John 6 Are You A WHINGER?
Talking with our German friends, Heinrich and Rita, they found Aussie English much much harder than either English or American. It is our tendency to drop in words that only Aussies understand.
Heinrich was utterly lost on someone who is a whinger. Now there is a good aussie word for that. Being a whinger or a whiner!
Now technically only Englishman can be whingers. As in "A whinging pom!" And Aussies can be whiners! Now a whiner is not an alcoholic, (that's a wino). A whiner is someone who whines like a dog.
And that is something that gets up God's nose!
It reveals what is really in the person's heart. Affliction can reveal what is really there.
Back in the Old Testament there was one event that is repeatedly referred to. And it is refered to in our first reading from Psalm 81. It is that during the Exodus from Egypt while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they were a bunch of whinging whiners.
God gave them Manna from heaven, every day except Saturdays, bread from heaven, every day, enough to feed each person, each family of maybe 3 million people! 3 million loaves of bread each day!
The miracle of the loaves, feeding the 5000, at the start of John 6, and the manna in the Old Testament, are both images behind this whole chapter 6 of John as the Lord Jesus says of Himself "I am the bread of life." He supplies the greatest deepest needs of humanity, the hunger of the heart.
BUT just like in the story of the supply of the manna in the wilderness, so we can behave just like the Israelites, and the Jews of Jesus day.
The background to this I Am saying of Jesus "I am the bread of life" is the miracle of feeding the 5000. I have asked several Jewish people "did they believe Jesus did this miracle" (it is recorded in each of the 4 gospels)? Yes they did! Then why do you not believe that Jesus is the Messiah?
He says, 'I am that Bread of Life.' 'I am that Bread of Life.' You cannot separate what Christ gives from who Christ is.
He not only said, 'the Son of Man gives the bread,' and 'I am the Bread that came down from heaven,' but He went on to say, in a subsequent stage of the conversation, 'the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.'
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this?62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.64 But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)65 And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God
Perhaps you have been wondering whether it is worth it to follow Jesus? Then this passage is for you.
What is going on in these people? It is the same issue of sin that goes on in us today.
Sometimes we Question God's Provision. Man uh means "question. What is it?"
Numbers 11: They whined about the food. 1 And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down.3 So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them. 4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat!5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at." 7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium.8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil.9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it. 10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly
18 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, "Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt." Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat.19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come out of Egypt?"'"
In the wilderness wanderings, the people whinged about their ability to take the promised land.
Numbers 14: 11 And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."
And now, in Jesus' time, they had participated in a great miracle, feeding 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, and they are questioning. Here the Questioning of God's Provision of Jesus as the Messiah. Powerful as Jesus' teaching about himself was, most people reacted in unbelief. A remarkable instance of this took place in the aftermath of his miraculous feeding. Jesus had rebuked the crowd for seeking only material blessings and urged them, "Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you" (John 6:27). The people therefore asked what they should do, and Jesus taught them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (6:29).
Having witnessed this miracle and having been called to faith by Jesus in person, the crowd, remarkably, responded by demanding another sign: "So they said to him, 'Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?' " (John 6:30).
Boice "Jesus had been talking to people who had been present on the other side of the Sea of Galilee when he had multiplied the loaves and fish. They were interested in having the miracle repeated. They had been taught by their rabbis that when the Messiah would come he would duplicate the miracle of the giving of manna that had been given originally by Moses. Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah. They could see that. Why, then, should they not expect him to duplicate Moses' miracle, particularly that aspect of the miracle that had to do with his repeating it six times a week for the entire forty years of desert wandering?
The Jewish writings said, "You shall not find the manna in this age, but you shall find it in the age that is coming" (Midrash Mekilta on Exod. 16:25). "For whom has the manna been prepared? For the righteous in the age that is coming" (Midrash Tanchuma, Beshallach 21:66). "What did the first redeemer do? He brought down the manna. The last redeemer will also bring down manna" (Midrash Rabba on Eccles. 1:9).
