⁹ But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!" ¹⁰ And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

QUESTION: Why did Jesus call His resurrection the sign of Jonah?

Jesus demonstrated thousands of signs of His divine power and authority during His days on this earth. Nonetheless, there were those around Him who were not entirely satisfied with these, and they demanded what they called “a sign from heaven.” In denying their request, Christ made a curious statement that we now know was meant to refer to His ultimate sign, His own resurrection from the dead. He said, “No sign will be given, except the sign of Jonah.” What did Jesus mean when He called His resurrection “the sign of Jonah?”

The reluctant prophet – from the belly of Sheol (Jonah 2:1-3)

Jonah was an Old Testament prophet, and a reluctant one at that. God told Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh, and Jonah refused. That’s not like Jesus! God met Jonah in His refusal. He brought about a storm that threatened to take the prophet’s life and the others who were sailing with him. At the end of Jonah 1, Jonah had not only been thrown overboard by his shipmates, he had been rescued from the seas through the agency of a great fish. We are told that he was kept in that fish for three days and three nights. This period of being entombed in that sea creature is compared by Christ to His time in an earthly tomb prior to His resurrection. This is the most obvious link between Jonah and Jesus. They both faced death. Although Jonah did not actual die, he did spend three days in something like a tomb, and his release from that strange prison was something like a resurrection.

Beyond the duration of their trials, Jesus’ resurrection is rightly associated with Jonah because the two men turned their hearts in the same direction. Jonah recounts in verse two that He called out to the Lord out of His distress. This is precisely where Christ turned both in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then from the cross, when He spoke the words of Psalm 22:1, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Jonah cried out to God out of the belly of Sheol. This word “Sheol” was the Old Testament word for the grave, or the place of the body after death. The raging seas would have soon been Jonah’s Sheol. Jesus cried out to the Father for deliverance. His body was in the grave itself, and not a mere picture of Sheol. Our great Messiah, the sinless Son of God, was willing to do this for us, to suffer and to die, and He knew and trusted that he would not remain in that belly of death forever.

You brought my life up (Jonah 2:4-10)

When Jonah was in the fish, which is where he uttered the praise and promise to God recorded in our text, he had already been rescued by God, though not entirely. His destiny was not to remain in the grave. Here there is a parallel again with our Lord. Though His body was resting in a borrowed tomb, He was already delivered in this way: His Spirit had been commended into the hands of His father, and He would enjoy a real existence in a place He called “paradise.” Remember He said as much before His death, when He told the repentant thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” He was already delivered, yet not entirely, not until the tomb would be empty again after the passage of something like the three days that Jonah’s body was inside the belly of a fish.

During that time, Christ returned home to heaven. He went back to that dwelling place above, the holy temple of the Almighty God. This is the temple that Jonah was expecting to see again when he was near death in the seas. Whatever else was happening to him by God’s discipline, he did expect that he would look upon the Lord’s holy temple again. While this could be a reference to the earthly temple in Jerusalem that was only a picture of the heavenly original, this seems very unlikely, since Jonah indicates in verses five and six that he was dying. In the midst of his watery grave, he was yet expecting that his God would bring him home above. To go to heaven now is a deliverance in its own right, but God had more in mind for Jonah. The Lord brought up his life from the pit, and gave him more time on earth and more work to do on earth.

Both Jonah and Jesus not only cried out in the direction of the God who hears the cries of His people, they were both heard. When Jonah’s cry was heard, that meant that a fish would deposit him on the beach so that he could go on to Nineveh, and preach the message that God gave to him. When Jesus was heard, it meant something that was a little bit like what happened to Jonah, but only a very little bit. Jesus was raised again to immortal life and walked the earth with a resurrection body. Jonah was aware that his rescue was a salvation that belonged entirely to the Lord. Jesus is our salvation.

