G'day and welcome to stories of a faithful God.

I'm Dave Whittingham.

Before we start, I want to let you know about

a couple of posts on the stories of a faithful God Facebook page.

This is a follow up to when we talked about the temple in the last episode.

One post is a four minute video showing a digital reconstruction of the temple in Jesus

Day.

The other is a link to some photos of a

replica built by an Englishman.

Alec Garrard has spent 30 years working on his

model and it really is astounding.

When you look at both of these you get a

feeling of the huge scale of the temple complex and you understand how it must have

sounded when Jesus said, destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days.

At the start of John's gospel he says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with

goddess and the word was God.

Have you ever wondered why John calls Jesus

the word at the start of his gospel? Sometimes words feel really powerful.

Sometimes they feel like they don't have any power at all.

Sometimes they're powerful in really hurtful ways.

You know the stupidest phrase in the english language, right?

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Was that guy deafenhe? Words can make far deeper cuts than sticks and

stones.

Sometimes though, when I want them to be,

words seem useless when I'm trying to get someone to do something and they just don't

want to do it.

No matter what I say, nothing seems to make a

difference.

The word of God though, that's a word that can

reach into someone's heart, change what they want.

Bring comfort where there's only pain.

Bring joy where there is only sadness.

Bring good when there is evil.

Bring life when there is death.

The word of God is perfect.

And so lets look at the majestic, powerful

word of God as I present to you our next episode of stories of a faithful God.

At the end of our last episode, we left Jesus in Samaria, the area between the two jewish

regions of Judea and Galilee.

And a lot of Samaritans had just received

eternal life.

First, one woman had spoken to Jesus and

believed in him.

Then many more start believing in Jesus with

her.

This is what John tells us in chapter four,

verse 39.

And notice the emphasis on Jesus words we read

now.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him

because of what the woman said when she testified.

He told me everything I ever did.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked

him to stay with them and he stayed there two days.

Many more believed because of what he said.

And they told the woman we no longer believe

because of what you said.

Since we have heard for ourselves and know

this really is the savior of the world.

After two days, Jesus continues on into

Galilee.

Remember, he's been down south in Jerusalem

for the Passover festival.

When hed been there, hed done lots of powerful

miracles.

People were amazed.

Lots of people from Galilee had been there and seen the miracles.

And so when jesus returns, he receives a heros welcome.

The way John tells us about it though, is kind of odd.

Before he tells us about the heros welcome he says in verse 44, Jesus himself had testified

that a prophet has no honour in his own country.

With a saying like that you'd expect his homecoming to be pretty bleak.

But verse 45 says when they entered Galilee the Galileans welcomed him because they had

seen everything he did in Jerusalem during the festival.

For they also had gone to the festival.

What's even weirder is a little word that the

CSB and Niv translations leave out.

But the ESV leaves in.

It's the word therefore.

Or so here's what the ESV for Jesus himself

had testified that a prophet has no honour in his own hometown.

So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he'd done

in Jerusalem at the feast.

Why would jesus having no honour in his

hometown mean that people are so excited to see him?

It's because of why they're excited.

Jesus had lived in Galilee since he was a boy

and he hadn't received any honour.

Now because he's done miracles, now they're

honouring him.

Their welcome of him now highlights their lack

of regard for him before jesus hasn't changed.

Their response to him is different.

Contrast it to the response of the people in Samaria.

They didn't see any miracles.

They just had Jesus words to go on.

But that was enough and they believed.

Isn't it good that the Galileans are at least

welcoming him now though? Doesn't Jesus want people to come to him to

welcome him? Well, remember what we heard back in

Jerusalem.

Lots of people were believing in Jesus because

of his miracles.

But he wouldn't entrust himself to them.

There was something off about their miracle based belief which well see more of as we go

along.

Jesus arrives in Cana, the town where hed done

his first miracle of turning water into wine and were told this in verse 46 there was a

certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.

When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee.

He went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son since he was about to

die.

this father, can't we? The desperation of wanting to do anything to

save his boy.

The relief to hear that Jesus has arrived

back, the knowledge that Jesus is probably the only one who can help.

