Author: Nick Booth

John 6.37-40

There is a long standing false debate in Christian circles where some say who is saved is by God’s choice alone and others say it is up to the individual to make their personal choice as to whether to believe in Christ. It is my view, both sides in this argument do not take into account the whole of scripture. Jesus’ discourse in John 6 is helpful in making clear various responsibilities or roles that the Trinity and individuals have in the salvation process.

D L Moody was an initially unlikely nineteenth century evangelist who started adult life working in his Uncle’s shoe store and was a very reluctant church attender. However, he did become a Christian and then became a remarkable evangelist and along with his famous gospel singing collaborator Ira D. Sankey, toured the U.S. and U.K. for many years, speaking to huge crowds. Among his many accomplishments he founded what is now known as the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He used this illustration to show the differing perspectives of God and the seeker after God.

‘When you are saved, it’s as if you walk through a door with a sign over it saying, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” You walk through the door and when you look back, you see on the other side of the door the words, “Before the creation of the world I knew you.” (D. L. Moody)

Salvation is by God the Father’s will. Jesus said, ‘All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.’ ^John6.37 He also said, ‘For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.’ ^{John 6.40} So we see that the Father wills, draws and gives eternal life.

How does the Father draw people and give eternal life? He does this through the work of the Holy Spirit. ‘The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you – they are full of the Spirit and life.’ ^{John 6.63} The Holy Spirit uses the words of Jesus and the gospel to convict people of the truth of Christ. We see in the Acts of the Apostles how the Holy Spirit both inspires and convicts people revealing Christ and transforming lives. It is important to understand that when Jesus says, ‘the flesh counts for nothing’ it is not meant as the Gnostics interpreted it. The Gnostics considered the body and the material world were evil and only the spirit was good. John’s first letter was written in part to refute the early development of what became Gnosticism. Jesus had a physical resurrection body as will those raised to be with him on the last day.

The Son (Jesus) firstly is obedient to the Father and so achieves what is the Father’s will. ‘I come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.’ ^{John 6.38} His role is to save, keep and raise up those who believe in the Son. ^{John 6.39-40} Jesus achieves the reconciliation between God and people through his own death and resurrection. He expresses this through the metaphor of people eating his flesh and drinking his blood. There is no indication of this being transubstantiation, throughout the discourse he has been using the image of himself being the bread of life. Eating is believing, the blood is representing the sacrifices for sin in the Mosaic law. Without that belief there is no gift of life. ‘Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”.’ ^{John 6.53}

Jesus words, ‘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’ ^{John 6.40} convey the notion that firstly it is the individual’s responsibility to recognize Jesus for who he is. However, it is more than an intellectual responsibility, belief also includes personal commitment and trust.

“Come to (him), and you will never thirst, never hunger, always be fully and eternally satisfied.” When this week will you most need to remember this?

The Old Rugged Cross

John 6.30-36

Giving they say is one of the love languages and it is true that gifts are usually associated with the most significant moments in our lives. I wonder what gift you treasure the most. For me it must be my wedding ring because of the love and commitment associated with it. In an important sense the ring represents the gift of life together. Other gifts actually bring life such as the gift of a transplant. Similarly, for those dying from famine the gift of food and water is also the gift of life. To the extent that some gifts prevent life threatening disease they also are a gift of life, I am thinking of such gifts as toilet twinning or water pumps and mosquito nets. When we join in with schemes, frequently at Christmas time, run by Charities such as TEARFUND or OXFAM to buy a gift card that will buy a water sanitary kit or even school books for a child, we are in a sense giving life.

The people of Israel were in need of such a gift in the wilderness. They were refugees from Egypt with no settled place of their own, unwanted by surrounding nations. To go back was to go back to slavery, punishment and for many death. They had no food. The people then constructed a false reality where they reimagined their slavery as the good life. ‘There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted,’ ^{Exodus 16.3} they said. ‘Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day”.’ ^{Exodus 16.4}

The crowd asked Jesus for a sign, ‘that you will give that we may see it and believe you.’ ^{John 6.30} The irony being that they had just witnessed the sign themselves and not recognized it. The crowd quoted Moses and the gift of manna. Jesus then corrected their thinking, ‘It is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread and gives life to the world.’ ^{John 6.32,33}

The crowd wanted a gift, they wanted food to sustain their life, but their thoughts were limited to a life that would end. The gift that Jesus wanted to give was eternal life and that is only received as a gift. He is that gift of life. The bread of life and the water of life are metaphors for eternal life. As he goes on in Chapter 6 to elaborate how he is the bread of life and the gift of eternal life he states again, ‘I tell you the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.’ ^{John 6.47,48} 

To avoid any potential confusion, Jesus does not mean it is wrong to work for your living and provide for oneself, family and dependents, far from it. The bible is clear we have a responsibility to work and contribute. ^{2 Thessalonians 3.10-12} Here Jesus is urging the crowd to receive the greater gift of eternal life that is only received as a gift through faith. We are incapable of earning it.