"No doubt the people had heard such sayings as these and had them in their minds. But as I study the story of this conversation it seems to me more and more that they were far less desirous of that age of messianic blessing than they were of a successful outcome to their efforts to manipulate Jesus into doing what they wanted. Manipulation! That is the real clue to their questions. Jesus had spoken of the fact that he was God's gift to men and that God desired men to believe in him. They replied, in effect, that they would not believe unless they received a sign. We find it hard to imagine how they could overlook the sign they already had received. But they were actually saying something like this, "We admit, Jesus, that you did a wonderful thing yesterday. But before we believe in you as the Messiah we want to see a real sign. What you did was interesting, but we are Jews and we cannot forget that when Moses fed the people he did so for forty years. We will believe in you if you can do what Moses did and feed us now."
They were saying "Good trick with the manna Moses, but now give us meat! Good trick with the feeding of the 5000 Jesus, but now give us this every day!"
The rebellion in the wilderness. They had enough evidence. So did the folk in Jesus' day.
Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' 11 As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'"
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.15 As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Do you know what that word "provoked" means? It means here was something that got up God's nose worse than a covid test.
The people asked for a sign not because the miraculous feeding was insufficiently revealing. They asked because they didn't like what Jesus was saying; their demand for another sign was just a way of putting him off. It was their unbelief that governed everything about them.
Jesus had called on them to change their attitude. Since they did not want to do that, they sought to justify their unbelief. How often this happens today! People spend their entire lives in a world that manifestly displays the glory of God. And they receive testimonies both from Christians and from the Bible sufficient to persuade them about any other matter. Yet they respond to the gospel with one objection after another.
At its root, man's unwillingness to accept Jesus is really that people love their sin, they love their pride, and they especially love their own lordship over their lives. ….Determined to be their own god, their own savior, and their own lord, they find reason after reason to reject Jesus Christ.
How not to get up God's nose!
The sin here was whingeing. Don't get up God's nose by being a whinger! Are you a whinger and a whiner?
The main emphasis is about making sure you believe in the Lord Jesus and trust in Him in the right way.
You need to believe He is the Messiah the Christ, the One who fulfils all the Old Testament and is the centre of all History as the One who has come down from God, the One who has come to bring forgiveness of sins, the One who draws us to Himself, the One who wil not reject any who come to Him, the One who supplies our deepest needs to be right with God.
You need to recognise Jesus' Provision as Supernatural Bread
Now, follow with me: Jesus is spiritual bread, and Jesus is supernatural bread. They said, "Oh, listen, Jesus, we remember how manna came down and fed the people in the wilderness, how Moses gave us that bread." He said, "Moses didn't give it to you; God gave it to you, and it was only a picture of me. I am the bread of life." I told you this morning that all the Bible is about Jesus. What was the manna? The manna, Jesus tells us clearly here in John chapter 6, was a picture of Jesus. (John 6:35) The manna came down from heaven;; Jesus came down from heaven. The manna lay upon the ground; Jesus is meek and lowly. The manna was round, which speaks of the eternality of
Jesus. The manna was white, which speaks of the purity of Jesus. The manna had the taste of honey, which speaks of the sweetness of Jesus. The manna had the taste of oil, which speaks of the anointing that was on the Lord Jesus. The manna had to be picked up, which speaks of the resurrection of Jesus. The manna had to be ingested, which speaks of partaking of Jesus. The manna sustained physical life, which speaks of Jesus, who gives us eternal life. All of that—all of that—was a picture of Jesus. He is not only spiritual bread;; He is supernatural bread. He came down from heaven.
You need to recognise Jesus' Provision as Spiritual Bread
By Spiritual vs material, the emphasis here is not on the miracles that Jesus did, but what they point to; that He is the Saviour and He saves us. Have you let Him be the spiritual Bread, the One who saves you? Have you asked Him to do that for you? If not, Ask Him now to be your Lord and Saviour.
He is the Messiah! That's what He came to be. Believe it. Receive it. Don't make excuses to avoid it. Make Him your Lord and Saviour today.
You need to recognise Jesus' Provision as Satisfying Bread
"Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst." (John 6:35) Men all around are searching for satisfaction, and they have one thing and then they want another. But, the true satisfaction—the thing that your heart yearns for, the thing that your soul yearns for—is satisfaction in Jesus. I was thinking about it in my study a little while back, and I thought of all the religions of the world—Shintoism, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, and all the rest—and I thought, "You know, I am so glad I know Jesus." You know, what would it be like? How would you like to be in one of these other religions? Isn't Jesus wonderful? Jesus alone satisfies the hunger of the human heart. God made a bird to fly, a fish to swim, and He made you to know Him and to love Him. And, He says, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6)—t hat is, they shall be satisfied (Matthew 5 and verse 6). In Psalm 107 and verse 9: "For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness." (Psalm 107:9) Psalm 81:16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."
