Jesus Turns Down the People'..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. John chapter six from verse one. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.

And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand. Lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in that place. So the men sat down about 5000 in number and Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated.

So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled, and they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that had been done, they said, this indeed, this is indeed the prophet who is come into the world. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Amen. This is the word of the Lord. So brothers and sisters and friends, last week we had the opportunity as a church fellowship to work our way through the first 13 verses of the sixth chapter of the gospel according to John. And we know this section or this passage as the feeding of the 5,000. But as I said last week, and as Matthew has told us, that 5,000 number indeed is actually only men.

It doesn't include women and children. So if we were going to really grasp the vast greatness of this miracle, we need to sit back and think, with women and children, it is very likely to be three, maybe even four times that number. And as I noted last week, this is, apart from the resurrection of our Lord, this is the only miracle, the only miracle that is found in every one of the four gospels. This here, the feeding of the 5,000. You see, all the miracles are very important.

They're all significant. But to find one that's found in all gospels, we need to sit back and ask the question, why that is? Every one of the miracles that Jesus performed speaks something. It speaks something apart from itself. It speaks something of the power of Jesus Christ.

And it also speaks something of the work that he's going to perform. But this miracle, this miracle of feeding the 5,000 that is found in every one of the four gospels goes beyond that because it speaks of those two things. But it also points directly to the person of Jesus Christ. You see the bread here that the people had eaten and the multitude had been filled to the brim and satisfied with the bread that Jesus had multiplied from the five loaves and the two pieces of fish. That was a symbol.

It was a symbol not only to say that Jesus is capable of creating, that He is indeed the Creator God, but it was a practical, tangible picture pointing to the true bread of life. Not the bread that sustains physical life, but bread that sustains spiritual life. And this bread is the bread from heaven. And Jesus will go on to say, this bread is himself, is himself. Now, that's the big picture.

That's the theme that Jesus is the bread of life. That is the theme that runs through the sixth chapter according on the gospel, according to John. But I said last week that there are multiple things happening in this chapter, and we would do well to slow down and take our time and explore them and consider them together. And by God's grace, we will do that here this evening with the two verses, verses 14 and verse 15. Last week, when we slowed down a little and we saw the miracle, we looked at something that was told to us in the first 13 verses that was quite significant.

And we looked into the testing of Philip. We remember that testing. of Philip. You see, in verses 3 and 5, we're told that Jesus and his disciples are now on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus and the disciples find a vantage point where they're able to see.

They go up on the mountain. They're able to see the many people, the multitudes flock around the shore of the Sea of Tiberias and walk towards them. And as they were able to see this flocking people, Jesus looks over to Philip and then he asks him the question. He says, How are we going to feed these people? How are we going to feed all these people that are coming towards us?

It was a test. It was a test to Philip because he was a daunting question. Even thinking of the logistics of feeding 15,000 to 20,000 people would have been overwhelming for Philip. The problem wasn't the size of the people or the seemingly impossible request that Jesus put at his disciples' feet, but basically the problem is that Philip underestimated the Lord's divine power. Because what Philip says when Jesus asks him this question is simply, 200 denarii of 200 denarii would not even buy enough bread to put a bite in everyone's mouth.

200 denarii would not, eight months worth of wages would not even be enough to put a bite in everyone's mouth. The problem here is that Philip hadn't identified who he was standing next to. He was with Jesus. He'd experienced firsthand the miracles and the power of Christ. And the first inclination of his heart and mine is the very first thing that most of us would do.

When confronted with the impossible, most of us will appeal to our own resources, our own strength, our own intellectuality. And we don't appeal to the one who is the almighty God of the universe who promises to be with us and provide for our every need. So it wasn't that he was asked the impossible. Philip failed the test because he underestimated the Lord's divine power. And even though Jesus had already made known to Philip his desire to feed these people, Philip's solution was devoid of Christ.

