WWUTT 852 What Sign Do You Perform?

When Jesus said to those who came after him that the work of God is to believe in him whom he has sent, that wasn't as much an instruction as it was

Jesus saying to them, the work of God is not being done in you when we understand the text. You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to sound teaching of the

Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com,

and don't forget our website www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the Gospel of John chapter 6, and as with yesterday,

I'll start in verse 25 and read through verse 40. The Apostle John wrote,

When they found Jesus on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?

Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the

Son of Man will give you, for on him God the Father has set his seal.

Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them,

This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him,

Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my

Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them,

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the

Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

There are certain things going on here that you might think, well, I believe that John has written on this before, and indeed he has.

We're starting to see some things get repeated, and that's going to continue even through the rest of his gospel.

We've covered enough of the gospel of John now that you're starting to see things get repeated.

And it's not because John gets repetitive, but it's showing how Jesus has fulfilled some of the things that he's already talked about, including conversations that we've read between Jesus and Nicodemus, and Jesus and the woman at the well.

Some of those statements that he's made to those people is coming back now in this discourse that he's having with the people who've come after him following his feeding of the 5 ,000.

So we go back to verse 28, when the people said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

And Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

And yet the people don't believe in him. And you see that as we've gone on in the discourse and just what we've read so far today.

The people don't believe in who he is, that he is the Son of God who has been sent from heaven.

So when Jesus says in verse 29, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

This is not as much an instruction to these people as it is

Jesus saying to them, you are not among those God is working through.

God's work is being done in whom? The 12. That's who it was, who

Jesus came to on the water when they were in the boat, they were trying to get to the other side. They couldn't get there.

The wind was blowing against the boat. Jesus came to them walking on the water, showing his divinity to them, because this is where the work of God is being done in these whom the father has given to the son and whom the son has chosen for himself.

God is doing this work in them that they would believe in him whom he has sent.

The 12 believe in who Jesus is. But these other disciples who have come after him and John does refer to them as disciples, but these other disciples, they don't know

Jesus as the son of God. And what they're seeking after when they come to him is some way that their own flesh may be appeased.

They don't desire God. Their desire is for themselves. And you see that in their hearts.

When we go on in verse 30, they said to him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you see that's arrogant.

That's incredibly arrogant for the people to respond to Jesus that way, because he's already shown them a sign.

They're coming from having seen him feed 5000 with five loaves and two fish and 12 baskets full left over.

They saw that happen. That's the very reason why they're coming after him. And Jesus has even said to them, the reason why you've come to me is because you you're seeking more of the loaves.

You got your fill of the loaves. Verse 27. Do not seek for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give to you for on him.

God the father has set his seal. And so they're asking, well, what work do we need to do in order to be doing the work of God?

And the work of God is that you would believe in him whom he has sent. That's happening among the 12.

That work of God is happening there. But it's not happening. These other people who have come after Jesus and instead of understanding what it is that he has said, and instead of humbling themselves and worshiping

Jesus, they say, well, then you need to show us a sign that we may believe you.

You haven't given us any reason for us to believe in you. So you see that in their hearts, the work of God is not being done.

It's evident that they are still thinking with the mind of a man rather than thinking with the mind of God.

And I encounter this all the time. This is the majority of conversations that I will have with people, even in my own community.

When I go out with the gospel, it's with people who think they're saved and they know just enough

Christian ease to make you sound like your average churchgoer, right? They can say that they're a

Christian, that they believe in God, and they're able to even quote a few verses and give you the

Sunday school answers. But what they have is a religion of convenience. They have something that's just kind of able to suit them for the time and place in which they're in.

It's able to suit their needs. It's able to placate their minds just enough to make them believe that they're

Christians. I'm American. This is the American religion. So this is the thing that I believe.

And therefore, I am saved because I can tell you that I'm a follower of Jesus.

But they don't really follow Jesus. They don't have any desire for Jesus. Just because they can spout off some of the terminology does not mean that you are a follower of Jesus.

Their hearts are not oriented in the direction of wanting to know God. In fact, they're still hard.