And if you've read enough of the gospels, you know how compassionate and kind Jesus is.

Which makes Jesus response seem shocking.

He responds in exasperation.

In verse 48 he says, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

Jesus wants people to believe in him.

He wants them to trust him.

But again, there's the ambivalence about belief based on seeing signs and wonders.

Of course, we mustn't take his exasperation with the people around him as a sign that he

doesn't care about them and about their situation.

As we keep seeing in John, when Jesus says something strange, it isn't the end of the

story, it's a teaching moment.

And Jesus is inviting people to keep pursuing

him, which is exactly what the father does.

He begs jesus in verse 49, sir, come down

before my boy dies.

And then jesus doesn't go.

He stays where he is.

He doesn't come and do the miracle in front of

the man and his family and the town.

All he gives the man is his word.

In verse 50, Jesus says to him, go.

Your son will live.

Those might seem like hard words, but for this mandev it's enough.

We're told the man believed what Jesus said to him and departed.

Don't miss the power of that.

This man hasn't actually seen Jesus do the

miracle.

He hasn't received a message from home yet

saying his son's better.

Jesus doesn't do a small miracle to prove that

he can do the big miracle of healing the Son.

All he's done is spoken some simple words.

He said, go.

Your son will live.

And the man believes.

And that's because Jesus is the powerful word

of God, the word that at the creation of the world said, let there be light and light burst

from the darkness.

That same powerful word is now coming from

Jesus with the same creative power.

It's reached inside this man and created

belief.

It's caused him to turn away from the only man

who can heal his son, trusting that the man already has healed his son.

And he's right to trust.

He's right to believe because the powerful

word of God is the faithful word of the faithful God.

So the next day the man's walking back to Capernaum.

He sees his servants running towards him.

They bring good news his boy's alive.

He asks the servants what time his son got better.

And we read from verse 52.

Yesterday at one in the afternoon, the fever

left him.

They answered.

The father realized that this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, your son

will live.

This is no coincidence or happy accident.

Jesus spoke his words from miles away and the boy got better.

Jesus word is powerful, Jesus word is faithful.

You can believe him.

Which is exactly what this man does, we're

told.

So he himself believed along with his whole

household.

Then John tells us now, this was also the

second sign Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.

Like before, the miracle is called a sign.

These amazing things point us to who Jesus is

and where he's come from.

So who is he?

Well, who else speaks such a powerful, faithful word?

Only the creator God.

So where's Jesus come from?

He's come from this same God, his father in heaven.

Sometime later there's another jewish festival and Jesus travels south again to Jerusalem.

Near a gate in the wall of Jerusalem called the sheep gate, there's a pool.

A pool called Bethesda.

It's a beautiful piece of architecture.

John tells us it has five covered colonnades.

But even with all this beauty, it's a place of

suffering and misery and forlorn hope.

Because lying within these colonnades there's

a multitude of disabled people.

The blind, lame, paralysed.

They've come here in desperation.

They've come in the hope of healing.

Apparently the water is occasionally stirred up and there's a belief that if you can get

into the water at that time you can be healed.

There's a particular man lying there who's

been disabled for 38 years.

Just think about that for a moment.

Disability today can be seriously difficult.

Back then though, 38 years with no medicine,

38 years with no wheelchair, 38 years with no occupational therapy or physio or hospitals.

As hes lying there, Jesus arrives and discovers how long hes been an invalid.

Perhaps we shouldnt be surprised by now, but given that discovery, Jesus question to the

man seems pretty shocking.

He asks in chapter five, verse six, do you

want to get well? Umm.

Lets look at the facts.

Hes had 38 years of disability.

Hes come to the place where people hoped to get healed.

It seems like Jesus is asking the dumbest question in history.

The answer's obviously yes, he wants to be healed.

And yet again, Jesus words are really deliberate.

He's raising the idea because he wants to help the man.

The man's reply shows how empty of hope he's become.

He says in verse seven, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred

up.

But while I'm coming, someone goes down ahead

of me, see the tragedy of his situation.

He's lying in the place that seems to be the

only place of hope.

And yet it's hopeless.

He has no friends, no helpers, no one to save him.

Until now.

