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The Gospel of John, The Period of Controversy, The Claims of Jesus Christ, Jesus walks on the Sea of Galilee to deliver his disciples, Part IX, John 6:15-27 - Lesson 39
Lesson - Continuing the "Period of Controversy" - The Claims of Jesus Christ, Jesus walks on the Sea of Galilee to deliver his disciples.
Read John 6:15-20
Jesus is busy about his Father's business.
His disciples are trembling in the ship as they cross the stormy Sea of Galilee.
Shall Jesus stop the important matter of talking to his Father in order to rescue his followers?
No, he waits until he finishes with the Father.
He knows their plight.
Their trembling is the Father's business also.
He operates in accordance with the principle of the verse in Isaiah we mentioned last week, does he not?
Andrew and Philip! Is Isaiah 30:18 still valid?
Does it apply to you?
Did any of his disciples remember this wonderful Old Testament verse: And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious to you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
God is not in a hurry as we are in a hurry.
We try to get things done today that we should have done yesterday.
God has gotten yesterdays work done on time.
He always gets his work done on time.
He can do today's work without hurry.
He waits for his own good time.
He expects faith on our part and that faith is expressed by waiting.
Faith requires waiting upon God a good bit of the time, if not every time.
He always can afford to wait because he always knows when it is the best time to act.
But you are forced to wait, and wait and wait. Why?
So his hand in the matter will be evident, and that his hand will be appreciated, when he does intervene.
At our wits end we cry unto the Lord in our trouble and at the proper time when he has accomplished his work in us he brings us out of all of our distresses.
So too with the disciples.
They had not given up to the sea but had given their all in rowing three miles toward the other shore, another two miles to row to a safe haven.
The picture here is of God's servants continuing their journey across troubled humanity while Satan buffets them to cause doubt and fear and faithlessness.
However they continued rowing in spite of the buffeting.
While in their distress Jesus was on the mountain praying to the Father.
He was making intercession for his own while they were in peril.
He was touched with the feeling of their infirmities but conversation on their behalf with the Father came first.
There was instruction to be given here.
But the waiting is over.
They see something, perhaps a person, coming to them.
But what is it?
Terror strikes their hearts.
This is more fearful to them than the wind and the waves and the darkness.
They were afraid, John relates.
John was aboard the ship that night and he vividly recalls the fear they felt.
Mark tells us that they thought they were seeing an apparition, a phantom or a ghost.
Mark also tells us that their spiritual sight was dull.
They had already forgotten the miracle of the loaves and fishes: for their heart was hardened.
How soon we forget the glory and the hand of the Lord.
So quickly we forget his mercies and deliverances in the past, so little do we expect him to answer our prayers of the present.
Here is deliverance and they do not recognize it.
How typical when we plan how God will deliver us but he does not use our plan.
My ways are not our ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts, he says.
So many times God answers prayers and we don't even recognize it, do we?
It does not come like we planned it, does it?
But the Savior draws near and knows their fear and calms their fear and says, It is I, be not afraid.
This is the message for all of his sheep in every situation, in every difficulty, in every one of life's circumstances.
God says he will never leave you nor forsake you.
We should not pray for the Lord to be with us for he has said that he will be with us and he will hold to it.
Jesus met Andrew and Philip's unbelief with a miraculous feeding of the multitudes and he meets their unbelief and the other disciples unbelief with a miraculous rescue from the storm.
Our faithlessness does not change the nature of God.
Our hard hearts do not quench the Lord's love to us.
Thank the Lord for Psalm 103:10, He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
He dealt with the disciples according to his grace and so he continues to do so with us.
He tells them it is I.
He directs their gaze to himself and then calms their fears.
Our fears can only be dispelled by looking to Jesus.
Look around and you will be disheartened, look within and you will be discouraged.
But look to Jesus and your fears will vanish.
He reminds us when he says, Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose eyes are stayed on thee.
Verse 6:21, Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.
Notice the word received. Jesus never violates our human will, he never intrudes on us.
Jesus does not force himself on the disciples but he waits to be received willingly.
He desires to be welcomed.
He desires to be received.
And when anyone receives Christ he gives them power to become the sons of God.