This is God's guarantee: if you hunger and thirst, He'll fill you. Look, I don't know how much of God you have, but I'll tell you this much—you have all you want. If you don't have any more, it's because you don't want any more. Now, don't get the idea that you're the hero and God's the tyrant: "Mean ol' God—if I could only persuade Him to fill me." No! It's not your job to persuade Him to fill you but to permit Him to fill you. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6) Either that's true, or Jesus told a lie.
Now, what is your hunger? Jesus is spiritual bread. Jesus is supernatural bread. Jesus is satisfying bread. The problem with many people is we're so stuffed full of bread of this world we don't have any spiritual appetite. You know, if a man doesn't have an appetite, three things: number one, he's already stuffed full of something else; number two, he's sick; number three, he's dead. Now, ask yourself this question: Do you have an appetite? Are you hungry for the Lord Jesus?
Whiners.. You need to accept God's provision in your troubles as Sufficient Bread.
His love, in time past, Forbids me to think He'll leave me at last In trouble to sink:
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review Confirms His good pleasure To help me quite through
The reality of a relationship with Him can carry you through any trials in this world and brng you out the other side. But it will mean you side with Him against the majority. Most people turned their backs on the Lord Jesus and followed Him no more. What about you? Will you let Him be sufficient for whatever you face? Will you trust yourself to Him that He will look after you? The Israelites didn't trust that God could feed them and help them when they needed it. Will you trust that He is sufficient for whatever situation you may face?
You need to recognise Jesus' Provision for you as continuing to be your Messiah. As Sustaining Bread.
Though dark be my way, Since He is my Guide, 'Tis mine to obey, 'Tis His to provide;
Though cisterns be broken, And creatures all fail, The word He hath spoken Shall surely prevail.
In the last section of John 6 it all comes to a point.
The Lord Jesus makes it even clearer. 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"53 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."
Boice: "It is my view, however, that the Lord's Supper is not in consideration in these verses at all. Why?
First, because at the time of the speaking of these words the Lord's Supper was not yet instituted.
Second, because Jesus was addressing unbelievers in John 6, while the Lord's Supper is for Christians only. Third, because the eating and drinking spoken of in John is unto salvation, while the eating and drinking that is part of the Lord's Supper is for those who are already saved, and speaks of fellowship, growth, and communion. Fourth, because the Lord's Supper does not produce those results that are here attributed to the eating and drinking of Christ. This last is the greatest reason, for it is perfectly obvious that many thousands of persons partake each week of the Lord's Supper and yet do not possess that eternal life that Jesus says results from a true feeding upon him.
All these terms—believe, come, listen, learn—refer to what we would most naturally call faith. The last terms—"eating and drinking"— stress that the commitment that is involved in faith is as real, irrevocable, and productive of results as any literal eating or drinking.
Have you committed yourself to Jesus Christ so that he has become as real to you as that? Is he as real to you spiritually as something you can taste or handle? Is he as much a part of you as that which you eat? Boice.
"The work of God" is to "believe" on him. What God requires of us is that we give up trying to please him by our own efforts and instead commit ourselves into the hands of our Savior.
Hymn by John Newton!
Begone, unbelief, My Savior is near, |
Though dark be my way, Since He is my Guide,
'Tis mine to obey, 'Tis His to provide;
Though cisterns be broken, And creatures all fail,
The word He hath spoken Shall surely prevail.
His love, in time past, Forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last In trouble to sink:
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms His good pleasure To help me quite through
Why should I complain Of want or distress,
Temptation or pain? He told me no less;
The heirs of salvation, I know from His Word,
Through much tribulation Must follow their Lord.
How bitter that cup No heart can conceive,
Which He drank quite up, That sinners might live!
His way was much rougher And darker than mine;
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, And shall I repine?
Since all that I meet Shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, The medicine, food;
Though painful at present, 'Twill cease before long,
And then, oh, how pleasant The conqueror's song!
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