Jesus next words aren't unclear or hard to

understand at all.

In verse eight, Jesus says, get up, pick up

your mat and walk.

And just like with the boy who he healed from

far away, the effect of Jesus words are immediate.

Verse nine says that instantly the man got well, picked up his mat and started to walk.

This is astounding.

38 years undone in a flash.

The man is healed in an instant.

This should be a moment of joy and dancing and

celebration.

But suddenly the story takes a dark turn.

The day that all this is happening on is a Sabbath, a Saturday.

In the Old Testament law, in Exodus 28, God said this.

He said, remember the Sabbath day.

To keep it holy, you are to labour six days

and do all your work.

But the 7th day is a Sabbath to the Lord your

God.

You must not do any work.

You, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien

who is within your city gates.

For the Lord made the heavens and the earth,

the sea and everything in them in six days.

Then he rested on the 7th day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the 7th day and declared it holy.

It raises the question, of course, of what is work.

If you ask the average person in the street, it's that thing you do for most of the week.

That means you earn a living and can eat.

And I'm confident that that's what God means.

So he's saying, on the Sabbath, take a break, have a rest.

The jewish leaders, though, want to get it exactly right.

They want to go for the strictest possible definition of work so that they don't

accidentally break the Sabbath.

So they come up with all these extra laws that

define what people can and can't do.

Which sounds really holy, doesn't it, going

the whole nine yards? Surely God wants that sort of devotion.

Except it isn't what God told them to do.

He just wanted them to be able to enjoy a rest

instead of enjoyment.

And rest, though, they've ended up with a

burden, always watching out in case you accidentally work.

As the jewish leaders are looking around on this Sabbath, they notice a man coming through

the cloud doing the unthinkable, a most horrible and heinous crime, a crime that will

surely bring down the fierce wrath of God.

He's carrying a matae, something that they

absolutely consider work.

In verse ten, they speak to the man in

righteous indignation.

They say, this is the Sabbath.

The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.

The man stutters out the reply the man who made me well told me, pick up your mat and

walk.

It's a factual response.

Notice the most important part of it, though.

It isnt that a man said to pick up his mat,

its that the man made him well, thats the amazing news, the wonderful announcement.

It doesnt make the Jews excited, though.

If anything, it makes them angrier.

They also think that healing someone is work.

So whoever this guy is, hes a double

lawbreaker, which shows just how far theyve strayed from the God of compassion.

Unlike God, they have no joy that this man's been healed.

They can't see that as a happy thing.

They want to get on top of the situation.

So they ask in verse twelve, who is this man who told you, pick up your mat and walk?

He actually has no idea who healed him.

Jesus has slipped away in the crowd.

John wants to emphasize the main point when he tells us, though.

So he says in verse 13.

But the man who was healed did not know who it

was.

Even if the Jews miss it, we mustn't.

Jesus has just healed the man who's been disabled for 38 years.

There should be dancing in the street.

Anyway, the man who's been healed wanders up

to the temple and Jesus finds him there.

He has an important message to give to the

Mandev, a warning, because as great as the miracle's been, Jesus words are even more

important.

In verse 14, he says to the see, you are well.

Do not sin any more so that something worse doesn't happen to you.

What's worse than the 38 years of suffering he's already had?

Facing the wrath of God for his sin, an eternity in hell, cast out of God's presence,

the man's body is healed for now.

But he doesn't have eternal life.

He's still living in rebellion against his creator.

He needs to come to Jesus and be fully forgiven and transformed by him.

Instead of staying with Jesus, though, he goes off to find the jewish leaders.

He has a choice of whether to throw his lot in with Jesus or with these leaders.

The Jews have rebuked him for carrying his mat, a made up sin that has nothing to do with

God's command.

Jesus has called him to real repentance, on

the other hand, real godliness.

But the man sides with the Jews.

He walks off using the legs that Jesus has so recently healed to let the leaders know that

it was Jesus who healed him.

He doesn't want to be in trouble as a Sabbath

breaker, so he throws Jesus under the bus.

And John tells us the result in verse 16.

He says, therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the

Sabbath.

In response, Jesus talks about God.

He highlights both his closeness to God and their distance from him.