Have we received the gift of eternal life through faith?

Do we take regular time to be thankful for the gift of eternal life?

How has the gift of eternal life, reoriented our priorities?

Jesus Christ / eternal life

^{John 6.24-29}

When Harry was 18 he left home to go to college and was suddenly faced with a whole set of questions most of which had little to do with study and much more to do with navigating life. Questions about friendship and intimate relationships, managing money and time, what to do socially. Then deeper questions came into view about what type of person should he be? How much should he swear? How much should he smoke or drink?  Was there a purpose to drive his life or will it just happen? When Harry left college he was then faced with career decisions, buying a house, wanting to find a life partner and then having made those first decisions there was the question, was that enough? Harry remained in good health and looked forward to retirement when he could do what he pleased. He looked back over the previous 40 years and along the way he had enjoyed his marriage, children and now grandchildren, was that enough? When Harry was alone, away from the all-consuming every day activity, he knew, that lovely as much of his life had been in the end there remained big gaps when the answer to his question as an 18 year old, was there a purpose to his life or will it just happen, had not been responded to and he was still avoiding it.

The crowd that followed Jesus from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other and back again were the equivalent to 1^st century Harrys. There life was taken up with questions concerning the everyday. Jesus addressed their deeper need through the everyday. He knew that they had seen signs, especially the miraculous feeding of the crowd, about who he is and the purpose of life but failed to understand them. Life for them was generally hard and feeding the family was pretty much top priority. Jesus wanted so much more for them.

Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’ ^{John 6.26,27}

Everything they had in life they had to work hard for and the crowd then took the Jesus statement to work for food that does not spoil as a set of things to do to earn eternal life. They lived in a culture where you only got what you worked for and their religion was largely a set of onerous rules to be obeyed. Jesus redefined for them what the work involved. ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent’ ^{John 6.29}

Can that really be true? It still goes against the grain doesn’t it? We still live in a culture where we strive for a purposeful life. Jesus is being very clear, the start of a truly purposeful life as defined by God is to believe in the one God sent, Jesus.

That was such a difficult lesson for the crowd and hard to accept. It remains so now. To accept it one needs to hear the love with which the words were said and realise that the one saying it was soon to give his life for the crowd he was speaking to.

Where are we looking to give purpose to our lives?

BREAD OF HEAVEN

^{John 6.15-21}

In these six verses we see two examples of being in the presence of God. The first is Jesus who went up the mountain to pray and the second is when Jesus met the disciples in the stormy sea.

Jesus did not miss out on spending time in prayer and fellowship with his Father. At the beginning of the chapter Jesus had crossed to the east side of the Sea of Galilee with his disciples to find time to pray. This had been interrupted by a huge crowd seeking him and he then spent an exhausting day teaching, healing and finally feeding the crowd. He then withdrew on his own. His disciples had lost track of him. He went back up the mountain and stayed alone except for being in the presence of God through the evening and on into the night. This was not a one off, there are frequent references to Jesus spending time like this with his disciples and alone. At times he behaved in this way before a major event, prior to choosing his twelve disciples, ^{Luke 6.12} before Peter’s profession of faith ^{Luke 9.18} and before the transfiguration. ^{Luke 9.28} Perhaps the times of greatest significance and recorded in the most detail were following his baptism ^{Matthew 4.1-11} and on the eve of his crucifixion. ^{Matthew 26.36-46}  However, Jesus did not leave times of sustained prayer to times of greatest need, prayer to him was a necessity of life not to be postponed. Luke tells us that Jesus, ‘often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.’ ^{Like 5.16} Jesus provides the ultimate example of choosing to spend time in the presence of God. He also needed those times to be uninterrupted and so found places where he could be quiet.  It was to him as great a need as food, drink and sleep.  Jesus did not let the business and urgency of the day crowd out quiet time. He normally chose to rise earlier or spend time at the end of the day to be with his Father.

The disciples having lost Jesus made the decision to row the six miles back across the Sea of Galilee even though it was going to take them well into the night to achieve it. Over half way across they hit trouble with high waves and strong winds.  They were not fools, some were experienced sailors on the Galilean Sea, they knew they were at serious risk. At that point Jesus came alongside walking on the turbulent sea. Now they were more afraid from seeing Jesus walking on the water than they were of the stormy sea.

