In John 6, Jesus feeds 5,000 people with nothing more than five pieces of bread and two small fish. After the people saw this miracle happen, they said among each other, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world!” This is a reference to Deuteronomy 18:18-19. Moses was speaking to the people of Israel the words the Lord had given to him on Mount Sinai saying, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him…” Only a couple of verses earlier, back in John 5, Jesus told the people that the Son can only do what He sees the Father doing (5:19), and He goes on to say that if they believed what Moses wrote, then they would believe Him because Moses wrote about Him. During Moses’ ministry, Israel went through the Red Sea as Jesus walked on the water. Manna rained down from Heaven and similarly Jesus is feeding 5,000 people with practically nothing. These are all signs that pointed to Jesus as God’s Son and Savior of the world so that people would believe.
The very next verse in John 6:15, the people were about to take Jesus and make Him King by force. What a moment if ever there was one! He had people eating out of the palm of His hand (literally and figuratively!). They began to believe that He was sent by God and was the long-awaited Prophet foretold by Moses—and they were right. All Jesus had to do was say the word and a revolution would have broken out right then and there and Jesus would have been crowned King. This is the Messiah the people were expecting. They were awaiting the “Son of David.” The one who would restore Israel’s glory and rule them as David did—they wanted one who would forever throw off the shackles of Rome and free them from their bondage, and now was the time!
Jesus refused. He refused to become a political king at the establishment of hyped up people. He didn’t pander to the crowd. He refused to use the anointing of God that was on His life to propagate Himself into a selfish and self-glorifying agenda. This Jesus, as the Prophet foretold by Moses, was to do only as the Lord commanded Him (Deut. 18:14), and Jesus made that very clear, (John 5:19). The fact is that God cannot—will not—bless those who seek their own selfish gain. Though He had all the power and authority and the hearts of the people, Jesus was perfectly humble and submitted to the Father. It was through humility and submission that Jesus was “highly exalted Him,” and “given the name above every other name,” (Philippians 2:9). In each one of our own personal lives, we must live the same way. Whatever level of position God has given each of us at this moment in time, whether small or great, we have a choice to submit it to Him for the fulfillment of His will, or snatch it and capitalize on it for our own self-aggrandizement. Jesus did not make Himself King—God did that. We must guard ourselves against the human nature that seeks to make ourselves kings and queens of our own world. Our lives are not our own—they are His.
Blessings!
Pastor Kyle Bauer
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