He says in verse 17, my father is still working, and I am working also.

Jesus isn't driven by their ridiculous laws.

He's driven by the character of his father in

heaven.

If they understood what they read in the Old

Testament, if they really knew the character of God, the character we've been looking at

all throughout the stories of a faithful God podcast, the glory of his love and compassion

and justice and faithfulness.

They'd see his character reflected in Jesus.

They'd see Jesus shining out that character as he does the things that God loves to do.

But they're blind.

In verse 18, we're told, this is why the Jews

began trying all the more to kill him.

Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he

was even calling God his own father, making himself equal to Goddesse or Jesus doubles

down on describing his closeness, his oneness with the father, how nothing divides them,

nothing comes between them.

They have the same character and the same

mission.

He says in verse 19.

Truly, I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the

father doing.

For whatever the Father does.

The Son likewise does these things, for the father loves the Son and shows him everything

he is doing.

And he will show him greater works than these

so that you will be amazed.

He talks about how he, the Son, does the same

things that the Father does, things that in the Old Testament very clearly belong to God,

giving life and judging the world.

And the reason the Father wants the Son to do

the same things is because he wants everyone to glorify Jesus just like he's glorified.

He says that the Father's given judgment to his son so that all people may honour the Son,

just as they honour the father.

Anyone who does not honour the Son does not

honour the father who sent him.

We've talked before about how you can't say

that you love God, but you don't really like Jesus.

Jesus is God.

God the Son and God the Father has no time for

people who don't treat his son as God.

This is a loving warning that Jesus is giving

to the jewish leaders.

He's warning them to stop rejecting him,

because by rejecting him, they're rejecting God.

It isn't just a warning, though.

It's an offer of sweet, sweet life, and offer

to believe his word.

In verse 24, he says, truly, I tell you,

anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come

under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Truly, I tell you, an hour is coming and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of

the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

A few years ago, in Tasmania, down the bottom

of Australia, a couple of gold miners became trapped when a small earthquake triggered a

cave in.

Brant Webb and Todd Russell were nearly a

thousand metres under the ground.

They were inside a cage about two metres long,

1.2 metres wide, and one and a half metres high.

They were lying down, partially covered by rubble.

And the ceiling that was now just above their faces was made up of thousands and thousands

of small rocks pressed together.

If they slipped, the whole thing could

collapse.

They were down there in the dark, in this tiny

cage for six days, knowing that they could die at any moment.

They heard explosions of rescuers trying to get through rock to reach them.

Every time an explosion went off, some of their ceiling fell in.

On the 6th day, though, a voice, two voices.

Voices they knew, voices that meant life.

They cried out, we're in here.

It's a bit like the word of Jesus, the voice

of Jesus that brings life to people who are dead in our sin.

Imagine if the miners had cried out, leave us alone.

We don't need you.

Go away.

That'd be nuts, right? And yet that's what the jewish leaders are

doing to Jesus.

And so again he warns them.

In verse 28, he says, do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who

are in the graves will hear his voice and come out.

Those who have done good things to the resurrection of life, but those who have done

wicked things to the resurrection of condemnation.

Just to be really clear, Jesus has already told us what the good thing is that leads to

life.

It's believing in him.

If you don't believe in him, you're stuck in your wickedness and it'll lead to

condemnation.

Jesus then tells them why they should believe

in him.

He says, look at the testimony, the evidence

that's been given to you.

He reminds them that John the Baptist

testified about him.

Remember, the gospel started with these guys

sending messengers to John.

And Jesus is saying, actually listen to what

John says.

Then there's the signs that his father's given

him to do.

Jesus has just healed a man who's been

crippled for 38 years, and their only reaction's been, how dare he break the

Sabbath.

The greatest testimony, though, comes from God

the father.

The whole Old Testament that God caused to be

written, it's all about Jesus.

It all points to Jesus.

These guys are teachers of those scriptures, but they're blind to what they mean.

Jesus says, the father who sent me has himself testified about me.

You have not heard his voice at any time and you haven't seen his form.

You don't have his word residing in you because you don't believe the one he sent.

You pore over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them.

And yet they testify about me, but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have

life.

Do you see their problem?