He came up with a Christless solution, and the same can be said of Andrew. The beloved Philip and Andrew failed to see that Jesus is more than a rabbi. He is the God of the impossible. He is the God of the impossible. And although at this point they don't quite see it, Jesus, in His wonderful grace, will now give them a sign, a sign of unparalleled proportion, and He'll prove not only to the disciples, but the thousands of witnesses, not only does He have the ability to create bread, a point I believe that is etched in the Apostle John's mind, especially when we look at the first paragraph in the book that carries his name where he writes, all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made, but also that he that is Christ is the all-sufficient Lord.

He's the all-sufficient Lord who is able to provide, by His divine power, abundantly more than any need needs. Both He is able to provide the physical, and He's also, more importantly, able to provide the spiritual needs of His people. The greatest of which, He will go on to say as we progress in this chapter, is eternal life. And so although Philip and Andrew may not, according to Mark, may not have got what was going on, even after the miracle was performed, they will come to understand the profoundness of what Jesus did one day. Because one day they will be sent as apostles, and they will suffer, and they will be in situations that would seem unbearable.

but they would know in that moment that Jesus is all-sufficient. They would know in that moment that Jesus is enough, and He does provide for their every need. Even one of the apostles, Peter himself, comes to the conviction where he writes in 2 Peter, His divine power has granted to us all things, all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to His glory and excellence. Beloved, do we believe this? Do we believe that Jesus is all-sufficient?

Do we believe that He is all that we need? Because if that truth is etched in our hearts and in our minds, then it gives us no excuse for Christless plans or Christless solutions. Because in all that we do, Christ ought to be front and center. That's where we got to last week. And this week, by the grace of God, we will look at the two verses that are before us, verse 14 and 15.

And in them, what we see is the miracle has already been performed. But in these two verses, we will see the response of the crowd. And in them, we'll also see the motivation of this crowd. And from the other point, we will see Jesus' response to the multitude. So let's put our eyes down in the text and read those two verses.

When the people saw the sign that he had done, They said, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. You see, at first glance, it may be difficult to understand why it is that Jesus withdraws from these people. They've just identified him as the prophet. The prophet that is to come into the world.

Now that's not a small testimony. That is massive and it's profound. Because they're not saying he's a prophet. There's a definite article in there and they're saying that Jesus is the prophet. Obviously, they've been paying attention when they've been going to the synagogues and hearing the scripture being read by the scribes and sometimes expounded.

You see, they didn't have Bibles in their hands like we do today. They needed to go to the local synagogue and listen to the scribes open the Old Testament and read it to them. And they had enough information in their minds and in their hearts to know or at least to determine that this must be, this Jesus must be the prophet. that is to come into the world. Where did they get that information from?

Well, Deuteronomy chapter 18 is specific. There it says, it reads in verse 15, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, this is Moses speaking on behalf of God, from among your people, from your brothers. You see, there's been many prophets that have come after Moses. Many, many prophets that have come. And the Jews recognized that the prophet, the one who's greater than Moses, was none of those.

They were able to look back and say, no, no, no, no, no, we're still waiting for this prophet to come. Multiples have come through, but they were able to know that there is this prophet like Moses who's yet to come. Now the Pharisees, they thought John the Baptist was that prophet. You remember back in John chapter 1 how they sent a delegation of Levites and priests to John the Baptist because they'd seen that this preacher was in the wilderness preaching with such conviction and he had gathered such a massive crowd and following. They're thinking, is it possible?

Is it possible after 400 years of silence that God has now finally sent this prophet that Moses prophesied so many years ago? But of course, John, he was a faithful man. He knew his place. He knew who he was and what he was meant to be. So he declined that.

He declined the claim flat out and said, that's not me. But in a few days time, Jesus comes on the scene and John the Baptist points to this Christ and he says, this is the Son of God. This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin. of the world. Now here, in John chapter 6, after the great miracle of feeding the 5,000 men here among the Galileans, they've seen enough of Christ to be able to argue, we think He's the one.