The importance of this event is not that this was simply an amazing feat, it lies much more in what it says about the identity of Jesus and the significance of the words Jesus spoke. Jesus in walking on the sea demonstrates that he is the Lord of all the natural world because he is the creator and sustainer of the world and beyond that the universe. When we are in his presence, this is who he is. How does that relate to the troubles we find ourselves in? Jesus reassures his disciples with the words, ‘It is I; don’t be afraid.’ ^{John 6.20} This was not a carelessly chosen phrase. Jesus deliberately chose to say ‘It is I’ to remind them of Exodus 3.14 where God said to Moses when the people ask you who sent you, say to them ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ When Jesus said these words to the disciples he was preparing them for the time when he answered Jewish leaders with the words, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’

The impact of Jesus’ presence was that the disciples calmed down and welcomed him into the boat and they immediately reached their destination. ^{John 6.21}

What kind of King is this, the great ‘I AM’? “He is far greater than we can imagine, and his claim upon our lives is more significant than our tendency to domesticate God so often allows.” ^{Josh Moody, John 1-12 For You}

Do we make time and space within each day as Jesus did for spending that valuable time in the presence of God?

Do we allow the storms of our lives to triumph over the scale of the majesty of Jesus?

Here In Your Presence – New Life Worship

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John 6.1-15

If you have taken the step to active belief in Jesus and as they say committed your life to him, how did you reach that point. It is typical that such a personal journey can be complicated although not for everybody. Listening to people’s personal stories is a helpful process when planning how a church should reach out with the good news of Jesus. It rapidly becomes evident that individual journeys are frequently very different and what made the greatest impact also varies greatly. Misunderstanding and changing motivations are common features. We can draw comfort that even the way people reacted to Jesus and his teaching was a complicated picture.

Jesus had been attracting large crowds despite opposition from the authorities. As it neared the Passover festival the general level of anticipation would have risen because it was at Passover time people expected God to act. Jesus chose to cross the Sea of Galilee, we know from the other gospels that Jesus wanted a quiet place to pray and be with his closest disciples. However, a great crowd followed him. Their motivation was simple, they had seen him perform miraculous signs especially healing the sick. This was incredibly important as medical knowledge was very limited and there were a huge number of ailments and disabilities for which there was no treatment. The crowd were not foremost interested in his teaching.

Jesus and his disciples had climbed a mountain, probably the Golan Heights, and could see the crowd coming from a long way away. Luke tells us, ‘he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.’ ^{Luke 9.11} Jesus then did not turn away the opportunity to both meet people’s physical needs or teach them about the kingdom of God. He was prepared to stop what he had wanted to do to put others’ needs first. This alone is a serious challenge for all of us and the church in general.

Secondly, he did not hesitate to teach about the kingdom of God even though that was not the main reason people came to him. There would have been those who did seriously desire to hear Jesus teaching amongst the crowd but Jesus did not discriminate. He healed all and he taught all. As churches it is easy to appear as if we are only interested in people if they accept what we have to say even if that is not how we feel.

Jesus questioned Philip about how they were going to feed the crowd as a test. John doesn’t say what Jesus was testing but Jesus was about to perform a sign. ^{John 6.14} By miraculously feeding a vast crowd Jesus was providing a sign as to who he is. The connections to God’s provision for Israel in the desert, the provision of meat in Numbers 11 and Manna in Exodus 16 were there for all to see, only God could do this. The test for Philip then could well have been, how much did he understand of Jesus’ identity?

Once Jesus had fed the crowd and they themselves had participated and had time to absorb what was happening, a change occurred in their understanding. It was not a complete grasp of the truth regarding Jesus but they did understand that what they had seen was in the same category as had been performed through the great prophets of the past. ^{John 6.14}

They responded by wanting him to be their political ruler, a king, a rebel leader against Herod and the Romans. They had translated the sign of Jesus’ divinity and concern with the eternal as well as the temporal into a political movement. The crowd had shifted its understanding and interest, grasping that Jesus was from God but not understanding the implications as yet.

Does this mean that what Jesus did that day was not worthwhile and members of the crowd had missed out on promised salvation? No to both those questions, what was happening was an evolving message. Jesus later in the chapter follows up the feeding of the five thousand with teaching that he is the bread of life, making the links between the miracle, his identity and his salvation ministry. In the middle of that teaching Jesus repeats the salvation message of John 3 and John 5, ‘For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.’ ^{John 6.40} What is building here through the gospel of John is a connected account with significant signposting events that establish the evidence of Jesus’ identity, purpose and accomplishments along with how the people of the time and we should relate to him.

Equally the church should allow for and be sensitive to the stepped approach many take to faith.

What are the misunderstandings that confuse people about who Jesus is?

How should the church help people on their journey to faith?

Do we show the same flexibility as Jesus did to people’s needs even when it causes a change to our plans?

Lift Him Up, Lift Him High – Dave Bilbrough