They're searching and searching and searching the Old Testament, trying to find the key to

eternal life.

And all the time it's pointing to Jesus, the

one who gives that eternal life.

But they're rejecting Jesus.

They're rejecting his word.

Later on, in verse 45, Jesus says to them, do

you think that I will accuse you to the father?

Your accuser is Moses, on whom you've set your hope for.

If you believed Moses, you would believe me because he wrote about me.

But if you don't believe what he wrote, how will you believe my words?

And with that question hanging unanswered, Jesus leaves Jerusalem.

Jesus returns back up north to Galilee, and he heads across the lake.

John tells us in chapter six, verse two, a huge crowd was following him because they saw

the signs that he was performing by healing the sicken.

I hope by now you're feeling the tension there.

There's a sort of ambivalence about Jesus miracles.

On the one hand, they're great.

They're really great for the crippled man

who's healed after 38 years, for the father who receives his son back from death's door.

They're great in and of themselves.

They're also great because they work as signs

pointing to who Jesus is and where he's come from.

Jesus very deliberately does them for that purpose.

And yet the belief that flows from them is a little questionable, and that's nowhere more

evident than in what's about to happen.

John tells us that the Passover's near.

This is the second Passover in the gospel at the first one, Jesus went down to Jerusalem

and to the temple.

There we discovered that the temple is being

replaced by Jesus himself.

Which makes it really significant that this

time Jesus isn't down in Jerusalem with the crowds.

Instead the crowds are coming to him in Galilee.

They're coming to the true temple.

Jesus goes up on a mountain and sits down with

his disciples.

He sees all the crowd coming towards him.

You may remember from the Exodus series that a key part of celebrating Passover is eating

unleavened bread.

So in verse five, Jesus turns to one of his

disciples, Philip, and asks him where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?

And then John gives us this great editorial note.

We're told Jesus asked him to test him for he himself knew what he was going to do.

So Jesus is completely calm.

But Philip, you can imagine his shock at the

question.

He doesnt understand at all.

Its like if Jesus and the disciples have rocked up at a sports stadium and Jesus says

just pop over and buy everyone a hamburger.

Philip responds 200 Denarii worth of bread

wouldnt be enough for each of them to have a little.

200 Denarii is a years wages for a roman soldier.

Another disciple, Andrew, seems to want to save Philip from being put on the spot.

Bye.

What seems to be a completely daft question.

He says in verse eight there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.

But what are they for? So many.

For the disciples, this feels like a ridiculous situation.

Their belief in Jesus is still growing and they haven't worked out that they can trust

him to solve it.

But Jesus has a plan.

He takes charge and he tells his disciples to make the crowd sit down.

John tells us in verse ten there was plenty of grass in that place.

So they sat down.

What happens next? As you read it feels like it happens so

quickly, almost like it was an average everyday event.

Verse eleven says then Jesus took the loaves and after giving thanks he distributed them to

those who were seated so also with the fish as much as they wanted.

When they were full, he told his disciples, collect the leftovers so that nothing is

wasted.

So they collected them and filled twelve

baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had

eaten.

If you're familiar with the story, it's so

easy to forget how astonishing it is.

Jesus turns five small barley loaves and two

fish into enough food to feed this vast crowd in and of itself.

It's astonishing.

And yet what's even more astonishing is what

it says about Jesus.

This isn't lost on the people who eat the

food.

They see the significance of this as a sign

pointing to Jesus identity, and they read the sign a little bit right and a little bit

wrong.

They say in verse 14, this truly is the

prophet who is to come into the world.

We talked about this prophet back in the first

episode of this series.

People wondered if John the Baptist was the

prophet.

Remember, Moses had promised that a prophet

like him would come to lead God's people.

One of the key things that happened in the

time of Moses, as the Israelites traveled through the wilderness for 40 years, was that

God fed them.

Every day.

They'd wake up, look out of their tents, and see stuff on the ground which could be baked

into bread.

And that's how God fed them for 40 years.

So when these people think, hey, we've just been miraculously fed, like the Israelites

back then, they think Jesus is the next Moses, and they're kind of right.

Jesus does fulfil that prophecy.

