Sermon Tone Analysis

liberty bible church          5~/25~/08 a.M.

By Tom Zobrist

“Why DO people seek god?”

John 6:22-29

introduction

Illus. of skit on preacher shopping.

This is a little far-reaching, however, some people have become this picky when it comes to shopping for a church, so much so that many churches have become “seeker-sensitive” developing programs to appeal to people that are seeking God.

The problem is, the Bible indicates that unsaved people cannot seek after God.

Cf.

Rom.

3:9-12 True, there are verses such as we read in our Scripture reading that says that if we seek, we will find.

But, that is in relation to believers.

Jesus is speaking to His disciples in Luke 11.

Yet, with all that said, there are people that are unsaved that visit churches looking for something; some answers to life’s tough questions.

Why do they do this?

What are some possible motivations?

Are all these reasons good?

Should they seek God in this manner?

OPEN to the passage.

*Prop.

*In this passage, we see some wrong reasons for seeking God and what we should be seeking after.

Open in PRAYER.

PREVIEW the passage.

Jesus is a couple of years into His ministry.

He has fed the 5,000 men, excluding women and children, and has walked across the Sea of Galilee.

Cf. 15-21.

That gets us to the next day and…

 

 i.

the search is on vs. 22-25

Illus. of our world is in dire straits.

We are looking for a Savior.

Will it be Barak Obama?

How about John McCain or perhaps Hillary Clinton?

Who will fix the economy, health care, the oil crisis?

In a sense, we’re not much different than the people in this section.

They are looking for a Messiah.

Who will deliver us from Rome? Who will set us free?

Who can meet our needs?

They don’t know it, but the subjects of this section are seekers.

They are looking for God, in the person of Jesus of course.

As we look at this, we notice to mistakes they seekers make.

First…

a. god should be where they thought he should be

        Illus. of we all have our own conception of what God is like.

Some think He is the grandfather with a white beard in the clouds.

Some think He is a tree.

Some think He is a little bit of everyone.

In this passage, these all thought they knew what the Messiah should look like.

V 22    1.

The next day, the people are looking for Jesus.

They are hungry…again.

They have day to day needs and Jesus was good at meeting them.

But, He is no where to be found.

They go down to the shore where there had been only one boat the day before.

It is that boat that the disciples entered the night before…without Jesus.

So, where is He?

V 23    2.

Soon boats began to land from Tiberias.

Evidently, news of Jesus was spreading people were seeking Him out.

But, He was not here.

V 24    3.

They decided to seek Him out in the region of Capernaum.

This is where He had been many times before and it had become His base of operations.

Then, they make a second mistake in their search.

b. they question God

V 25a   1.

They found Him, not really where they thought He would be, but where He knew He should be.

Illus. of often people are disappointed with God because He is not what they think He should be.

“Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

What about the earthquake in China?

What about the typhoon in Myanmar?

V 25b  2.

They were perplexed as to how Jesus got there.

He never does explain how it happened.

The miracle of walking on the water was for the disciples only at that time.

God is not required to explain to us what He is doing, yet sometimes we feel that He is obliged to do this.

We are not to question why or how or when God does or does not do something.

*Trans.*

THE SEARCH IS ON and they find God or the Messiah, or so they thought.

Now, it’s…

 

 

ii.

finders keepers, losers weepers vs. 26-29

Illus. of losing my wallet.

The finder was the keeper and me, the loser, was the weeper.

It’s not that clear-cut with spiritual issues, especially salvation.

Sometimes those that think they are the finders are actually the losers and eventually the weepers.

Here we see that…

a. losers are motivated by the flesh

V 26a   1.

Four times through this discourse Jesus uses this phrase.

It means that what is to follow is a true statement.

What He was saying was important and they needed to heed it.

V 26b  2.

They had seen the miraculous signs that Jesus had performed, but they failed to see the significance in the miracles.

They merely realized that they benefited from the sign and so were back for more.

They were motivated by physical desires rather than by spiritual desires.

Their bellies were full and they liked that feeling.

Their needs were met.

Now, meet them again Jesus.

V 27a   3.