We think He's that prophet prophesied to come 1,500 years ago. You see, it's very likely that Moses was already on their mind. We get a hint of that, because in verse 4 in our text, John has already told us that it is the time of the Passover, or the Passover is at hand. You see, there were many men, probably in the crowd, they were preparing themselves to make the trek down to Jerusalem, to be part of one of the three feasts that they were meant to go if they were healthy and could afford it. And one of those feasts is the preeminent feast of the Passover.

So maybe in light of those circumstances, they were sitting among themselves and they were reflecting of the similarities, because the Passover is in the time, it was established in the time of Moses, and they may have been thinking the similarities between Moses and the parallels between this Jesus that is before them. Maybe. Maybe the thought of Moses, who as we heard this afternoon, was the lawgiver. He went up the mountain and he brought the law for the people of Israel. So too.

Just Jesus. Because back in the Sermon on the Mount, isn't Jesus on the Mount preaching the Lord to the people before him? Maybe. Maybe they're thinking of Moses who led the people of Israel into the wilderness and now they find themselves led by this Jesus into a desolate place. Or maybe in their mind they're thinking of the manner that they saw Moses give to the people of Israel in abundance so they would not go hungry until they made it into the promised land.

And now, just now, this Jesus has fed them by miraculous means. Or it could be, and this could be the big one that's on their mind, Moses freed the people of Israel from the bondage and the tyranny of the Egyptians. Could it be? Could it be that this prophet, could it be that this is Jesus and he's the one who will come and free us from the yoke of the Romans? You see, whatever they were thinking, there was sufficient evidence in their mind, at least, to claim that Jesus is the long-awaited prophet.

They knew enough of the Old Testament to join the dots, to not attribute that to any of the previous prophets. But they thought, this must be Him. So what did they decide to do? They decide to make him king by force. Verse 15.

You see, if Jesus was looking for popularity, if Jesus was looking for power, if Jesus was looking for prestige among these people, now is his moment. Like many false messiahs before him, they would have relished the opportunity. But the text is clear. Jesus is unimpressed. Matthew and Mark tell us he dismisses the crowd, and John tells us here in verse 15, he turns his back and walks up the mountain.

You see, John has already made it clear in chapter 2, and we've referenced this on numerous occasions, that Jesus knows what is inside man. He doesn't need anyone to tell him. He knows what is in man. He's able to look beyond the confession of the mouth and discern the motivations of the heart. Jesus knows the zeal of these people and where that zeal is rooted.

He knows they want to make him king, not because it's a God-centered zeal, no, but a man-centered zeal. He knows their motivation is selfish. It's physical, it's earthly. They've seen the physical things that Jesus can do, the extraordinary works, and they want more of that. That's why they followed Him in the wilderness in the first place.

And that's why they intend to forcibly make Him king. This Jesus has proven to have the power to accomplish what they need, at least in their minds. He's shown the ability to be able to rid them from disease through his healing power. He's shown them that he has the ability to rid them of evil spirits because he has power over demons. He's shown them to be able to fill their bellies with food.

Why could he not also free them from the plight of the Romans and give them back the land that is rightfully theirs? Jesus, whether you like it or not, We've something in you, we've seen something in you that could be of a great benefit to us. So willingly or unwillingly, we want to make you king. That's the essence of verse 15. What arrogance.

To even consider that they have the right to force anything on Christ. Beloved, even if in their mind he was just a prophet, The prophet represents God. He's the mouthpiece of God. He speaks on behalf of God and they ought to be reverent before him because he speaks in the place of Yahweh. They ought to be submissive to what he says.

They have no right, no right to force Him to fulfill their own selfish desires. You see, this is the natural, unredeemed heart. It's inflamed with self-centered desires, and beloved, it will go to great lengths to get what it wants. You see, they correctly identified Christ as the long-awaited prophet. They got that right.

As Peter in Acts chapter 3 and Stephen in that wonderful sermon before he's stoned in Acts chapter 7 also tells us. But beloved, we need to understand this. Simply getting his identity right is not enough. The demons know who Jesus is. What you do with this Jesus matters.