He is the prophet, but he's also more than

that.

And that's what they don't understand, because

they've missed making the connection between a key part of the story in Exodus and what's

just happened to them.

It wasn't Moses who fed the Israelites in the

wilderness.

It was God.

As they're talking about this among themselves, Jesus realizes that there's an

atmosphere brewing.

The people are filled with a misguided

excitement.

They have dreams of a king who will lead them

to kick out the roman empire and establish God's kingdom on earth.

Jesus is there to establish a kingdom, but not one like they have in mind.

When he sees that they're about to come and make him king by force, he gets out of there.

He withdraws back up the mountain by himself.

Evening arrives, and the disciples jump in the

boat to head back over the lake to Capernaum.

It's dark, and Jesus isn't with them.

A high wind picks up, and the water becomes a frothy mess.

The men are straining at the oars.

They've rowed about three or 4 miles, which

means they're maybe as much as halfway across the lake, but a long way from their

destination.

And suddenly, in amongst the dancing white

tipped waves, the disciples see Jesus not swimming out to them, but walking on the

water, just taking a casual stroll across the undulating surface of the deep.

And John gives another one of these massively understated descriptions.

He says in verse 19, he was coming near the boat, and they were afraid of course they're

afraid.

They're freaking out.

So Jesus says to them in verse 20, it is I, don't be afraid.

At least that's how it's been translated, not just in the CSB, which we use here, but also

in the ESV and the NIV, because it's a good translation.

The wording in the original language is I am, do not be afraid, which sounds a bit weird in

English, so they translate it as it is I. And in the original language, that's exactly what

you'd say.

If you wanted to assure someone that it was

you, you'd say those words, I am.

But of course, once we hear the words I am,

alarm bells will be ringing in our heads, especially if you've got Exodus sitting in the

back of your mind.

By the way, have I mentioned that the last

series of the podcast was on the first part of Exodus?

If you haven't listened to that yet, you are missing out.

I am, of course, is part of God's name.

At the burning bush, God said, I am who I am.

So is Jesus just trying to say, don't panic, it's only me?

Or is he suggesting that he should be thought of as yahweh the great?

I am God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Well, it's at least the first one there, but

let's look at the facts.

He's just walked out to them on the water.

And then what happens next is equally amazing.

The disciples are comfortable enough to accept

him into the boat.

And then immediately, immediately, the boat

arrives at the destination.

One moment they're struggling through the

night, straining at the oars, being battered by the wind only halfway across the lake.

And then suddenly they're on the other side.

What's going on here?

Remember, the miracles Jesus does are signs of his identity.

Throughout the Old Testament, the sea is seen as a sign of chaos and disorder.

It's untamable, except by one person, God.

It's God who creates the world up out of the

sea.

It's God who judges the world by sending the

flood, keeping Noah and his family safe, and then restoring order out of chaos.

It's God who sends a storm on the sea when Jonah's trying to escape him, and God who

calms the sea when Jonah's thrown overboard.

So even if Jesus is just saying, don't panic,

it's me, the rest of the evidence points to Jesus identity as God the son.

It's an identity that the crowd who've been fed by jesus have missed.

The crowd wake up the next morning, and look around for Jesus.

After all sorts of confusion, they get into some boats and head over the lake to

Capernaum.

They're pretty shocked to find Jesus is there

ahead of them.

And they say in verse 25, Rabbi, when did you

get here? Jesus isn't interested in answering how and

why he got there.

He wants to talk about why theyve followed

him.

And hes pretty upfront.

He says, you guys havent come here because youve suddenly worked out who I am.

Youve come because you got a free meal yesterday and you want to be fed again.

And then he returns to the metaphorical language.

When he was beside the well with the lady in the last episode, he used water to talk about

how he gives eternal life.

Now he uses food instead of water to make

pretty much exactly the same point.

This is what he says from verse 26.

He says, truly, I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw the signs, but

because you ate the loaves and were filled.

Dont work for the food that perishes, but for

the food that lasts for eternal life, which the son of man will give you, because God the

Father has set his seal of approval on him.

Okay, so if they have to work for this food,

they ask the next logical question.