Jonah would do what he promised the Lord that he would do, that he would pay his vow to God by praising him, by sacrificing to him, by fulfilling the ministry that was his to do. Jesus also would pay His vow. He would build up the kingdom of God and offer it up to the Father, a kingdom of those from ages gone by, and from generations yet to come, a kingdom of those who would praise the Lord forever, a resurrection kingdom that is even now stored in the heavens for the final day. This is something that no false god could do. Talk is cheap. Resurrection is expensive and impressive. The God who brings us resurrection is the real God, a God who is the ultimate in steadfast love. He heard the cries of His Son, He gave Him resurrection, and when Jesus receives resurrection, our resurrection is also assured, for we are in Him not only in His cross, but in His resurrection salvation.

The Sign of Jonah (Luke 11:29-30)

We have seen that Jesus and Jonah had a death of shorts that had a shared duration – three days. We have seen that when they looked for help they both looked in the same direction – up to heaven, and to heaven’s God. But there is one other way in which the resurrection of Jesus was especially the sign of Jonah, and it is this one thing that Jesus mentions in Luke 11:29-30. The two men’s lives after their deliverance shared something of the same divine design, that the enemies of God would repent.

Jonah was a living sign to the people of Nineveh. This capital city of the Assyrian Empire was a notoriously wicked place. That’s why Jonah did not even want to go there to preach, because he was afraid that the message that he brought them just might be listened to, they might humble themselves, turn from their sins, and that God might forgive them, rather than destroy them, and this is what he wanted to avoid more than anything else. He wanted the Assyrians to be destroyed. His greatest fears were realized when an eye-popping response to his preaching did come. They listened, everyone high and low, they repented, and God withhold His judgment, at least against that generation. This was not Jonah’s design. He wanted to see Nineveh destroyed. He did not want His resurrection from the depths of the seas to bring life to these mortal enemies of Israel. But this is what God wanted, and this is what happened.

The story of Jonah – The repentance of Nineveh in the face of impending destruction

God had a similar though much bigger design of repentance unto life that would come through the resurrection of Jesus. In every age, there is much about our way of thinking and living that begs for God’s judgment. God brought His Son back from the dead as a sign to an evil generation. There is a way of life through this one Man. When He proclaims the fact that a judgment is coming in the midst of an evil world, it is no time to ignore Him. The people of Nineveh saw the danger that was coming against them. They saw Jonah as a sign from God. They believed His message of a coming judgment, and they repented. How can we do less than this as a response to the resurrected Son of God?

In every way, the risen son of God is superior to the prophet Jonah, even after Jonah’s reeducation camp inside the belly of a fish. Jesus is the eternal Son of God, as well as being a true Son of Man. Jonah was not divine. Jesus was so utterly committed to obeying the commandments of His Father that He said it was His food, and He went to the cross willingly for the good pleasure of God. Jonah had to be hauled back to his divinely given mission and message, and even then he was not happy about it. Jesus came to die so that we might have life and have it abundantly. Jonah’s ministry forestalled the inevitable. Nineveh’s destruction would come in a later generation. Jesus’ saving work for us was so perfect and permanent, that no one can separate us from the Love of God in Him.

There are some very obvious ways in which the sign of Jonah was a good code phrase for our Lord. He used it to speak somewhat secretly, even in the hearing of his enemies and pretended friends, about what would soon happen to Him in His death and resurrection. The detail of three days in a place of death and the new life of the prophet that was like a resurrection is well matched in what happened to Jesus. Jonah made a vow to the Lord in His distress and He was heard. Christ made His vow on the cross and He was also heard. These are interesting facts, but we are not here today for interesting facts. The preaching of the resurrection calls everyone everywhere to acknowledge the truth that God has visited us in person. Once we acknowledge the fact that Jesus did what He told His disciples He would do, we must further admit that, like Jonah, He has preached a message that demands a response.

The people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah. They acknowledged their sinful ways before God, they mourned over their sins, they considered what had been announced to them by Jonah, that the end of their lives and their city was imminent, and that they were in trouble with God. And then they did something. They turned away from their sins. Jesus preached repentance to his own generation, and in this message, the Son of God is saying something to you. If Jonah was not to be ignored by the people of Nineveh, why would anyone think that it would be safe to ignore the Son of God who accomplished the sign of all signs when He rose from the dead? It is unreasonable for you to have no opinion in your mind about the resurrection. It is unfeeling for you to have no emotion in your heart concerning the resurrection. It is unwise for you to have no action in your life flowing from the resurrection. Believe in Jesus and the resurrection. Love Him with your heart. Follow Him with your life.