For these people, The prophet was a means to their own ends. They were simply charmed by what he could do, rather than to marvel at who he is. All they could see is how they could profit by having him on their side, how they can have this powerful miracle worker doing the things that they want him to do. And if he's not willing, verse 15 tells us, they're prepared to do it by force. That's the epitome of selfishness.

But who are they kidding? The all-seeing eye of our Lord knows their true intentions, and he'll have nothing to do with the kingdom of the people's doing. He is the rightful king, but not of that kingdom. So he turns his back and walks up the mount. Matthew tells us he'll go now to be in the presence of the Father.

He'll pray and spend time with his Father. But he rejects these people and he rejects what they're about to do. Being crowned the people's king is not why the eternal Word became flesh. and dwelt among us. That's not why he has come.

It may seem that there's some conjecture with what I've just said based only on verses 14 and 15. But brothers and sisters, I want you to see that the picture actually gets clearer the next day when Jesus actually confronts these people and he reveals their true motivations and their true intentions. Because in verse 25, which is the next day, this is what we read. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? And then Jesus answered them.

Truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of loaves. Straight to the point, our Lord is, isn't he? seeking him to fill their empty stomachs, sadly, with no concern for their empty souls. It's not because they understood the significance of the sign that they're seeking Him. They didn't understand the feeding of the 5,000.

They didn't understand that what Jesus was doing in the feeding of the empty stomachs and the overflowing abundance that He provides was just a picture of what He's actually come to do with empty souls. They didn't see that. The sign was to point to the physical, not to the physical, but to their real need, which was their spiritual needs. The soul satisfying bread from heaven. That's what that was a picture of.

And Jesus will go on to say that that soul satisfying bread from heaven is he who stands before you. It's him himself. But it's clear by Jesus' response last night, and His words in front of these people, that they seek physical things and not the spiritual. It's clear that they were yet spiritually blind, that they were still in the kingdom of darkness, and they could not see what is spiritual. And if they're spiritually blind, beloved, they cannot discern the things of the Spirit.

The Word of God. The words that Jesus speaks are spiritual. And so they must be spiritually disowned. And so, although these people might have appealed to Scripture to conclude that this Jesus is the prophet, they will fail to recognize, this is important, they'll fail to recognize what their response to this prophet ought to have been. You know, when God, when Yahweh spoke through Moses, and He announced that there will be a prophet to come like Moses, He gave only one command.

Only one command to the people who see this prophet. One command to the people who will see this prophet come before them. And it's so clear and yet these people couldn't see it. Let's turn our eyes to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Let's read that passage so we can see with our own eyes.

Deuteronomy chapter 18, let's read from verses 15 through 19. I want you to see what it is that Yahweh commands when he sends this prophet who's greater than Moses. From verse 15, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen. 16.

Just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken. 18. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he speaks in my name, I myself will require it of him.

Did you get it? Did you see that command? What does God command the people to do when this prophet comes? Listen to him. Listen to him.

So were these people listening to Christ? It's hard to say with the information we have, right? But so let me rephrase that question and ask you another question. Did Christ command them to make him king? No.

They were doing it by force. You see, the word listen in our passage here, or some translation will have the word hearken, it more connotes not just a lending an ear, but rather a hearing that leads to obeying. It's more about you need to hear what's being said, understand what's being said, believe what's being said, and then be intentional in acting upon what you've just heard. You see, it's the same word that the Father uses when our Lord was transfigured on the mount in Mark and Luke chapter 9 or Matthew 17. When He's on the mount and He's transfigured in His pre-incarnate glory, the voice of the Father was heard from heaven audibly.

And you remember what He said in front of Peter, James and John. He said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him. Listen to Him. This was their duty before the Lord.

To listen and obey the one God has sent. That was the whole purpose of the signs, is it not? If you remember on several occasions as we've been working our way through the gospel of John, I've brought up over and over again what the purpose of the signs are. That they're not an ends in and of themselves, but they're rather a means to a greater ends. And this perfectly aligns with the purpose statement of John in chapter 20.