They ask, what can we do to perform the works

of God? This is a question that people tend to make

more complicated than it is.

They think, how can I please God?

Should I go on pilgrimage, pray five times a day, fast, give to the poor, meditate, what

can I do to earn this thing that Jesus is saying he can give me?

Which is completely the wrong way to frame the question, because Jesus answer isnt do this

act or that act.

Its believe, trust.

In verse 29, Jesus says, this is the work of God that you believe in, the one he has sent,

or in other words, believe in Jesus, then youll have eternal life.

The answer weve been seeing throughout the gospel, their response is astonishing in its

audacity.

Listen to their outrageous response in verse

30.

They say, what sign then are you going to do

so that we may see and believe you? What are you going to perform?

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written.

He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Do you see why that's so outrageous?

They're asking for a sign proving that he's worth believing in, a sign like the manor in

the wilderness.

But he's already done it.

They've already had exactly what they're asking for, and they still don't believe.

This is devastating.

Jesus is offering eternal life, and they're

just trying to trick him into giving them another free feed.

They also still have the problem that they had the day before.

They're still thinking that Jesus is the prophet like Moses, because he gave them bread

to eat.

But it wasn't Moses who gave them the bread in

the wilderness.

It was God.

And Jesus wants them to know that now God's giving them a better bread, not bread that

only satisfies for a day, just like the water from the well, that only satisfies for a short

time.

This is something.

In fact, it's someone who's eternally satisfying.

He says in verse 32, truly, I tell you, Moses didn't give you the bread from heaven, but my

father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is the one who comes down

from heaven and gives life to the world.

And just like the woman last week said, sir,

give me this water so I won't have to keep coming to the well.

They say, sir, give us this bread always.

And Jesus declares in verse 35, I am the bread

of life.

No one who comes to me will ever be hungry,

and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

This is picture language.

It's obviously picture language.

When you eat normal bread, you stop being normal hungry.

When you have the bread of life, you stop being hungry or thirsty for eternal life.

Theyre still fixated on normal bread.

And he tells them straight up, I know that you

dont believe in me, but then he makes an amazing promise for all those who do believe

in him.

He says in verse 38, I have come down from

heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose none of those he has given me, but

should raise them up on the last day.

For this is the will of my father, that

everyone who sees the son and believes in him will have eternal life.

And I will raise them up on the last day.

The people are after a quick feed, but Jesus

is offering so much more.

His fathers sent him to save people, save them

for eternity.

And jesus will not lose a single one of those

hes come to save.

Jesus who walks on water, who heals people

who've been crippled for 38 years, who can turn a few loaves into a feast for thousands.

This powerful Jesus, he's the perfect saviour, because if you're in his care, he will not let

you go.

There's absolutely nothing that can rip you

out of his hands.

Rather than being shocked at their own

audacity.

Though the people are shocked at his, they

start grumbling.

They ignore the evidence of the very sign they

asked for.

And in verse 42, they say, isn't this Jesus,

the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How can he now say, I have come down from heaven?

Jesus says a lot in reply to that which we're not going to cover in detail.

He sticks with the picture language, though, even though they're confused by it.

He does it because those who genuinely want to understand him can.

And those who dont prove their stubbornness by their refusal to stop and think about what hes

saying.

Let me read a chunk for you to give you, if

youll excuse the pun, a taste of what he says.

From verse 47, he says, truly, I tell you,

anyone who believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.

Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

At that, the Jews argued among themselves, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

So Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and

drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.

The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on

the last day because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

It has to be said that it isnt just people on that day who have struggled with this picture

language.

There are plenty of people today who believe

that we do literally have to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood.

They think that Jesus is physically present in the bread and wine of the Lords supper or

communion or the mass.

Mainly they take that from other gospels and

the last supper before christs crucifixion, but also from here.

And people have come to believe that that's what gets them into God's kingdom, or at least

it's a part of what gets them into the kingdom or what gives them eternal life.

And that's such a dangerous idea that I just want to pause for a moment and reflect on it.

Jesus has been really clear both here and elsewhere in the gospel about how we get

eternal life.

It's by believing in him that's the thing that

never changes in his messaging.

What does change is the picture language.