Who cares enough to lead the lost home?

“That Nothing May be Lost”

(John 6:1-15, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 5, 2009)

John 6:1-15 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. ² And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. ³ Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. ⁵ Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" ⁶ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. ⁷ Philip answered him, "Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." ⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, ⁹ "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?" ¹⁰ Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. ¹¹ 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. ¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, "This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!" ¹⁵ 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.

A large crowd followed Him (1-4)

It is no mystery why thousands of people were following Jesus Christ wherever he went. He was working miracles in fulfillment of the prophetic writings. Death and misery came into this world through sin, and anyone who can perform so many miracles, sin-defying miracles, will attract a great crowd of needy people. We are desperate for the overturning of the fall. We are desperate for the healing that can only come from God.

In Isaiah 35, we read of the signs of Messiah. Interspersed in verses that speak of a world that seems to be beyond pain and sadness, a world full of the sensible glory and presence of God, there are prophesies of the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, and the mute singing for joy. These were the kinds of things that Jesus did in His earthly ministry, but He did not bring the entire new world to us immediately that Isaiah spoke of, that heavenly world somehow here right before our eyes. Yet these other miracles, where the misery of the miserable was overturned with a simple word or a touch, these things were being done in great numbers.

As great as these individual healings were, the greatest life-giving work of Jesus would not be any one act of compassion for some needy person. Our greatest healing would come in the fulfillment of the Passover. As Jesus became for us the Passover Lamb, the largest crowd of desperate people would have their needs bountifully addressed. It would be through the cross that the foundation would be laid for the entire new resurrection world that Isaiah spoke of. The many miracles that Jesus performed which caused so many people to follow Him were signs of that coming place and time. Of all those miracles Jesus performed, John chose seven to speak about in his gospel. One of these seven was the sign of feeding thousands of people with bread that seemed to come from heaven.

He knew what He would do (5-6)

Jesus knew what He would do as He saw such a large crowd coming toward him. Jesus always knew what He would do. He knew the passages that He was fulfilling from the Old Testament, not just the obvious ones, like Isaiah 35 that speaks so clearly of a new life that is coming. Even whole sections of the history of Israel would find their fulfillment in this one Man, Jesus Christ, like the period of the Lord’s provision for His people in the wilderness recorded in the book of Numbers. The Lord had heard the cries of His people in Egypt, and had given them the Passover and the Exodus, yet they were not yet in the Promised Land. Over 600,000 fighting men together with their families were travelling in a desolate place, and they all needed to eat. God fed them from heaven miraculously. He gave them some kind of heavenly bread. We know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:3). Jesus is the Word of the Lord. Jesus is the Bread from heaven. He is the One you need today, and He showed this in this amazing sign, a fulfillment of something that God only hinted about for so many years. He did this by providing food from heaven for His people.

Jesus knew what He would do. Yet He asked a question of His disciples that made it sound like He did not know. “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He was engaging His disciples in the solution to the need before them. We are told that He asked this question to test them. What kind of answer or behavior would have been consistent with passing the test?

Five barley loaves and two fish (7-10)

First the disciples had to see the need for what it was, and recognize their natural inability to solve the problem. Back to Numbers for one moment, if God did not bring bread from heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years, then the people would have died of hunger. One of the lessons that the cross teaches us is that we cannot solve our deepest problems in our own power. To be prepared to receive that lesson, the Lord brings us many experiences throughout our lives that force us to admit that there are things that we cannot fix. When my father was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, and my mother was undergoing cancer surgery in a hospital in Philadelphia, he and I were sharing a waiting room talking about things that we could not fix. My father had forgotten many things by that point in his life, including forgetting moment by moment why he was there in that waiting room, and then feeling guilty and crying when he remembered that it was because his wife was having cancer surgery. There was one thing that he did not forget. He remembered that he had learned that he was not in charge of everything. He learned that 35 years earlier when Mom and Dad lost their four year old daughter to drowning. Dad knew then that God was in charge of things, things that Dad could not fix, and he remembered that.

