John 6

     In this chapter, we have the fourth and fifth signs detailed by John (but cf. v.2).  The fourth sign reveals Christ to be the true feast to his people.

     6:10-13.  “He makes me lie down in green pastures,” Ps.23:2.  The twelve baskets (12-13) may symbolize his filling of his people with the bread of life (51).  Twelve is the symbolic number for all God’s people.

     6:14-15.  Many seek a Messiah the wrong way, and for worldly or carnal reasons (26-27).

     6:16-21.  The fifth sign demonstrates what kind of king Jesus is.  He is the king of creation, walking in the darkness over the surface of the deep, with the wind (the Spirit of God) “moving over the surface of the waters”  (cf. Gen.1:1-2).  See Mark 6:30-52, and notes and passages cited there.  I do not think the word “immediately” (21) implies a miracle of transport.  Mark constantly uses this word simply to mean without delay (e.g., Mark 1:28-30).

     6:27-30.  Men always want to earn salvation by works.  When told to simply believe in Christ, they demand even more miracles.  They prize and work for that which perishes, and spurn the free offer of that which endures.

     6:31-59.  All this is a continuation of the meaning of the fourth and fifth signs, the feeding of the multitude by a gracious God through his only begotten Son, by whom he created and sustains all things. 

     The doctrines of grace are clearly set forth here.  Note especially 37-40; 44-45.

     6:60-63.  Those who take literalism to extremes (60) are admonished here that there is a higher truth and reality than materialism.  They are blind to spiritual things.  V.62 reminds us that heaven is a spiritual realm.  All living power flows from it (63).

     6:64-71.  V.65 is key here.  Everyone is coming or going, believing or not believing, according to their own choosing.  Yet the Lord irresistibly draws his own as granted by the Father, and chooses even the son of perdition to play his necessary and determined part (70-71; Luke 22:22).