Here it's eating Jesus flesh and drinking his blood.

But in chapter four, it was water.

In chapter ten, Jesus is going to call himself

a door.

In chapter one, Jesus is called a lamb.

All those different pictures help to give a layer of understanding, but they all come back

to the same we need to believe in Jesus.

It's strange, isn't it, how people will stick

so closely with one picture but not the rest.

I've heard people say, Jesus says we need to

eat his flesh, so the bread must be him.

And they do the same thing with communion

wine.

But I've never heard anyone do it with water.

I've never heard anyone say we must walk through a door to be saved, because Jesus is a

door.

And that attitude that makes one picture the

centre of salvation and ignores all the others has to set alarm bells ringing.

Why do people like the idea that by eating bread and drinking wine, you receive Jesus and

you get some eternal life? Because it's easy.

It's easy to eat a piece of bread.

It demands nothing from you.

There's no submission to Jesus belief in Jesus turning away from sin.

It's like a magic pill.

Here, eat this bit of Jesus and you'll be

fine.

Believing in Jesus means taking the crown of

ruling my life off my own head and acknowledging Jesus kingship over me.

Which is exactly what the mass of people who Jesus is speaking to don't want to do.

They hate this message.

They grumble and complain of.

Jesus says to them in verse 63, the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

But they don't want his words.

They don't believe his words.

Does that mean his words have failed? Does he not have the power?

We talked about the power of the creator in his words.

No, his words haven't failed because before all this, the father had already decided who

was his, who he was giving to his son to save, who Jesus will lose none of.

And so the ones he's chosen will believe the words, and the ones he hasn't, won't.

In verse 64, we're told Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the

one who would betray him.

He said, this is why I told you that no one

can come to me unless it is granted to him by the father.

God's power, God's control is perfect.

He isn't making people evil.

Everyone's evil, whether they come to Jesus or not.

But the powerful God is rescuing some.

And so we read from verse 66, from that

moment, many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.

So Jesus says to the twelve, you dont want to go away too, do you?

Its easy to think why the twelve might want to leave.

So many people are walking away saying, this guy is out of his mind.

The day before, those same people were going to forcibly make him their king.

Now they just want to get away from him as a disciple.

The day before you might have been thinking, this is so great.

Look at how many people are coming to Jesus.

This is exactly the sort of movement we hoped

for.

Now that dream's shattered, why stay?

Perhaps because of the miracles, the signs that seem to be full of power.

After all, when Jesus did lots of signs and wonders, people flocked to him.

It's only when he opened his mouth to speak that they went away.

That doesn't bother Peter though, because the signs point to Jesus being the word of God.

If you truly believe the signs, you'll want the word.

So in verse 68, Simon Peter answers, Lord, to whom will we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We've come to believe and know that you are

the holy one of God.

They aren't driven away by Jesus words.

They know.

They believe that his words give life, eternal

life.

There is literally nowhere else on the planet

you can go to get that.

Not to an investment bank, not to a tropical

island, not to a nice four bedroom house with a big backyard, not to a country estate, not

to a guru on top of a mountain, not on pilgrimage, not by a holiday to Jerusalem, not

by taking bread and wine in a church building.

Not by an ecstatic experience where you think

you commune with goddess.

Jesus.

Words give life, real life, the best life, eternal life.

Not easy life in this world necessarily, but life connected to the God who gives life.

Life that brings true joy, true happiness.

And unlike a good meal, it goes on forever.

Back in Jesus day.

Back in Jesus Day people arent just walking

away from Jesus.

Theyre growing in their aggressive opposition

to him.

The jewish leaders are getting angrier and

more frustrated.

Theyre starting to threaten Jesus and anyone

who follows him.

The crowds are getting more and more confused

about whether to listen to him or not, but thats a story for next time.

Thanks to everyone who has left a rating or review on your various apps.

That's really helpful, encouraging for me, but also helpful for other people.

Thanks as well to everyone who signed up to be a financial supporter.

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I do need more people to sign up.

So if you're able.

Would you consider becoming a financial partner at the website faithfulgod.net dot.

You'll make my wife very happy.

And you'll be helping other people hear about

our great God as well.

Bye for now.