“The Decision to Believe” John 6:1-46 Review

We’ve been away from John 6 for the last couple of months so it’s probably a good idea to review a bit before we jump back in. The chapter began with Jesus feeding 5,000 men, not to mention the women and children, with five loaves of bread and two small fish. The miracle was not just about God’s power to multiply, it was a revelation of His desire to provide. The provision of God in our lives does not come from His ability but from His character, not from His storehouse but from His heart. In Luke 12:32 Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Our prayers for provision should not be appeals to God’s wealth of goods but His abundance of love. Jesus saw the crowds and He desired to show the apostles His heart. The feeding of the 5,000 was not Jesus’ effort to win the crowd, it was another step in transforming the apostles, in building His character in them by showing His heart to them. The work of God in our lives is not simply to get us to salvation, it is to lead us through redemption, sanctification and transformation until we have finally and fully been conformed into the image of Jesus. Often, when we read the gospels, we are looking at Jesus from the wrong lens, we are looking to see what He was teaching the crowds, when in reality, often He was working amid the crowds to teach the disciples, to increase their faith and move them from living with Him to living like Him. The same is true for you and me, the work of God around us, even through us, is not for us to just make Him known, it’s for us to know Him, to move from our initial surrender to constant yieldedness, to not just believing that He is Lord, but to trusting His lordship when His will, His ways and even His words are too hard for us to understand.