Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Application*

*John 6:25-59       June 24, 2001*

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*Scripture: John 6:25-29*

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*Introduction:*

 

          The title of this morning's message, The Application, leads us into a discovery of "applications" about the word "application."

When you go to get a job, you generally don't have a chance at it unless you fill out an application.

The application matches you with the potential job.

If you get the job, it will be because you applied for it.

Without the application, they don't know about you, your desire for the job, or your ability to accomplish it.

When you write a letter you then want to mail it.

The letter will not go through the mail unless you apply the stamp to the letter.

The application of the stamp to the letter is what allows it to reach its destination.

When you get a cut on your arm, it may get infected unless you apply some antibiotic to it.

You will not get well unless you make the application of the medicine.

When we learn some skill or trade by extensive schooling, it will never make any difference unless we apply what we have learned.

If you are a skilled pianist, no one will ever be blessed by your music unless you apply your hands to the keys.

If you tell your wife and family that you love them, it carries little weight unless you show it too.

You must apply your words.

When we have been privileged to hear truth, we do not truly possess it unless we apply it.

We must believe it to the extent of life change, thought change, direction change.

It must make a difference or it has just passed on between our ears.

Unless the truth changes something, we cannot say we have believed it or that it is ours.

The last two messages in John 5 have focused upon the testimony of Jesus about himself and his evidence of other testimony beyond himself.

It was the miracle of his healing the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem that prompted this interaction with the Jews.

They had contested whether he had the authority to heal on the Sabbath.

So Jesus told the Jews who he truly is (being equal with God, but also subordinate to God, being the life of God, and the only hope [the Son of Man as judge] of man).

But since one's own testimony is not valid in the court of law context in which the Jews were questioning him, he went on with substantiating evidence from five different sources (John Baptist, his own works, the approval of the Father, the Scriptures, and Moses).

The apostle John then tells us about the intervening event of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 with the 5 loaves and 2 fish on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Perhaps some time had elapsed between these two events, but John has a purpose for us in their sequence.

This great crowd had followed Jesus to this remote location because they desired his miracles.

So Jesus, knowing they were helplessly without food, performed yet another miracle to feed them.

After their shallow proclamation about who they thought he was (the Prophet who is to come into the world), Jesus retreats in solitude from the mountain of their misunderstanding.

They saw him as the Miracle Maker.

They had not made the right application of all they had seen and heard.

Therefore Jesus clandestinely walks on the water at night to rejoin the disciples in the boat going back across the lake, heading for Capernaum.

Have you ever tried to lose your baby sister or brother by playing hide and seek, only to split the scene while they were counting time for you to hide?

They would spend much time looking for you in vain only to discover you were not there at all.

It would take them time to make that application of reality.

If your sister or brother would keep looking for you it would be because they either hadn't made the application that you weren't there, or that they really wanted to find you no matter what.

Once the crowd figured out that Jesus and his disciples were not around, they made an educated guess that he had somehow gone back to Capernaum, and so they took advantage of some boats from Tiberias that showed up, perhaps looking for those in the crowd.

They continued their search for Jesus in Capernaum and found him teaching in the synagogue.

Now I believe that Jesus did this by design.

If they wanted to find him so badly, they must face the real reasons for which they wanted to find him.

Jesus wanted to help them make the application of the truth about themselves, about God, about himself, and about eternal life.

If they wanted him, they must face the facts of "why."

And the apostle John writes this for us too.

We have just heard Jesus testimony about himself and the evidence he proclaimed from others.

Now we too must make the application of truth.

It is not ours unless we apply it.

Interestingly, in our text for this morning in John 6:25-59, Jesus tells us four times that he is telling us the truth.

[He also tells us four times that he is the bread (of life) and says six times that he came down from heaven.]

But he applies the truth for us four different times.

We, like the crowd, have been brought to the place of being confronted with making a choice about the truth.

They have been brought into the place of truth (the synagogue) to hear and apply the truth.

Every time in the Greek text where Jesus says, "I tell you the truth ---," it literally reads, "Amen, amen, I say to you ---."

Our insight this morning revolves around these four identical sayings.

We are being forced to define our true religion.

John has written us an evangelistic gospel.

We have the evidence and we are being forced to make a choice.

The people have been given a sign.

Now they must assess the significance of it.

What will they believe?

In what will they now and forever put their hope?

Will it be in the miracles or in the Miracle Maker?

Thus far they have essentially said they want Jesus to serve them rather than they should serve him.

They try to bargain with God for easy meal, a handout to get by just one more day.

Jesus wants them to see past their homeless condition to get to the real remedy, the application of truth.

*Big Question:*

 

/          What applications about truth does Jesus give us so we can make an informed choice about him?/

Jesus feeds us the truth about ourselves, that our motives in seeking him may be either selfish or spiritual, short-term or long (metaphor about the work of God).

Jesus feeds us the truth about God the Father, that his motives in seeking us are genuinely life-giving, attractive, and eternal (metaphor about the bread of life).

Jesus feeds us the truth about himself, that his motives in coming are to reveal God the Father and bring eternal life to believers (metaphor about eating his flesh).

Jesus feeds us the truth about eternal life, of its very real nature that resides only in him (metaphor about drinking his blood).

*I.

Cycle One*

 

*          A.

Narrative (vv.

25-29)*

 

*          B.

Implication*

 

          Jesus feeds us the truth about ourselves, that our motives in seeking him may be either selfish or spiritual, short-term or long (metaphor about the work of God).

*          C.

Illustration*

 

/Official American work week, in hours: 38 /

/ In 1910: 50 /

/ Percentage of people who claim less free time today than 3 years ago: 90 /

/   -- World Press Review, 10~/91./

/ /

/Here is a good searching question for a man to ask himself as he reviews his past life: Have I written in the snow?

Will my life-work endure the lapse of years and the fret of change?

Has there been anything immortal in it, which will survive the speedy wreck of all sublunary things?

The boys inscribe their names in capitals in the snow, and in the mornings thaw the writing disappears.

Will it be so with my work, or will the characters that I have carved outlast the brazen tablets of history?

Have I written in the snow?

/

/   -- Charles H. Spurgeon/

 

/A careful look at the gospels shows that Jesus seldom accepted the questions posed to him.

He exposed them as coming from the house of fear.

... To none of these questions did Jesus give a direct answer.

He gently put them aside as questions emerging from false worries.

They were raised out of concern for prestige, influence, power, and control.

They did not belong to the house of God.

Therefore Jesus always transformed the question by his answer, He made the question new--and only then worthy of his response.