Sermon Tone Analysis

The Miraculous Meal

John 6:1-15

Introduction:

            We come now to this wonderful sixth chapter John.

Chapter 6 is much like chapter 5; it began with a declaration of the deity and ended with a rejection; chapter 6 also begins with the declaration of deity and ends with a rejection.

By way of introduction, I want to bring the gap for you between chapter 5 and chapter 6.

          "Μετὰ ταῦτα " (after these things), what exactly is John speaking about.

It is important to remember that John is not interested in chronological events, he just records the events.

Now these "after these things" events are not the events of chapter 5.

The setting for this is given in verse 1 of chapter 5 when it talks about the "feasts of the Jews".

Now there are two feasts that he is possibly speaking about.

It is either the feasts of Tabernacles which was a feast that was instituted to remind the people of Israel about their father's dwelling in tents in the wilderness and was to be an annual thanksgiving after all the crops had been gathered for the year (Lev.

23).

This feast took place in the seventh month (or our October) and lasted eight days.

If 5:1 was this feasts then the "after these things" is a six month period because verse 4 says that the Passover was nigh and the Passover always took place in April.

So that would place the events of chapter 5 from October-April of six months.

If 5:1 is the Passover then it would place Jesus in Jerusalem from April-April of the events of chapter 5 would have been an entire year.

So the "After these things" are events that are six months to one year in length.

(Show the map)

Now, what exactly was the reason that Jesus wanted to take His disciples over the sea of Galilee.

Well, John really does not tell us in his Gospel because he has a specific purpose, show the divinity of Christ, so he will go through some things in order to do that.

However, Mark, in his gospel, does say why.

In Mark 6:31, Jesus says, "

"He said to them, “Come with me privately to an isolated place and rest a while” (for many were coming and going, and there was no time to eat)." (Mark 6:31, NET)

Jesus knew that His people needed this time of refreshing, because keep in mind that whether this was the feasts of Tabernacle or the Feasts of Passover, they have been going non-stop for at least six month, possibly even one year.

Let me briefly tell you some of the things that Jesus and His disciples did during His Galilean Ministry: When He first came to Galilee, according to John 4:45-54, He healed a noblemen's son.

That is the great account that we talked about the power of Christ that can heal a young boy 20 miles away.

It was while in Galilee, according to Luke 4 that Jesus was in the synagogue and was asked to read from the prophet and while He read it was realized that Jesus was saying that He was the Messiah to whom the prophet spoke and the people tried to throw Jesus off a cliff but "he passed through the midst of them (Luke 4:30).

It was during His ministry there that He, according to Luke 8:26-39, that He cast the demons out the maniac of the Gadarenes.

This is where He healed Peter's mother-in-law (Matt.

8:14-15).

According to Luke 4:40 a group of people with all kinds of diseases assembled to Christ late in the evening and the Scriptures says that He healed everyone of them.

According to Luke 5:12-15, He healed a Leper.

In Luke 5, He healed a man that was paralyzed and called the hated tax-collector, Matthew, to be one of His disciples.

It was during this time that He meant more opposition when He healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day.

In Matthew 12:1-14, it was during this time that Jesus was opposed for letting His disciples pluck corn off of the ears of corn on the Sabbath.

Jesus delivered His great Sermon on the Mount during this time.

He raises Jarius' daughter, calms the storm; and the list goes on and on of the things that were done during this time.

So He takes the disciples and He goes out for a little rest.

Listen, God wants His people to get their rest.

Even Pastors need time of refreshing.

When a Pastor takes a vacation or takes a break for a week or two from the pulpit, it is not that He is being lazy, but He needs to have His mind and heart refreshed and so do you.

You need to get away for a time to spend with the Lord for a time of refreshment and bringing your mind back to focus on the things of Christ.

I.

The Multitude Following (John 6:2-4)

Keep in mind now that we said that Jesus took the disciples apart so that they could rest.

Verse one tells us that Jesus took His disciples over the Sea of Galilee.

A couple of things that you want to keep in mind about the Sea of Galilee: First, in the Scripture, it is called by four different names; The Sea of Chinnerreth (the Hebrew word for “harp-shaped” to describe its basic shape; The Lake Gennesaret (Luke 5:1) taking the name of the fertile plains of Gennesaret that lies on the Northeast side; The Sea of Tiberias (John 6:1; John 21:1)because of its association with the capital of Herod Antipas; and the Sea of Galilee (Matt.