We learn this same lesson in our lives, not only through experience, but through the Bible. The disciples had a lesson to learn. They had a sign to witness. Part of the lesson of that sign from heaven would be that God would have to feed the people if thousands were to be fed. Five barley loaves and two fish would be inadequate. The companion lesson to our inability, and the big point of the sign that day would be the ability of God the Son, Jesus Christ, working through His disciples. Jesus did not panic. Can you hear His voice? “Have the people sit down.” First lesson: We are not able. The second lesson is like it: God is able, and Jesus is God.

As much as they wanted (11)

Jesus took the loves. He gave thanks to His Father in heaven. Then working through the seed of the church in the disciples and those seated who would simply pass the bread and the fish from one hand to the next, starting with an obviously inadequate supply, people were fed, lots of people. In fact they all ate as much as they wanted. Only God could do it, but He decided that He would do it through people just passing along good food to the next person, food they had received from someone else. Starting with His hands, the blessing went forward through their hands, and into their mouths, and it was a good meal. It was a meal from heaven.

It was also a sign of heaven, because in heaven, people don’t go hungry. In heaven, God cares for us, and He even uses us in the process, because that’s what He likes to do. In heaven, we have good meals. In heaven, we have the fullest appreciation that all the praise and glory for every good meal belongs to God, and that everything good started in the nail-pierced hands of Jesus. In heaven, we are finally satisfied with abundance that God has for us.

Jesus and people – differing expectations and intentions (12-15)

What happened next is unexpected, and even though all the gospels tell this story of the feeding of the 5000, this next detail only appears here in John. It is something that Jesus said. “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” Why did Jesus say this? It was not a concern for cleanliness or order. The birds would have surely been happy to do their part. But that’s not what Jesus wanted. Part of the reason must have been the substantiation of the miracle; that they started out with five loaves and two fish, and ended up with twelve big baskets after everything else had been eaten. But this can’t be the whole store, or even the main story, since Jesus gave a reason for His instruction to gather up the pieces. He said, “that nothing may be lost.” This is a very strange way to speak about bread. We do not think about leftovers being “lost.” By the way, the Greek word can also mean perish or die as in John 3:16, and the words translated here “nothing” can also be translated “no one.”

God has this thing about lost stuff. The concept of being lost has to do with things that were once part of something, but then they seem to be gone. God hates that. You can look in the law. He has provisions about finding lost things and lost animals, and bringing them back where they ought to be. In Luke 15 Jesus tells three stories about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son, and He says that people in heaven are passionate about lost people, people who wandered, that they ought to come home. But it is the use of this word in John’s gospel that tells us that Jesus is teaching us something here about His love for the lost. This word used here and in John 3, is also used in the remaining part of John 6 that we have not read today. In John 6:27 Jesus talks about food “that endures to eternal life,” and He contrasts that with lost food. He uses this same curious word (lost) that He spoke of when He told the disciples to gather the fragments. In John 6:39 He says, “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.”

Jesus is the Son of God. He gives Himself away, like a lost thing, so that no one that the Father gave to the Son will be lost forever. This is His resolve. This is why He came to us. This is why He dies. They think that He is the best prophet ever because He gives the best bread. They want to make Him king right away. He has another plan, God’s plan, a plan that is the fulfillment of everything that a prophet could be, everything that a king could be, everything that a priest or a Passover lamb could be. He is the Lord. He feeds us from heaven. He gathers the lost.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What might some of the reasons be that Jesus is attracting such large crowds?

2. Why does He perform this miracle, and why does John choose it as one of His seven signs?

3. Consider the following passages that speak of the lost: Psalm 119:176, Jeremiah 50:6, and Ezekiel 34:10-16.

4. What is the intention of Jesus in His saving work? What is the power of Jesus in His saving work?