In this stupendous chapter 6 of John we have everything for our needs this morning before we break bread and drink wine in memory of our absent Lord. It provides instruction, encouragement and comfort, and at the same time it lifts our thoughts to the highest spiritual planes we may be capable of reaching.
The disciples had just returned to Jesus elated after their preaching of the gospel. John the Baptist had just been beheaded and Jesus, saddened by this event and no doubt weary, desired for them all a brief respite in a quiet place. But this was not to be. How often this is true of us also, that when we most desire rest and to recharge our spiritual batteries we are presented with the tests of true discipleship to continue his work in the strength of God and in His alone.
John's Fourth Sign
The record says that the feast of the passover was nigh, and we believe that the next passover would see Jesus offered as the passover lamb for the salvation of mankind, but only Jesus was aware of it. Great multitudes were following him because of his miracles and his teaching. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd, hungry and in need of comfort, and as the Shepherd of Israel he yearned to make them lie down in green pastures, to lead them beside the still waters, and to restore their souls. So we have the incident of the feeding of the five thousand with five barley loaves and two small fishes.
Jesus looks up to heaven, to the Source of all his strength and power, and he blesses and breaks the bread and gives it to his disciples. He would do this again in that upper room before his body was given for the sins of men, but now in symbol he feeds the sheep of his pasture with bread and meat provided from heaven. Five loaves and two fishes were all that was needed. Five is the Biblical number to represent grace and restoration. We recall that it was five shekels that were required in connection with the redemption of the Levites (Num. 3.47), and those ultimately redeemed would be either Jew or Gentile corresponding to the two fishes. Five thousand represent the multitude who will be redeemed by eating the bread of God provided through Jesus, and none who trust in him will be lost but gathered together at the last day, just like the fragments that were gathered by the disciples into twelve baskets, representing the Israel of God.
Thus we have the fourth sign of John's gospel record, shortly to be followed by the fifth when Jesus walks on the waters, but before we go to that, the lesson for us is given by Jesus in verse 27 of our chapter. It is part of his speech the next day. "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life," We all, of course, are compelled to labour for the meat which perisheth, but our greater efforts are to be reserved for the work of God, on which our hearts and minds must be fixed. This is our first priority in life and it requires all our concentration of mind and strength to see before us and to believe in the things which are now invisible but will shortly be revealed as the only and everlasting way of life.
The five thousand had witnessed and benefited from the great miracle of Jesus. They now perceived that he was a Prophet like unto Moses and they wanted to take him by force and make him a king. Here was the second temptation in the wilderness all over again for Jesus, but he sends his disciples across the sea to Capernaum, and dismisses the multitude, and seeks his Father in prayer in the mountain. Jesus knew must learn—that he could only succeed in overcoming sin whilst he trusted in God and drew strength from Him in prayer. We, on the other hand, are in far more desperate need to lift our thoughts and minds to God to overcome our weaknesses and to repel our many sins.
At this point in his ministry Jesus' popularity had reached its climax. Thereafter it would begin to decline. Jesus refused to accept the praises and the esteem of men and their offered rewards, and this disappointed the people and no doubt at least some of the disciples. Jesus always kept before him the joy promised him by his Father in His Kingdom. Paul says in Hebrews 12: "For the joy that was set before him (he) endured the cross, despising the shame." If we can do the same we too will share that unspeakable joy.
The Fifth Sign
We now come to the fifth sign of John, which is linked with the fourth. The record says that the day was far spent. The people had been fed, and Jesus had symbolically offered himself as a sacrifice for his people. Then he departed. Later these events were repeated, not in symbol but in actual fact. He fed the people with the word of truth, instituted the memorial feast of bread and wine, offered himself as the passover lamb, was raised from the dead to eternal life, and ascended (departed) to the right hand of his Father in heaven. In this fifth sign we have as a prelude Jesus' departure into a mountain to be with his Father in prayer, while his disciples toiled upon the Sea of Galilee.
Here is a type of his absence in heaven while his brethren travail through the storms of life amidst the sea of nations. It would appear that the disciples were not keen to do as Jesus had instructed them, to enter a ship and to sail to Capernaum, for Mark's gospel record says that he had to "constrain" them to this end. Perhaps they saw the likelihood of bad weather ahead. Many of them were fishermen and they knew that lake. Or perhaps they just wanted to remain with Jesus. Nevertheless in obedience to their Master they embarked upon the journey. Soon the sea arose, the wind blew and it became dark. The sails had become useless and they had to resort to rowing, but their progress was slow.
How they must have wished for the presence of their Master to still the waves, but he did not come to them and they grew afraid, yet continued to row towards the shore. Their destination was Capernaum, "the city of consolation." The disciples typify the saints amidst the storms and tempests of life, awaiting their Lord to bring them to the city of consolation. The storms must be borne with unwavering faith, courage and determination until our Lord appears. We all naturally grow afraid in the face of great danger which threatens our lives, but we too, like the disciples, have to leam that we are always—I repeat that word—we are always in the hand of God and nothing can befall us except it be His will. Not a hair of our head falls to the ground without His being aware of it.
