Trust Me!

Text: John 6:22-34

Focus: Our life is in Jesus

Function: To help the congregation trust Jesus.

Form: Bible study narrative

Intro:

Thank you Jessie and Karen for opening up the feeding of the 5,000 last week.

In the gospel of John, the feeding of the 5,000 introduces, through an highly symbolic miracle, some deep spiritual truths.

We are going to spend 4 weeks in this one chapter in the book of John. I hope by then, the meaning of communion is much more real to you all.

At the core of today's passage is a question. It appears that Jesus questions the intent, the motivation, of His followers.

“Are you following me to get your bellies filled?” He asks.

Is God a genie in a bottle whom we call upon whenever we are in trouble and do we ignore Him the rest of the time?

Jesus isn't quite accusing them of that, but He is asking them the question. He wants them to be thinking.

Remember, John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin and most probably, Jesus childhood friend has just been killed by Herod.

Jesus had left the crowds to go to the mounting for some “me” time. A lesson in itself that even Jesus took time to care for Himself.

But He is interrupted. The crowd follows him to the dessert to listen to His teaching.

You caught that, didn't you?

Their first motivation was born out of spiritual hunger for spiritual truth.

They were in the wilderness with Jesus to hear the Word of God explained to them.

And they got hungry.

In their search for spiritual truth, their physical needs became apparent and Jesus meets their physical needs with the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.

Then Jesus takes His “me” time and goes off onto the mountain to pray.

He sends the disciples ahead in a boat to the other side of the lake.

He walks on water, and saves the disciples by calming the storm.

The crowd wakes up and finds that Jesus is gone.

So, they find him on the other side of the lake and Jesus asks them to think about why they are now following Him.

He stops short of telling them: “you chased me across this lake to fill your bellies.” But He wants them pondering.

In the context of the question: “Why are you following me?” Jesus launches some of the deepest and most symbolic teaching in the New Testament.

In doing so, Jesus sets the stage for one of the most important ordinances practiced by the Church, the sharing of the bread and the wine.

In this chapter, and in Chapter 8, Jesus makes some very strong claims to the fact that Jesus is Emmanuel. He is God with humanity. God in our midst. The Creator has left heaven to walk among His creation.

In Jesus' response we learn something about God. God isn't some mean ogre who cannot wait for His children to do wrong so that He can punish them. No, He is the source of their life.

God really is the source of our life. (repeat)

And that is the first deeply symbolic lesson taught in this chapter.

And you know this.

It may seem like a simple lesson. I know it is one of the things that we say to each other. Good religious folks make that statement because they know they should, but the question can be, do we really believe it to be true?

I believe that this is why Jesus asks the question: “why are you following Me?”

Saying “God really is the source of my life” and meaning it are two different things.

Are we, or is God, the master of our lives? Is God the master of our destiny?

Do we live in fear that we will fail, or die without having enough? Or do we live in faith that the One who created us, the One who gave all for us will indeed supply our needs?

Do we trust Jesus with everything?

And most importantly, do we trust in His grace?

By feeding the people food, while they were seeking spiritual truth, Jesus demonstrates to them that in Him, all of our lives are complete.

Jesus loves us Spirit, Soul, Mind and body and His salvation is holistic, it is for the entire man, woman and child.

In the wilderness, when tempted by the Devil to turn stones into bread, Jesus answers with Moses sermon from Deuteronomy 8: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God's mouth."

He meant that. We live in God.

Paul, when he is defending the faith to the Athenian Greeks tells them: “In God we live, and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

Jesus, when He was teaching about faith in the Sermon on the Mount tells His followers that we should not worry, we should not live in fear about anything. He tells them: “Worldly people focus on what to wear, where to live, what to eat, but we should seek first God's kingdom and all of those needs will be given to us.” (Matthew 6:33)

Paul, in telling Timothy how to preach when he is leading his church tells him to preach to the rich that their riches are meaningless compared to the eternal life that God has given them. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

And we teach and preach that. We assent to this truth. But Jesus' question gets right to the heart. Do we really believe it?

Do we overcome the natural human tendency to greed with our faith?

Are we still afraid of the future? Or do we trust God?

I believe that Jesus knows in His heart that these people really are excited about grace, about this teaching that Jesus has that includes everyone, sinners as well as highly religious folks.

For the crowd, finally, someone is making sense to them and they are hungry for these spiritual truths.

And He uses this opportunity drive home this very important concept: All of our lives are bound up in God.

Remember, this isn't just some Rabbi doing his weekly chore. This is God, the Creator, Emmanuel, with His people. He came to heal and restore them.

God means it.

And again, we have this problem of separating the spiritual and the secular.

We can tell ourselves, “okay, I believe that God is God of everything.” But, when it comes to taking a step in faith, maybe giving to a project for the Church, or for some mission, and the money for the gift is money that we would have wanted to use for something else, we may hold back.

Or maybe, when it comes to forgiving someone without condition, we hold back because we want revenge. We aren't trusting God with our lives when we do that.

When Jesus stood before the temple with the disciples, Rich people were giving fortunes to the treasury. Some of them were very vocal and visible with their gifts. And a widow gave 2 tenths of a penny, all the money she had to live on. Jesus said that her gift was bigger than anyone else's. (Luke 21:1-3)

She believed that our lives are held securely in the hand of God.

The rich were giving out of their abundance, their excess, she was giving by faith. The rich were still protecting their own wealth, but she gave all she had to live on.

Jesus is telling them, “walk by faith, and your needs will be met.”

We cant separate the secular from the spiritual.

Jesus is speaking of eternal life and The people are impressed and excited.

“What can we do to get this heavenly food?” They ask.

And again, Jesus tells them to walk by faith, don't fight and strive for the physical food and God will provide.

“Well, how?” They ask. (What works must we do?)

Their question ignores Grace. It ignores God's free gift. They want to know how to earn it for themselves.

Jesus again tells them: Believe in Me.

The word believe is translated “Trust” as much as it is translated “believe.”

“Place your trust in Me,” Jesus answers.

“Trust Me” Jesus says.

And then they ask a bold question: “prove yourself to us.”

They refer to Moses proving his leadership by giving them Manna from heaven.

Jesus corrects them, God gave you the manna, not Moses.

He is explaining to them that they are still missing the point.

When we live by faith, if necessary, God can send food from heaven to provide for us.

Jesus clearly tells them, in God we live.

Jesus is the bread. In Him we live.

But notice what the crowd is doing. They do what we all do.

Their question: “what work can we do to get this eternal food?”

Jesus doesn't tell them to go to church, read their bible, tithe their money, pray, fast or anything. He tells them simple: “trust in me.”

Trust me in everything. We cannot earn this salvation. We don't have to fear about tomorrow. Live by faith.

And I love their final request: “Sir, give us this bread always.”

It appears that they are beginning to understand.

Jesus is the source of life.

Let us wrap this up.

Jesus is the source of life, all life. We do not need to fear. We do not need to fear failure, poverty, and indignation. Trust God.

We say it. Jesus wants us to believe it.