They're still hard hearts against God. They don't really know their sin. They don't understand there are things that are worldly in their lives that they need to get rid of, that they need to stop pursuing and instead go after God.

And if they were going after God, then the things that they desire in their hearts now would not be the desire of their hearts.

And that's when it starts to get offensive, when you start to confront those things. So you're doing this in your life now.

And if you really were pursuing Christ, then you wouldn't be doing this other thing. And then they get angry. Then it becomes, well,

Jesus loves me the way that I am. Well, Jesus made me the way that I am.

But they have a heart that's going after something that is not pleasing to God.

It is contrary to the fruit of the Spirit that we would read about in Galatians 5.

Instead it would be the works of the flesh. Does this make sense? Do you understand what I'm saying?

Maybe you know somebody in your life who is the same way. They can say just enough to sound like they're a

Christian, but when it comes down to it, their heart is actually far from God. They don't have the work of God being done in their heart like we read about in Ezekiel 36.

And this was a reference that Jesus made to Nicodemus back in John 3.

And yet we see even some of that coming into play here in what Jesus is saying to these people who are telling him, well, show us a sign from heaven.

And Jesus says the sign, the work of God that would be done in your life is that you would believe in him whom he has sent.

In Ezekiel 36, the Lord God has said that I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols

I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.

And I will remove your hard heart of stone and I will give you a soft heart of flesh I will put within you.

And I will put my spirit within you, verse 27, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Notice that the Lord says there that I will cleanse you from all of your idols.

This is anything that a person would place in the place of God. Or they would say,

I need to have this in order to be satisfied. Jesus is not enough. I also have to have this thing.

So Jesus says that if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow after me.

So you must you must die to yourself and live to Christ. What is it in yourself that you're still clinging to that you think that you still need in order to be a happy person?

And I still have to have this. So Jesus isn't enough. I also need to hold on to this thing.

Is there some sort of passion in your flesh that you're still clinging to sexual immorality, a sexual desire that you have that is outside of the covenant of marriage?

God designed sex for marriage between a husband and a wife. And yet you're still messing around with this other sexual thing that's outside of that covenant bond, that sexual immorality.

And you're saying in your flesh, I still need this other thing. And Christ is not enough to satisfy me.

Well, you've got an idol in your life. And has God not actually cleansed your heart from this idol?

Is there some sort of evil desire or covetousness that you want something in your flesh that you think that you have to have some identity about yourself?

I have to call myself this. And it's and you're excusing it by saying, this is the way God has made me.

So he's made me this way rather than realizing that it's something that you actually need to put to death because it's not your identity.

Your identity is in Christ. Is it perhaps anger or malice or wrath?

You slander other people. You still have obscene talk coming from your mouth. The Lord has not put a guard over the door of your lips as David prayed in the

Psalms. But the words that you are saying still sound worldly instead of sounding like a person who is a follower of Jesus Christ.

Where is the fruit and the evidence in your life of being someone who is a follower of Jesus, that you have this work of God that is being done in your heart, that you believe on him whom he has sent on Jesus Christ and you desire to be like him?

Or do you think that there's something else that has to be present in your life in order for you to truly be satisfied?

That's covetousness. That is idolatry. And that's what these people are doing here. For Jesus has said to them that the work of God is that you believe in Jesus.

And their response then is, then what sign do you do? Well, then give us the thing that we don't have yet so that we may be satisfied in whoever it is that you are.

That's that's basically what it is that the people are saying here. What sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform? And they're also kind of egging Jesus on with this, with these responses.

They're saying, come on, give us more loaves. Show us again that you can do this, that you can take five loaves and two fish and split them up and give us some more food.

They're still looking for something that would appease the appetites of their flesh.

They go on in verse 31 to say, our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

And Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

Now you understand the reference that's going on here, right? This goes back to Exodus chapter 16 with the giving of the manna in the wilderness after the

Israelites had been delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians right after they had passed through the

Red Sea and the Egyptians had been destroyed in the waters. And this is before the

Israelites even come to Mount Sinai and they hear the giving of the Ten Commandments from the voice of God.

