Show Us a Sign (John 6:22-34)
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jeremy_2_06-11-2025_131523: [00:00:00] As a kid, I never realized how much of my time would be spent as an adult figuring out what's for dinner.
I mean, I don't know if your experience as an adult has been anything like this, but I'm amazed how much time it takes just to answer that one question each and every day. And now we've got five kids of our own, which means we've got five young humans always asking us at all hours of the day: what are we eating next?
And it is an ongoing burden, right? Just keeping them alive is a lot. And I'm reminded of that when I realized our story today, because a couple weeks ago we looked at a story where Jesus fed thousands of people. And as you can imagine, that made 'em quite popular. People didn't have to figure out what was for dinner that night.
Jesus provided dinner, and so now you have a crowd following Jesus. Because they think he's the one that feeds [00:01:00] us, and if we keep following him, maybe he'll keep feeding us and they think they've got this figured out. Jesus is getting really popular, but not necessarily for the reasons that he wants people to follow him.
And that's what we're gonna see in today's story. We're gonna be in John chapter six, beginning in verse 22.
Says the next day, the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. This is a reference to the story we saw last week where Jesus comes walking on the water to the disciples in the middle of the night.
Now, several boats from Tiberius landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across the Capernaum to look for him. They found him on the other side of the lake, and they asked Rabbi when did you get [00:02:00] here?
You got like stage five clingers happening right here. Now, keep in mind why they are frantically searching for Jesus. It's not because they want to hear his latest take on truth or what's the newest idea you've got for us? How do we love better? No, it's not those things. It's because they're hungry again.
It's amazing how often you can eat and then you'll be hungry again no matter how good your last meal was. It reminds me in the, the novel, Don Quixote, the main character, has this line. He says, the best sauce in the world is hunger, and as the poor are never without that. They always eat with a relish. Now you gotta remember, these are not people who had every meal covered all the time.
They weren't overflowing with the resources. So the notion that this rabbi could feed you, could feed your family, could [00:03:00] really help with something that happens to be a need each and every day was very appealing. But Jesus is trying to offer something more than that. And so we get to verse 26. Jesus replied,
I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs, but don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life at the son of man can give you for God. The Father has given me the seal of his approval.
Now hear Jesus accusing the crowd of following him in pursuit of material satisfaction, not out of genuine faith. Good thing we don't do that today.
We want the new you, the free you, the redeemed you, the blessed you, the confident you, the victorious you. I'm [00:04:00] doing all right under the circumstances. Well get out from under 'em and come on up here. Come on up here and sit with God. You're gonna rise higher, overcome obstacles, and become everything you were created to be.
You're not doing this to get something, but you're doing it in honor to God, realizing what you can receive. For your special Passover offering of $1,000 or more. As the Holy Spirit leads, you will also receive the beautiful 10 inch Waterford crystal cross. Don't miss your moment to release seven supernatural blessings and provision into your life.
jeremy_2_06-11-2025_131523: Now. In case you think I have cherry picked some fringe people, those are mainstream voices today. In fact, the last example is a woman named Paula White. She is the senior advisor to President Trump in the newly established White House faith office. So these are the voices having a [00:05:00] disproportionate impact and influence in our country today.
Then we get to John chapter six, verse 28.
They replied, we want to perform God's works too. What should we do? Oh, we'll, we'll, we'll talk the game. We'll say whatever we need to say, Jesus, to get you to keep feeding us. And Jesus told him, this is the only work God wants from you. Believe in the one he has sent. They answered, well, show us a miraculous sign. If you want us to believe in you, what can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna. While they journeyed through the wilderness. The scriptures say Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat, wink, wink. Any idea how you could convince us? verse 32, Jesus said, I tell you the truth. Moses didn't give you bread from heaven. My father did, and now he offers you the true bread [00:06:00] from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, give us that bread every day.
I mean, this is like not even discreet how they're trying to play this with Jesus. Right. It's just like how my kids pester me when they want to go out to eat. Like we have food at home. Yeah. Yeah. That's not good enough. Please, can we go out to eat? Let's figure out a reason why this is what this feels like.
As I listen to these arguments to Jesus, notice what they're saying to him. Show us a miraculous sign so we'll believe in you. Now remember, these are the people who had just witnessed him feed thousands of people food from one boy's lunch. So this isn't a doubt of belief. This is rather an expectation that Jesus needs to keep meeting their needs [00:07:00] over and over again.
Yeah, yeah. No, we, we need to believe in you, so I need you to keep showing me that you're worth believing in. We can get stuck in the same cycle today, even though most of us haven't physically got a meal from Jesus, we can get stuck in this same cycle. Jesus, unless you answer my prayers, I just don't know if I can believe in you, Jesus, unless you give me some degree of success or some element of comfort.
I just don't know if I can follow you. Jesus, unless my questions and my doubts all go away, and I have certainty in everything, I believe, I just don't know if I can follow you, but Jesus is inviting us into a relationship of trust where we learn to see him as the one that, that it's ultimately providing what we need, not just what he can do for us, not [00:08:00] just the, the byproducts of what we get from following him.
I think it's important to note Jesus isn't mad that they're hungry. He has recently fed them to address that need. He doesn't overlook it. He doesn't say, Hey, I don't care that you're hungry. He's already met that need, but he's inviting them to see something bigger. He's saying, look, I've met that need for you, but you have a bigger need as well.
And so he's not picking and choosing, but he's stacking these. Upon each other. He's saying, look I fed you. That is a need you have and there are also big needs that you have, and I want to offer you life. I want to give you something deeper than that. Now, it's been said by numerous people, but I'll close with this idea.
Jesus is not a means to an end. He is always the end and whenever we see him as just the means to what we get, we'll never fully appreciate who he is and [00:09:00] what he is offering us in the here and now. And this is a story. This is an invitation for you and I to see Jesus like that. I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