It was not until the fourth watch, we are told— which is between three and six o'clock in the morning, just before the dawn—that Jesus came walking upon the sea towards the disciples. By this time they were fatigued, distressed, dispirited, wet, cold and fearful. The fact that the disciples could see Jesus shows that the light of a new day was approaching, and what a beautiful type we have here! The dark Gentile night giving way to the light of the new dawn in which the Lord will appear for the salvation of his brethren, and walking on the sea of nations will still its waves and bring peace at last to all mankind.
The disciples stared out from the boat with unbelieving eyes. In the indistinct light of the early morning, with misty vision, against a background no doubt of leaden skies, they could see the form of a man. They were terrified. What man could walk upon the waters of a tempestuous sea? Then they recognised their Lord. With his calm, clear voice he calls them. His words carry unmistakably above the sound of the wind and the waves. They were words of great consolation to the disciples, and they are still to all his servants in distress. We have read the words this morning: "It is I; be not afraid."
Let us take those words to ourselves and remember them when we are under trial or pressure or distress. Our Lord is with us all the time, whether in sunshine or rain, distress or pain, and he is saying to each of us: "ft is I; be not afraid." He is ready and is willing to deliver us from death itself if we put our trust in him. We must, however, keep our eyes steadfastly on our Lord and the vision of the Kingdom, in order to dispel human fear and achieve our goal.
In that storm-tossed boat it was Peter, as we leam from the other gospel records, who was moved to action. He kept his eyes fixed on his Lord and wanted to go and meet him on the water. Jesus agreed and Peter scrambled out of the boat and began to walk, but he soon wavered when he saw the boisterous sea above him and he learnt in a humiliating way that his faith at that time was no match for that of the Son of God. He suddenly found himself dependent upon the power which his Lord could exercise to save him from sinking in those waters, and he humbly cries out: "Lord, save me!" and he does, with a gentle rebuke at his lack of faith.
Now we are all Peters in the end result, but many of us, we suggest, would not have been not to walk on the waters at all. By faith we are saved, and that in the Lord, and the faith has to grow within us as we appreciate more and more God's Word and we lift our minds from the natural to the spiritual world, unseen as yet but which nevertheless is real, certain and everlasting.
Soon Jesus and the disciples are safe at the city of consolation, only to be met with the crowds who had been fed the day before. Then there ensued that wonderful discourse between Jesus and the people in which Jesus tries to lift their thoughts from the natural to the spiritual plane, to set their minds on things above and not on things on the earth, but they failed to understand his teaching, and sadly, even some of his disciples could not accept his words. Jesus had told them not to labour for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endures unto everlasting life. Their reply was, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" Jesus answered:
"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."
Committing ourselves to Jesus
Believing in Jesus means seeing him as the only true and faultless teacher of men. It means committing ourselves to him, having such convictions about him that we are prepared to lose all, if need be, in an attempt to get near him, in the attempt to know him and to be known by him, in the attempt to live a life that is in harmony with the principles he taught. The development of that kind of faith is the work of God. But all men have not that faith. Certainly the crowds that were about Jesus did not. The question is. Have we? Our success will rest upon our ability to lift our minds from the natural to the spiritual, through the Handbook of Divine life, the Scriptures, and our personal growing through our experience of faith in action.
The experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness should have taught the people that "man doth not live by bread alone." Why? Natural food corrupts and those that eat it perish. Even the God-provided manna corrupted after twenty-four hours. But there were two exceptions. One was the golden pot of manna placed in the ark, which was a type of Jesus, the only one who kept the law of God through Moses faultlessly. He was the golden vessel. His was the gold of tried faith. The law did not condemn him because he was sinless.
The other exception was the manna collected on the day before the sabbath, which retained its freshness during the sabbath. This, it would seem, is a type of the law of Christ, the timeless principles of his teaching which still retain their freshness, applicability and relevance today after two thousand years, and will continue to be the guiding principles for life in the age to come. Unlike the law of Moses, which could only condemn sinners, the law of Christ brings hope and immortality to a dying world. His was the manna, the bread from heaven, which did not corrupt. This was the true bread, the bread of God which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.
While God has made available to all this bread become the sacrificial victim and through him the of heaven, it is only those who eat it, says Jesus, received and assimilated by who will be satisfied. It is only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness who will be filled; only those who seek the the establishment of the closest life-giving properties of this fellowship between God and bread will be saved. But then Jesus went on to say, to the We know that all this was given amazement of the earthbound added significance when Jesus, crowd that surrounded him:
“Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Now the background to this thought is in the Levitical law of sacrifice. In the Old Testament the bread of God meant the fat and the inwards, those parts of the animal which were consumed by fire on the altar. Of these elements the priests were forbidden by the law to partake, showing that the offerings on the altar did not bring reconciliation and fellowship with God. They could not share His bread. But in direct contrast to this, Jesus said: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life, in you." It obviously implies that Jesus was to become the sacrificial victim and through him the life of God was to be received and assimilated by those who ate the sacrifice.
Now the eating or drinking of it was to signify the establishment of the closest fellowship between God and those who worship at this altar. We know that all this was given added significance when Jesus, about a year later, was to break bread and drink wine with his disciples in that upper room and command them—and all disciples, including ourselves, that followed—to do remembrance of him till he come.
We are now about to obey that command, having been instructed by the teaching of Jesus, encouraged to lift our thoughts to the spiritual plane; chastened for our lack of faith as we no doubt cry out with Peter: "Lord, save us!" and comforted by his words: "It is I; be not afraid."
C.R.H.