The people are now in the wilderness coming up on Sinai and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and they said, would that we had died by the hand of the

Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

And again, this is just Exodus 16. We haven't even gotten far enough into the story where they've seen the promised land and now the people are grumbling because the people there in the promised land are like giants and they can't come up against them.

And there's a whole lot more grumbling that has yet to come in the story. They have just been delivered from the hands of the

Egyptians. They've just seen the Egyptians wiped out in the Red Sea. And yet now the people are grumbling and think they've been delivered into the wilderness to die.

That's what they're saying to Moses and Aaron. Hardly any time has passed since that event had taken place.

And the Lord said to Moses, Exodus 16 for behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.

God saying, I'm going to go ahead and give them what they're asking for. And let's see whether their heart really is for God or whether they're pursuing things that are in their flesh.

Verse five on the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.

So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel at evening, you shall know that it was the

Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning, you shall see the glory of the

Lord because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we that you grumble against us?

And Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the

Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him. What are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the

Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, come near before the

Lord for he has heard your grumbling. And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they look toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the

Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel.

Say to them at twilight, you shall eat meat and in the morning you shall be filled with bread.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord, your God in the evening.

Quail came up and covered the camp and in the morning do lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness, a fine flake like thing, fine as frost on the ground.

And when the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is it? For they did not know what it was.

And Moses said to them, it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the

Lord has commanded. Gather of it each one of you as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.

And the people of Israel did so. They gathered some more, some less.

And this thing, of course, that was gathered on the ground, this bread that they did not know what it was.

They called it manna, which means what is it? That's what they called this bread like substance that they gathered every morning.

And Jesus is saying to the people that this bread has been shown to you.

You you saw the breaking of the loaves and the giving of the fish. And yet you've not had your full.

And yet you're still asking me for a sign. Well, this sign has been given to you that the Lord your

God may test you. And it's not enough. And clearly, the work of God is not being done in your hearts because you don't believe in him whom he has sent.

The people are saying that our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven.

It came from God. And when you go to the scripture and you read it in Exodus 16, it was a test to see whether they truly loved

God or not, whether they had come out of Egypt and into the wilderness to worship

God. Rather, they were going to continue to grumble and complain about the passions of their flesh that were not being met.

And that's exactly what would happen to this people. This exact generation of people being talked about in Exodus 16 would not be satisfied with God.

And so he would have them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they all died, not having the chance to receive the promised land which the

Lord was going to give to their children, but not to them. And that happens with the people even today, people who will claim to be followers of Jesus.

But it's like they have a list of demands for Jesus. Hey, if I'm going to be your follower,

I still want to be able to call myself this. I still want to be able to do this thing. I still want to be able to hang out with these people.

I still want to be able to watch these movies and listen to this kind of music. I still need to have this need met and this thing and this thing.

And if you'll do all of this for me, then I think we'll have a good thing going on. And at that point, what they have is not the

Jesus of the Bible, but they're crafting a Jesus of their own making since they since their

Jesus looks a lot more like them than the Jesus who was sent from the father.

The work of God is to believe in him whom he has sent. And those who do not believe in the

Jesus that was sent by the father, the Jesus that we read about in the Bible don't really believe in the true

Jesus and their heart is still far from God. Let us pray our father in heaven.

I pray that you would cast from us every worldly thing and every worldly desire that the longing in our heart is not for the things of this world, but it is for you and whatever it is that we have to do today or for the rest of this week that we'd not be tempted by the things of this world.

But instead, our pursuit is God and our desire is for you and we give you praise and glory and all the things that we have to do.

And we're satisfied in the blessings that you have given to us what we eat and what we drink.

We give thanks to you because we know that all things have come from you. So thank you for providing for our need and may we know that we have been given every good thing from God.

If we have faith in Jesus Christ for that work is done by you and it's through that work that we have eternal life.

Thank you our heavenly father in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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