4:18).

Situated some 98 kilometers (60 miles) north of Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee contains fresh water since it is fed by the Jordan.

The lake itself is the deepest part of the northern Jordan Rift and thus the water collects there before it flows on its way.

The surface of Galilee is about 230 meters (700 feet) below the Mediterranean Sea.

The floor of the lake is another 25 to 50 meters (80 to 160 feet) lower.

The lake itself is nearly 21 kilometers (13 miles) long and 13 kilometers (8 miles) wide at Magdala, the point of its greatest width.

The lake is surrounded, except on the southern side, by steep cliffs and sharply rising mountains.

On the east these mountains rise to the fertile Golan Heights as high as 900 meters (2,700 feet).

As a result of this formation, cool winds frequently rush down these slopes and unexpectedly stir up violent storms on the warm surface of the lake.[1]

Now, it was on these mountains that Jesus was taking His Disciples apart to rest.

The Scriptures tells us in John 6:2 that “great multitudes followed Him…” What an extraordinary thing this was.

Jesus’ popularity had risen to a massive point to where thousands of people were following Him.

It is a wonderful thing when people follow Christ.

I am reminded of what Matthew records in his Gospel in Matthew 4:24-25, how that great multitudes of people followed the Lord from all over the place; in fact, he says: "And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan."

(Matthew 4:25, KJV) [2].

Other passages that attest to the popularity of Jesus are Matthew 8:1; 12:15; 13:2; 14:14; 15:30-31.

However, one always has to wonder that when someone has such a large following of people and is so popular, why is it?

We live in a society that teaches that numbers are success.

If you have large numbers, then that is proof that you have been a success.

Not only that, but within religious circles (and I use the word religion because I do not think that many of these people make up the Church), that says that numbers are a proof of the blessing of God.

If you have a large group that assemblies at your Church each week, then that is proof of the blessings of God upon you ministry.

If you have positive results from a certain ministry focus than that is proof that that action is good and that God has blessed you action.

If you have negative results, than that is proof that that is not a good thing and that God has not blessed that action.

Listen, that kind of pragmatic approach to ministry is wrong and damaging.

That is why the positive results guys never preach on sin, because that rarely lends itself to a positive result.

They focus on the self-esteem issued because that grants them the more positive results and; therefore, must be proof that God is in their focus on the ministry.

When you look deep into the reason many of these people follow these ministries and why these people follow the Lord, you really find the heart of the matter.

Look at the last have of verse.

Why did these people follow Jesus?

Because He preached on their sin and demanded repentance?

NO!

Because He demanded that they take up the cross daily and follow Him? NO!

Because He told them that in order to be His disciple you had to hate your Mother and Father and you children?

NO!

Because Jesus said to them that except you eat of the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man you have no life in you (vs.

53)?

NO! Why? “Because they say the miracles that did on them that were diseased” (vs.2 ).

In our introductory remarks, we took a brief, but not entire, look of the miracles that Jesus performed in Galilee.

In fact, the miracles and the other works that Christ did were so numerous that even if we looked at everyone in the Scripture we still would not have covered it.

"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.

Amen." (John 21:25, KJV) [3]

            These people were not interested in Jesus for the sake of repentance and faith; they were only interested in what they could get out of Him.

They were only interested in the miracles.

Now, that is proven in the last part of chapter 6, when Jesus calls for discipleship and many turn away and follow Him no more.

They were only interested in getting a meal.

Now, keep in mind, that Jesus and the disciples at this point were also probably experiencing a great deal of, not only physical and mental strain but also emotional.

They were probably very sad at this point.

Why?

Well, if you read Matthews account of events (which is more of a record of events is sequence then that of John’s), you will find that John the Baptist had just been killed.

The cousin and forerunner of Jesus and good friend of the twelve had just been be-headed by Herod.

So there was no doubt a great deal of sadness in the heart of Jesus and the disciples as they were ascending the mountain.

Verse 3 tells us that Jesus went up in the mountain; now, this is probably not a reference to a certain mountain, but simply a reference to the mountain country.

The area that we said a few moments again was the Golan Heights.

The text says that He “sat down there with His disciples”.

What exactly went on?

This is absolutely beautiful.