Signs are meant to stop people in their tracks. For them to recognize that the power that is before them, the power that is on display, is nothing less than divine. Nothing less than divine, and only possible with God. That's what they're meant to do. So whether it's the healing of the boy in Capernaum by our Lord, who was 25 kilometers away in Cana, or whether it is the bringing back to life dead limbs of a invalid man of almost four decades at the Pool of Bethesda, or what they've just experienced.

When our Lord fed multiple thousands of people, when he multiplied five loaves of bread, and two fish. The people were supposed to see these things and know that this is divine power. This doesn't have its origins in a human being. And you see, the people before us, they recognized the power, but they rejected the word. And that's incredible to me.

Because the very sign, as I said, was meant to put God's power on display, and not just that, but the person who does the sign, the focus ought to be taken off the sign, and then placed on the doer of the sign. And then if God is the one who is empowering that sign, if He's the one who's sanctioning His power, He's sanctioning the person who is performing the miracle, then the words that come out of that doer of the miracle are also the words of God. God's power is on display in those signs. But also God's word is on display in the ones speaking them. Now Jesus is God and he speaks the words of God.

And the only right response would have been to joyfully believe what Jesus says and to obey what Jesus says. But these people reject Christ. They see his power. But they reject his word. They liked what they saw, verse 14.

They loved the spectacle. They enjoyed the exhibition. They want more of that. But they fail to understand what their response ought to have been when this prophet came into the world. They were supposed to listen to him.

And if they fail to do that, beloved, And as many of the followers of Christ that day, they will only prove to be false disciples. See, this is alluded in our text, but it's explicit in verses 55 through 60. I want us to run our eyes in John chapter 6, 55 through 60. Now we'll examine this text in a few weeks time in a little bit more detail. We'll read the five or six verses before us so that we can have a context.

But really I want us to concentrate our mind on the response of the people in verse 60. And these are very likely the people. who just previously, on the day before, wanted to make Jesus king. From verse 55, For my flesh is the true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

And the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 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."

1359. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. And here it is, verse 60. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can what?

Who can listen to it? acknowledge the prophet and they're prepared to make him king but they cannot listen to his words and you know that's a that's a big problem There's a real big problem in this because Jesus brings out the consequences of those who don't hear and obey His words. Only a few verses down. In verse 63, listen to what Jesus says. He says, It is the Spirit who gives life.

The flesh is of no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. In other words, if you don't believe my words, you cannot have life. And what's the final verdict? Verse 66.

After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. Their faith had proved to be inauthentic, inauthentic. Like those in 2.24, in chapter 2.24, who believed in the name of Jesus, but Jesus, and that's when they saw the sign, but Jesus did not entrust himself to them.

But the beautiful thing here, as we'll come to see as we continue our study in this chapter, is that although many, maybe most, turned their backs on Christ, many remained. Many believed. You see, it was about a year earlier, probably six months to a year earlier, our Lord was rejected by the Jews in Jerusalem. And now He's rejected by the Galileans, His own people. Because the king they seek, the king that the natural man seeks, is a king who will satisfy their own carnal desires.

A king that would gratify the passions of the world. Someone who will continue to feed their bellies and give them what they want, but they reject. But Jesus will reject that kingdom. He came to establish or to inaugurate a kingdom, but his kingdom is not of this world, as he says to Pilate in John chapter 18. It's a spiritual kingdom.

And the kingdom citizens are not the ones who impose themselves on the king. Rather, the citizens of his kingdom are the ones that he came to seek and save because they were lost. And beloved, I know that that's in Luke 19, and there's shepherd, it's metaphoric, and it's an analogy of shepherd and sheep. But a shepherd in the Old Testament, as we'll come to see when we break bread together, is also spoken of as the king of Israel. And we'll see that soon.