When he came aboard, the ship was immediately at the safe haven.
The wind and the waves obeyed his will.
This Jesus who stilled the storm and stayed the waves is the same Jesus who is with us today and tomorrow and forever.
He cares about you.
He maketh intercession for us while we may be going through things too horrible to imagine.
But he will deliver his own in his own good time and for his own good purpose.
He is the Shepherd of his people and he is the one who possesses heaven and the earth.
He shepherded the multitudes by sitting them down in green pastures and restored their strength with the miracle loaves and fishes and he stilled the earth in order to care for his disciples.
In both instances John's account adds to the evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ.
John's case gets stronger with every verse.
Let's continue with the evidence:
Verses 22-24, The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone: 23 (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:) 24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.
Where was this Jesus, they murmured?
They searched and searched but he was nowhere to be found. "How could this be?" they said.
There was no other boat except the one his disciples took last night across the sea.
Reasoning that somehow he had crossed the sea to return to Capernaum, his chief place of residence for some time, some of them took advantage of the boats that had recently arrived and sailed to Capernaum seeking Jesus.
They had a mission and that mission was to make him king.
Verses 6:25,26, And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
They of the multitude were curious.
They asked of the Lord a direct question.
He chooses not to satisfy their curiosity.
He does not answer their question.
It is not profitable to them to have an answer.
Jesus always seeks the profit of his listeners.
This is a principle with God. He always seeks to bless you.
He always seeks your eternal good.
He comes to the point and tells them that they have the wrong motives and he knows exactly why they seek him.
He tells them that they seek him for temporal reasons; to satisfy their fleshly appetites do they seek him.
Again he evidences his deity. He knows their heart.
They were not seeking spiritual blessings.
They were not seeking eternal blessings.
Jesus is interested in the eternal.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
The purpose of the miracle of the feeding of the 5000+ was to introduce them to the bread of life, the bread that gave eternal life to the eaters.
The miracle was performed so that they would believe on the bread of life.
The miracle was done so that they would believe in the creator of the bread and not the bread.
Had they had the right motives, they would have bowed before him in repentance and worship.
But they were interested in the bread that gets moldy, the bread that gets hard, the fish that soon stinks and rots and loses it value.
As our Pastor reminded us last Sunday they love cisterns that are cracked and will not hold the rain water, they love cisterns that they can build and repair instead of the living fountains of water.
They were interested in a land free of the Roman soldier and free of the taxes that they hated to take out of the bank to pay Caesar.
They wanted a chicken in every pot and they wanted government provided health care and a guaranteed income for every family.
They wanted social security in this life.
This trusting in God was too difficult and the earthly rewards too hard to come by.
They wanted a king to lead them to the promised land, the land promised by the politicians.
But Jesus carefully admonishes them and instructs them. He says in:
Verse 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
I like priority lists.
I like to know what is more important than something else.
It gives me a framework around which to plan and work.
I know what to do first.
My boss and I sit down together and plan the next three or four years projects.
What does he like?
What will make him happy?
How can I satisfy him by doing what he directs.
If I know his priority and I follow his priority then he will be satisfied and I will be approved.
It makes things easy for me.
I know where I stand.
Here Jesus gives us and them the most important priority list.
It is the priority list of life.
This is what you must seek first, he says.
Put that first which endures.
Put that first which abides.
Put that food first which suffers no change, but remains in you.
Put those things first that you cannot see, because those things that are seen are temporal or temporary and those things that are not seen are eternal.
Put that first which the Son of man will keep on deposit for you and will give you for use during your eternal life with him.
Take much thought and make great effort in behalf of that which lasts beyond this life.
He tells them to labor at this task.
He tells them to lay up treasures in heaven.
That takes work to lay up.
He signifies that they should be in deadly earnest about spiritual things.
If they do that, God will be pleased and they will know where they stand with him.
What profit is there if they should gain all the bread in the whole world and all the fish of the sea and lose that which could, by God's grace, endure unto everlasting life.
This is the same message the Jesus proclaims in the gospel of Luke when he says to strive to enter at the strait gate, and again in Luke when he says that every man presses into it, and when he tells us to seek and ye shall find. |