Jesus tells the crowd that God's work is simply believing in him, not chasing more miracles. The speaker warns against conditional faith and urges listeners to trust based on how God has already shown up in their lives, not on demands for new signs.
Chapters
All right, we are back at it. John, we finished yesterday with John 6, feeding the 5,000. All right, uh, we are going to get a double header today. Uh, we're gonna do 2 stories because the first one's kind of short, so we're gonna do— we're gonna do both. Uh, so if you're following along, John 6, uh, verse 16. So we're gonna get started. I'm reading from the ESV. You guys can read from whatever translation you like, of course, or you can just listen along. I'm gonna read it out loud and then we'll go from there. So, uh, yeah, starting at John 6:16. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea and got into a boat and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about 3 or 4 miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I; do not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had only been one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life. which the Son of Man will give to you; for on him God the Father has set his seal. Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe in you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, But my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. I'm gonna stop there. We'll do the second part as a 2-parter on the next night. So Jesus feeds the 5,000, doesn't get in the boat with the guys. He decides he's gonna walk on water. It's the easiest way to get across. Of course, it's much easier than taking a boat over. Why take a boat when you can walk on water, right? Anyways, he gets in the boat with the guys. They end up on the other side of the sea. Everybody else goes and follows because dinner was so good. Why not follow the meal ticket, right? They get to the other side and Jesus is going, you're here because I fed you. You're not here because I spiritually fed you. You are here literally because I fed you. And that's not the idea here. That's not what we're going for. And It's interesting to have that question asked of them, of them asking that question of, what do we have to do to be doing the works of God? Dinner was great. You're saying there's something better? What do we got to do? And it's literally all of it is boiled down to this very simple thing. This is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent. That's it. Jesus doesn't go into some in-depth dialogue. He doesn't rip apart the Old Testament. He doesn't go back to the Greek original language. He gives them something super Simple, something super easy. It's this: believe in him who has sent. That's it. Now, they respond right away with, well, what about a miracle? Show us a miracle so that we know that God sent you, right? How are we just to believe on your authority, even though you just fed us that awesome meal? How are we to know? How do we know? Moses was sent manna from heaven, so can you do that? Because that would be a cool trick. We'd love to see it. How about that? And Jesus corrects him and goes, the real trick isn't bread that you're going to put in your mouths. It's the bread of life. That, that's going to be the real trick. That's going to be the real miracle that you're going to witness here. It's much bigger than bread going in your belly. It's much bigger than you having a satisfied appetite. It's much better than the wants and needs of your eyes and your stomach. It's something bigger than that. And well, he'll go into more detail tomorrow when we finish off that That section, but it's really, really interesting that we set our own terms. So, here, even after we have already seen that He's able to feed 5,000 with very, very little, we see that, and it's like, okay, great. So, He's capable of doing this work. They know He's capable of doing this work. They just witnessed it. He's obviously traveling by some mystical means, or some means outside of their understanding, because He got across the water with no boat. They don't know how. They just kind of chalk that up as, okay, well, I guess that happened. And now, another sign is being asked, and it's just this amazing disbelief of Him going, well, if you want to do the work of God, believe in Me. Just believe in Me. Well, how are we supposed to believe in You? By what credibility? By what token should we do that? Sure, feeding 5,000 people. That's not enough. Let's do something else. Walking on water, okay, whatever. But how about another dinner? How about something from heaven? How about that? All of these just additional terms and criteria. And I don't say this to belittle the ones asking, because I know I've done this in my walk, and I'm sure at some point you guys have probably done this as well. But when we add those criteria of, God, I'll do this if, I'll do this when, If and when and criteria and what about, and it's really not necessary. Those addendums, those ifs, those buts, those ands, those whys, those shoulda, coulda, wouldas, they just don't play in. He's done it. He, like, everything that we need to know and trust and believe, it's here. It's right here. He's done it over and over and over again, and he's going to continue to do it for us. As you walk with him in your life, he shows up over and over and over again, and you look back at everything that he's done in your life, and it's like, how could I put an if and what onto anything given what he's already accomplished? If you're a newer Christian or you're wrestling with coming to the faith, Once you do that and you look back, you're going to see that he was there. You're going to see the work that he's done. You're going to see how he walked alongside when you were an unbeliever or when you were going through hard seasons. You're going to see that he showed up in big ways, and those ifs, ands, buts, and whys don't need to be there. They just don't. You can just accept it and trust it, and it's amazing to see what happens. Now, we're going to get into that a little bit more as we, as we go here, but For today, just pause for a moment and think about the ifs, ands, whys, and buts. Just take a look at, is there or are there criteria that you're putting on this? Jesus, I'll do this if and what? Or are you just there? Are you in? It's all that's being asked here. This is the work of God. That you believe in him who he has sent. That's it for tonight, guys. Get some good sleep. We'll tackle the rest of, uh, this section of John 6 tomorrow. Take it easy.
