JOHN - Chapter 6 - Jesus - Sealed by the Father
JOHN – Chapter 6- A Sealed Man
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
March 28, 2017, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
John 6:27: For Him (Jesus) the Father, even God. Has sealed.
Having declared to the Pharisees that He is the Son of God, and admonishing them for their unbelief, the Lord now withdraws from their presence and crosses the Sea of Galilee. The people were following him because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased. Jesus went up into the mountain and there sat down with His disciples. The Passover, a feast of the Jews, was at hand.
John 6: 5-9: “When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He said unto Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this He said to prove him, two hundred pennyworth (dinar) of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said unto Him, There is a lad here, who has five barley loaves, and two small fish; but what are they among so many?
The Lord tested Philip’s faith and found it limited by earthly reasoning. Note the two hundred dinar is insufficient for this miracle. Jesus shows the same lack of faith to be true of Andrew. However, Andrew points out five barley loaves and two small fish. Both Apostles fail to grasp the full enormity of the Lord’s divine power. Further he is going to use the miracle of the bread to reveal he is the Bread of Life.
Many Christians today are looking to the dinar as their source for a miraculous provision. As stated by Phillip, the dinar had no value in the face of such a large need. As stated by Andrew, man’s resources are meager in proportion to his needs. The Creator of Heaven and earth could have created out of nothing enough food to feed the whole multitude. He chooses, however, to use what He has already created as the material basis for His miracle.
The crowd is closing in as he speaks to Phillip and Andrew.
John 6: 10-13: “Jesus said, ‘Make the men sit down’. There was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples; and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fish as much as they would. When they were filled, He said unto His disciples, ‘gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.’ Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.”
Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks publically demonstrating that all provision comes from the Father. The Lord creates so much food that there is a large quantity of leftovers. We too learn from this miracle never to hesitate to provide hospitality or to become miserly if we are poor. If we are left with a single loaf, let us remember that He who multiplied the loaves so bountifully continues to bless and give the increase. Christian let us never be weary in well doing, nor will our hands ever be empty if we continue to be free hearted.
The numbers here are definitely metaphorical. That there were five loaves and five thousand men and twelve baskets left over is not coincidental. On the meal offering in the temple, there were twelve loaves (Lev. 24:5)---divine government. The meal offering represents Jesus in his human perfections tested by suffering. Jesus the Head fed the bread through the twelve apostles. We the Church are feeding on the Word of Christ given through the apostolic ministry of the early Church and the present day. The truth of the Bread of Life finds fulfillment in the Body of Christ, for we being many are One Bread and the Bread of God is many-membered.
Christ is the everlasting Bread.
The number five is used throughout the Holy Scripture to denote grace, five thousand means exponential grace. Twelve is the number of Kingdom government. That the twelve baskets were over-flowing is prophetic of the abundance of the Bread of Life in the Kingdom of God.
In the Book of Acts, when the Apostles were preaching to the Sadducees that through Jesus is the resurrection from the dead, five thousand men heard and believed. (Acts 4:4)
When Jesus performed miracles greater than this one, the people did not marvel. Now because He gave them food, they cry, “this is…that prophet!” No longer do they accuse him of breaking the Sabbath. No longer do they champion the law. For the sake of bread they honor Him so highly as to proclaim Him a prophet and make Him their king. But the Lord flees from them. He goes up onto the mountain alone taking none of His disciples.
The disciples wait for Him until evening. When He does not come, they launch out in a boat. Jesus is about to perform a wonder even more astonishing that the first two. Christ walks on water. He stills the surging waves. He instantly put the boat ashore.
I am moving our story today on to verses 22-26 “on the following day”. The people again found him. They want to enjoy another meal like the day before. The Lord reproaches them. “You seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”
I am persuaded this is the key to the present drifting and falling away of Christians. People are not seeking the Lord for who he is and the power of His Kingdom. They are seeking a leader who will provide for their fleshly wants, comforts and lusts. They want another free meal and the easy life. They will make such a man their king.
John 6: 27-29: Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him. Then they said to Him, what shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He sent.
As God the Father set His seal on Jesus, then Jesus sets His seal on His followers.
Spiritual things have always been a matter of the seal. It was about the seal when the disciples went to the tomb, where the Sealed One broke the seal of man. It was so at the “appointed mountain,” in the Book of Acts where the great commission was given to those about to be “sealed” at Pentecost.
John 6: 37, 39: All that the Father gives Me will come to Me…This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
Jesus was sealed from heaven and manifested the seal of God throughout His ministry. The gospels are filled with “Signs of His Sealing.”
“You seek Me”, Jesus says, “because you want more of the loaves.” You should devote yourselves to the life of the Spirit, not to satisfying the demands of the stomach (flesh).
This does not mean that we are not supposed to work. Nor is the Lord defending a life of idleness. The food which perishes is in fact the desire to live without working. This is the entitlement mentality which is expecting someone to take care of me.
The Lord is admonishing them to curb their preoccupation with fleshly lusts and to redirect them to seek after a personal relationship with Him. The Lord is teaching us not to be obsessed with worry and worldly cares. He desires that we labor each day, receiving our sustenance from that day’s labor and not worrying about the morrow.
Whom the Father has sealed, means He has revealed and confirmed His son, Jesus Christ through His miracles. The Father has begotten Christ as His stamp, seal and image, preserving His exact likeness and identical divine nature.
Christian, we too have received this sealing.
Eph. 1:13: “In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy Sprit of promises.”
Eph. 4:30: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.”
2 Co. 1:22 Who has also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Rev. 5:1-7: I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? No man in heaven, or in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. One of the elders said unto me, Do no weep, behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. …he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
The book that was perfectly sealed could only be opened by the One who had been sealed by God the Father. Only perfection could open the seals of the Volume of the Book which was written from before the foundation of the earth. Through the Lord’s divinely appointed time, He has sealed his prophets, their words, and their ministries, Moses, Nehemiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Job, and the Bride in Song. 4:12. God has sealed moments in time! Evidences in Revelation suggest that all history is a matter of seals in history being broken (and at appointed times being unsealed).
The Jews asked to learn the work of God, in order to be fed. Jesus’ reply is to do the work of God is to believe in Him whom God has sent. Faith in Christ is truly a holy perfect and sanctifying work. Faith is the substance of every good work.
Jesus’ ministry was ordered by the sealed plan of God. Not one healing, not one message, nor one incident involving Him was outside that sealed plan!
The ungrateful Jews ask for yet another sign after witnessing so many. In verses 31-34, they refer to the manna and not other miracles. Their intention was to spur Him to perform another miracle that would feed their flesh. Jesus reply is “verily, verily” Moses did not give you the true bread. Those miracles were merely types and shadows of the truth now being revealed. That bread was a type of Christ. The true manna is the Only-begotten Son of God made man. This is the complete consecration of Jesus in His life. The Person of the savior is seen in the moral perfection of His Manhood wholly untainted by sin. He surrendered Himself to God, for the service and the FOOD of man. This reveals His fitness to undertake the work of the Cross.
Jesus gives life to all. Just as bread from the earth sustains weak flesh, Christ imparts life to the soul by the power of the Holy Spirit and renders the body incorruptible.
Jesus graciously bestows upon Christians the gifts of resurrection from the dead and incorruption of the body. But the Jews focused entirely on the earthly realm. Their words show their heart. We do not want to use up our money on food. “Then said they said unto Jesus, evermore give us this bread”, and save us the trouble of getting it for ourselves.
6: 35-38: Jesus said unto them. I am the bread of life; he that comes to Me shall never hunger. He that believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, that you also have seen Me, and do not believe. All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and he that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.
They only sought material benefit from Jesus. They would stop following Him as soon as they realized that what He offered was spiritual.
6: 38-40: I came down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. This is the Father’s will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
The Jews murmured and grumbled when Jesus said, “I am the bread”.
6: 42-44: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He said, I came down from Heaven? Jesus answered and said to them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (Jer. 31:3)
The initiative in saving men always is taken by the Father. Through the Holy Spirit, the Father draws and leads people to the Son. The Son resurrects and quickens them, filling them with the Holy Spirit. We then receive the blessed life which is in the Spirit.
There is one divine nature in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is also one divine energy who bestows blessings of the Father. Behold the authority of the Son! “I will raise him up” (Jn. 6:40).
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, knowledge comes directly from the Father. All we who have accepted faith in Christ are rightly said to be taught of God.
Jesus again reminds the hearers that the manna was only a type of the real bread of God. He is the true Bread of Life. It is His life which will be given.
6:45: It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes to me. (Isa. 54:13)
Jesus quotes Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.
6:46-51: Not that any man has seen the Father, save He which is of God, He has seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say to you, he that believes on Me has everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
The manna is a type and shadow of the nature, character, and sustaining power of the Lord. All must eat of Christ or die. No one can eat for another. Jesus is the source of life and strength. He is our complete provision. He is our supernatural supply and our all-sufficient Lord. The Living Bread gives life.
6: 52-58: The Jews argued among themselves, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, Except you eat the flesh of the son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats Me, even he shall live by Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; he that eats of this bread shall live forever.
Blood was brought as a seal to the covenant arrangement between Moses, the people and God. The blood which sealed this covenant was halved (meaning it was separated into two parts). Abraham’s covenant was blood from halved sacrifices.
With Moses one-half of the blood was put on the special altar before the mountain of God and the other half sprinkled on the people as “the blood of the covenant” (Ex. 24:8). Every detail revealed to Moses concerning the tabernacle, its implements and its offerings, was predicated on this blood-seal at the altar.
Dual application of the Blood is exactly what happens when one enters the door of salvation. Blood brought to the altar in heaven is both on the altar and also applied to those who come to the Father through the blood of Jesus.
Jesus totally and freely gave his blood. Jesus made peace with God for man by His own blood. Jesus put away sin outside the camp. Jesus atoned for man’s acts of sin against God and man. The Atoning Blood meets the defilement of all who will receive Him as their Savior.
We will start next week on 6:59.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Sealed Unto His Coming, by: C. R. Oliver and Principles of Present Truth on Leviticus by Rev. Kelly Varner (1949-2009). Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those from whom I gleaned.
The Father obviously has already determined who will be sealed with Jesus; and the seal will not be broken even to the last day.