But many of these people are unable to understand. Because when our Lord speaks spiritual words, such as eating his flesh and drinking his blood, They can't receive these words. Unable to see the metaphor and what Christ is saying. Unable to see that as food, as bread and wine is drunk, as someone consumes food, it gives life and nourishment. to their physical body, so too when Jesus is consumed, that is when He is believed upon, when He is sacrificed, when He is to be sacrificed, and that sacrifice is believed upon, when His life is believed upon, when His words are believed upon, it's to consume Him.

And those words of Christ and the person of Christ, once you believe in Him, He doesn't nourish you physically. But He nourishes your soul. He nourishes you spiritually. It's to believe. It's to believe in Him to be forgiven of your sins.

It's to believe that He is the source and the substance of eternal life. That's why He came, isn't it? Isn't that why Jesus came? To forgive and to take care of the sins of His people? You remember what is written in Matthew 1.

21, He shall call Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sins. But they couldn't see it. So they rejected Him. And they rejected His Word. And in doing so, they rejected the only source of life.

And that is, they remain in darkness, and that is, they remained under the wrath of God. Now you might be thinking at this point in time, how does this apply to me? Jesus right now, we know, is at the right hand of the Father. He's no longer He's no longer physically on the earth. He's no longer walking around healing the sick and doing multiple miracles.

He's no longer preaching and teaching. And we as a people, we don't have Roman rule over us. Actually, we're not oppressed by any physical rule at this point in time. So that's not really a temptation that we would formulate a king to redeem us from some physical rule. That's not a temptation for us.

How does it apply to us? I want you to know that nothing has changed in 2,000 years. Man is still man. And man's heart is still just as desperately wicked and deceitful above all things as it always has been. The unredeemed heart, the heart that is not in Christ, is just as evil, beloved.

And therefore the natural inclinations of the heart is still to satisfy the carnal desires of the flesh. That was the case in first century Palestine. Those desires are often, and it's the case then, that those desires are often under the guise of religion. And it's no different today. But we've just given it a different name.

We've given it the name, the prosperity gospel. The same beliefs under a different banner. It's what the stony unregenerated heart wants. It takes Scripture and maligns it, and then it manipulates the Word of God to suggest that one can come to Jesus and fulfill all your fleshly desires. Come to Jesus and He will give you wealth and good health and success and popularity and fill in your gaps.

The King will give it all, they would say. But they failed to see that this Jesus did not endure horrendous suffering and die a criminal's death on the cross under the wrath of God in order to give you and I more stuff to satisfy worldly desires. That's not why He came. By faith, by faith, a changed heart and a new affection is what He gives to His people. And He wants to rid them of those worldly desires.

He wants to give them new affections, affections that were once inclined only to self and world and the flesh, and now inclined towards God and holiness. He takes our eyes off the fleeting temporal pleasures of the flesh, and He stamps them with eternity. He gives us ears to listen to what He says, to understand what He says, and He gives us power to obey what He says. No longer living for our own will, but the will of God. You see, these points are made so clear in 1 John 2 15-17.

Listen to what he says. He says, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And then he goes on in verse 17, And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Beloved, taking Christ at His Word necessitates taking up your cross and following Him. And you follow Him as a rightful King. It's to deny oneself and to give up all that the world offers, which is empty anyway, with the purpose of following Christ, because He alone offers true satisfaction for the soul. Christian, your desire were to be more of Him, not more of the world. We should see Him as being all satisfying to our souls.

Beloved, this is the example that was given in the miracle, in the sign that He performed in front of these multitude of witnesses. that they were able to see that when He fed them physically, they ate and ate. And these people, for the most part, would be deemed as impoverished by our day. And when there was an abundance of food, they ate their fill, believe me. And they ate and ate until they could eat no more.

12 baskets full of leftovers came back. And Beloved, at that point, if you had gone to them and gave them a meal or a piece of bread or something they liked, I would say, no, I can't fit another thing in. I'm so full. I'm so satisfied. Beloved, is that not what Christ is to the Christian?

Is that not how He wants to conform us to His image? That we too would be spiritually satisfied. that we too have our fill in Him, that He's all-sufficient, that He's all we need, Christ and no more. And when we are offered the whole world, we would say, no, I can't take that in. I am completely, completely and totally satisfied to the brim with my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I don't see any of that as appealing to me. I want to serve Him and love Him and honor Him and obey Him because He is the all-satisfying God. of all. Is that not what that miracle speaks to? Is that not why Jesus is able to say in Luke chapter 14, unless you are prepared to give up everything in this world, even your own life, then you are not worthy to be my disciple.

How can He say those words? It's because He knows. If you give up everything and come to Christ, you actually have everything you need. He is all satisfying and is all that we need. Beloved, does that sound like the prosperity gospel to you?

You see, in Christ, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is to take the world out of His people, not to put it in. That's His work. That's holiness. That's Christlikeness. I don't want anyone to think this afternoon that our Savior is unconcerned with our physical needs, because He is.

He knows what you need and He knows what I need. He knows all things. And beloved, He provides abundantly more than we can ask or think, Ephesians 3.20. And that includes all the physical things that He knows we need.

But if it's a desire for more worldly things, like the example of these Jews, that brings a person to Christ, then it's evident that that person has no idea who Jesus truly is. And that would be evident that that person is in grave, grave danger. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world? but loses or forfeits his own soul, Matthew 16, 26. Brothers and sisters, Jesus' response to these type of people is so clear in verse 15.

So in closing, I want us to recognize the absolute necessity of having a complete biblical picture, view, understanding of our Lord. You see, the Jews in our passage acknowledge Jesus to be a prophet, and they were willing to make him king. Both offices are true of our Lord, although in far more profound ways than they could ever imagine. But unless we recognize his third office, We, as the Jews, would have an inadequate picture of Jesus. As foretold in Zechariah chapter 6, and also reiterated and confirmed in Hebrews chapter 7, Jesus Christ is also a priest, a priestly king.

He is the great high priest. And unlike the Levitical priesthood, the priest doesn't offer animal sacrifices to God, but he willingly offers the only sin-atoning, wrath-satisfying, once-and-for-all sacrifice acceptable to God. He offers himself. Making himself both the sacrificer, the priest, as well as the sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As priest, he reconciles sinners like us to a holy God.

And even now, as priest, he sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father, and he makes intercession for his people. Praise God. But beloved, I want you to hear this really important point. The fatal flaw for the Jews in our passage is this. They didn't recognize that before they could make Jesus a king, they needed to recognize him and intimately know him as their great high priest.

So Jesus rejects what they're doing. Because only then, only if they truly know Christ as their Great High Priest are they enabled to submit to Him as King who rules by His Spirit and His Word. Only then, beloved, He cannot be your King. In that sense, He is the King overall, of all dominion, of all powers, of all the universe. Yes, but he cannot be the king in the sense of an intimate knowledge of a loving king who doesn't look down upon you in his wrath, unless you know him also as the great high priest who shed his blood on your behalf.

Beloved, my prayer this afternoon is that we would all know him in that way, that we would not take this Jesus for granted. That there would be none in this place that doesn't recognize Him for who He is. That we would see that our greatest need before God is not the things of this world. It's not the food for our stomachs. It's not the success in our jobs.

None of these things. Our greatest need is to be forgiven of our sins and to be made right with God, because apart from Christ, we are in enmity with God. Romans 5 is clear on that point. And so the Jews were more concerned with their Roman enemies when they should have been more concerned with Yahweh, who they have become an enemy of because of their unrighteousness and because of their sin. Beloved, apart from the finished work of Jesus Christ, Applied to our account, we would be enemies of God.

And this is the scary thing, because one apart from Christ sits under the wrath of the thrice holy God. The God who cannot look upon sin. They sit under His wrath, unless they're covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. Do you believe this? Are you believing upon the effectual sin-removing sacrifice of our great High Priest?

Do you listen to His Word and obey it as our Great Prophet? Are you by faith joyfully bending your knee to the Sovereign of the Universe, King Jesus? Pray that you are, and I pray that you would fix your eyes upon Him, and Him alone, as the all-sufficient Savior. Amen, let's pray.