Live Free with Josh Howerton - Seeking Signs, Missing Spiritual Satisfaction | Ep. 262 | Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

The crowds misunderstood the miracle meal in John 6 and demanded that Jesus keep showing them signs. However, Jesus knew what they really needed and saw their spiritual emptiness. With compassion, He called them to follow Him, but the crowds did not understand the amazing life He was calling them to and turned from the one who could truly satisfy them. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive, where we dive into God's Word each weekday, trying to get to know him better. I'm Mike, and together we have been tracking through the Gospel of John, and we landed in the story yesterday in John Chapter 6, where Jesus performs this mind-blowing miracle by taking like a kid's happy meal and multiplying it to feed over 10,000 people. John continues to recount these stories so that those of us who weren't there, we might believe in and follow Jesus.

The story began by saying large crowds were following Jesus. Now, the word used for following there doesn't mean like devoted follower of Jesus. It means that they were just kind of tagging along, all caught up in the hype, like jumping on the Jesus bandwagon. They just wanted him to be their meal ticket. So it says, after this miracle of feeding all these people, he sends the 12, his closest followers, to the boat with their 12 baskets of leftovers and tells them, Hey, listen, you guys head across the Sea of Galilee to Copernum. I'll catch up later. And that night he does uniquely catch up as he actually walks across the sea to their boat.

Totally freaks them out. And one of them, Peter, gets to experience for at least a few fearful steps, what it's like to really trust Jesus. I mean, it was quite a night. And another story for another time. But the next day, Jesus is teaching at the local synagogue. And these bandwagon crowds find him. There's no internet.

There's no social media, see you in the Fox News, but Word is traveling fast, so the people crowd around him and say, hey, Jesus, do that thing you do. In fact, it's getting kind of close to lunchtime, so that thing you did over there with the fish and the bread, yeah, do that again. Do some miracles. Come on, give us another sign. Well, Jesus sees this as a teaching moment, and he says this in verse 26 of John chapter 6. I tell you the truth. You want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the son of man can give you.

For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval. And then Jesus told them, this is the only work God wants from you. Believe in the one he has sent. In other words, follow me. Y'all ever get cravings? I mean, some of you, ladies, maybe during a pregnancy, you had weird cravings. My wife Debbie

craved great popsicles. I don't know, but that's what she craves. Sometimes I get a craving for pizza or popcorn, a chips and sauce, or a Snickers, because that really satisfies. Is there anything that really curbs the craving? Is there anything you can eat, buy, or experience that will ultimately satisfy

and make you go, you know what, I will never need anything more? Well, Jesus is saying, oh, yes, there is. I can give you food that will last forever. I can satisfy the appetite in your empty soul for eternity. Now, Jesus in this passage is talking about deep soul satisfaction, spiritual hunger, eternal life. But the people are just thinking another free lunch. And then Jesus

ups his game by saying, in fact, I am the bread of life, verse 35. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. And whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. I am the bread of life that has calmed down from heaven. And the crowd begins to murmur. What? What? No, you're not. We know your folks. Joseph's your daddy, not God. You're Jesus of Nazareth. I bought a bookshelf from you years ago.

I remember you and your dad framing a house in our neighborhood. You expect us to believe that you came down from heaven, knowing that they were only looking to him as their meal ticket. Jesus kind of cranks up the what-the-heck factor and starts talking about spiritual bread and spiritual drink. He starts talking about what was to come, the cross, where his body would be broken, and his blood would be spilled for the sin of everyone. Check out what he says in verse 47. I tell you the truth.

Anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever, and this bread which I will offer so the world may live is my flesh. and then he closes by saying,

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day, for my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. And the people are going, what? What? Excuse me? Did you just say, eat my flesh and drink my blood? In verse 60 says, On hearing it, many of his disciples said,

This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? And the people start grumbling. This is way too weird. Sure, he's the most incredible teacher we've ever heard. And sure, he works all kinds of miracles. For certain, the lame can walk and the blind can see and the deaf can hear and the lepers are cleansed. And even the demons run.

Plus, a bunch of us just saw him take a little kid's fish, mcnuggets and biscuits and feed our whole crowd. But now he's got this talk about coming down his bread from heaven, coming from the father, eating his flesh, and drinking his blood. You know what? I don't think he's going to feed us again today, is he? This is just getting way too weird. And you know as they grumble, the 12 are starting to panic. They're thinking, hang on, Jesus, come on, don't lose the following you've worked so hard to build. Jesus, we need to chat.

Excuse us everybody, Jesus will be right back. Bartholomew is going to play some music. Nathaniel and Simon will take your drink orders. We're just going to take a brief intermission. We all had an unbelievably crazy night on the water. None of us slept much, especially Jesus, and he'll be right back. And you know they want to take him aside. What are you doing? You're losing the crowd.

All this work, all these people, your popularity polls are off the charts right now. You had them where we wanted them. You're building your kingdom. You're building your political empire. Just feed them again. What's the big deal? You have the power. That's what politicians do.

Walk on the water for them like it did for us. Jesus, you're losing the crowd. And besides all that, just want to remind you, we got the enemies. You've got enemies. The crowd is the only thing that has kept the Pharisees from taking you out. They're afraid of the people. this crowd is our only buffer. We lose their protection.

We're all in trouble. Now, we don't know if they actually said or did any of that. But you know they wanted to, because their hopes were pinned to this guy. They had left everything to follow him. Their minds are swirling. Verse 61, it says, Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining.

So he said to them, does this offend you? Does this bother you? this too much for you all? And he says to the crowd, I know that you've been following me, not because you saw the supernatural activity of God in your midst, but because I fed you.

Your hearts reveal that you have no real desire to see the real miracle, that God has actually come down to be with you, to free you, to save you, to forgive you, to give you eternal life. You're just looking for another temporary free meal. Verse 66, one of the most sad verses in Scripture, I think. From this time, many of us,

disciples turned back and no longer followed him. They decided to hit, unfollow. Hey, Jesus, been fun. Love the miracles, love the free dinners, all the healings. You know, for a minute there, we'd really hoped that you might be our king. You had us going. But all this crazy talk about coming down from heaven, you and the father and sin and flesh and blood and death, just can't go there with you. Sorry to do this, but unfollow. And I'm just telling you, if you haven't already been there, there's going to come a time in your life where you will be tempted. to hit the unfollow Jesus button too. It's when the miracles don't come, and the prayers feel unheard,

when popular opinion says you're a fool for following a myth, or when pressure mounts and life gets really hard, you'll be tempted to say, you know what, I think I'm done with following Jesus. I've been there. And in those moments you have to ask the same question, one of his closest followers ask in verse 68, come back tomorrow, and we will ask that question together. Have a good day to day walking with Jesus.

the bread of life. See you back tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com.