Class Outline:

• Sunday August 28,2022

• Being satisfied with nothing else but having the Trinity.

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• “We must beware then of looking with repugnance on what Christ calls us to, as if it were a superfluity that may reasonably be postponed to more urgent and essential demands; of as if He were introducing our nature to some region for which it was not originally intended, and exciting within us spurious and fanciful desires which are really alien to us as human beings. This is a common thought. It is a common thought that religion is not an essential but a luxury. But in point of fact all that Christ calls us to, perfect reconcilement with God, devoted service to His will, purity of character, - these are all essentials for us, so that until we attain them we have not begun to live, but are merely nibbling at the very gate of life. God, in inviting us to these things, is not putting a strain on our nature it can never bear. He is proposing to impart new strength and joy to our nature. He is not summoning us to a joy that is too high for us, and that we can never rejoice in, but is recalling us to that condition in which alone we can live with comfort and health, and in which alone we can permanently delight. If we cannot now desire what Christ offers, if we have no appetite for it, if all that He speaks of seems uninviting and dreary, then this is symptomatic of a fatal loss of appetite on our part.” [Marcus Dods, The Gospel of St. John, p. 213-214].

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• We must qualify the title as something more than having the Trinity. That would be all believers, and thankful for the love, grace, and mercy of God, that is true. This is being satisfied or full because you have the Trinity. For this we have to enter into the life of God in thinking and practice, hence it is an application of faith to the astounding reality that God came into our world as a Man for the purpose of giving us His life. As Dods puts it, faith is the appetite for the life that Christ offers. All else that Christians seek are targets that are far too low.

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• God is the only one who can satisfy the soul of man. Man’s ignorance of this leads him to try other ways.

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• Being satisfied doesn’t mean doing nothing.

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• The context of this passage is the feeding of the five thousand.

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• JOH 6:10-14
• Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 Jesus therefore took the loaves; and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. 12 And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost."  13 And so they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 When therefore the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, "This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world."

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• The rabbis believed that the Messiah would bring manna from heaven again, and they used PSA 72:16 as a proof text.

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• PSA 72:7, 16
• In his days may the righteous flourish, … May there be abundance of grain in the earth on top of the mountains;

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• JOH 6:15
• Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

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• Was Jesus a socialist? There is an excellent book written concerning this question by Lawrence Reed. Was the making of bread meant to teach them to rely on Jesus for distribution of needs for which they didn’t have to work? There is no need to till the soil and grow grain any more. There is no need to maintain boats and nets and spend endless hours fishing. There is no need to dig wells or do the backbreaking work of growing good grapes and fermenting them, Jesus will conjure water and wine from nothing. It’s obvious that this isn’t the case because outside of His few miracles, work has to be done for produce. He fed them today. What about tomorrow?

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• God will provide our needs. But that doesn’t mean we are not to invest in the harvest. Take witnessing, for example; the saved are known before the foundation of the world, but we are called to let our light shine in the world.

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• MAT 9:35-38
• And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. 36 And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

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• At the feeding of the five thousand, Mark informs us of Jesus’ compassion for the hungry multitude, but it wasn’t pity for their hunger.

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• MAR 6:34
• He saw a great multitude, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd

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• God did not design us to sit on our cushions and watch life like a movie. Our technology has made this more and more easy and entertaining. He designed us to live His life. To reap and sow like He does. To enjoy the harvest like He does. But we are weak. We need a shepherd. We are easily frightened. We need to know that in a pinch, when we can’t work, that God will provide our needs as He does the sparrows.

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• Still further, the fulfillment of life is not physical. The multitude in this chapter can only imagine that the bread of life that is a gift from heaven is actual bread. It is an easy leap for them to equate it with the manna of the wilderness. They need a shepherd.

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• MAR 6:34
• He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.

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• The Trinity has invited mankind into their life and fellowship. It is a life of love, joy, peace, kindness, strength, goodness, faithfulness - perfectly and eternally. Material things are tertiary. I wouldn’t even put them as secondary. Since the life of God is an inner thing, then we have to get involved. We have to be players and not just watchers, or as James puts it in his epistle, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (JAM 1:22). In that epistle we find that the people James was writing to, who were born-again Christians, were living lazy, lustful, immoral, selfish lifestyles.

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• Jesus told the disciples to go on ahead of Him across the sea and as they were about half way, they found Him walking across. He got into the boat with them and came to the opposite shore. When morning came the multitude on the other side, where the miracle of bread and fish was performed, they could tell that the disciples left in a boat, but Jesus did not take a boat. They got into their boats and headed across to find the disciples, and to their surprise, Jesus was with them.

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• JOH 6:25
• And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You get here?"

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• “Oh, I just walked over the surface of the water. How about you?” But in usual fashion, Jesus is going to get straight to the heart of the matter.

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• Mankind needs Christ. Everything else is extra and far less valuable or important.

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• JOH 6:26-27
• Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. 27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal."