Good morning. All right, turn to John chapter
six. We'll be looking at verses 14
to verse 27. I've titled this Blessing in
the Dark. Blessing in the Dark. Now, after
our Lord had fed, had done a wonderful miracle in feeding 5,000 men
plus women and children, There came a proving, if you will,
for the disciples that the Lord actually delivered his people,
his disciples, from. And he gives us today an example
of the safest place for us in the time of proving, and it's
with our God. It's in seeking our Lord alone. That's the greatest refuge for
the child of God in times of proving. Mark tells us about
this passage, this portion of the text, you know, the feeding
of the 5,000 that was recorded in all four gospels, but in John,
Matthew, and Mark, We see what we're going to look at here of
the darkness that came upon the disciples on the water. But Mark
tells us at this time after the feeding that Christ sent away
the people and he departed into a mountain to pray. Now, there's
been some proving going on, right? Philip was proved by the Lord
and not just Philip, but the disciples as well. When our Lord
asked him, how are we going to feed these people? What do we
need to do to feed all these people lest we should send them
home without any food? And rather than saying, Lord,
thou knowest. thou knowest." Philip tried to
work out the problem. He tried to solve the problem,
but we're told that Christ said this to Philip to prove him,
to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. All right,
but now in verse 14 we hear of what the people were thinking.
They had sought out Christ the next day, and they found him
over on another side of the lake. And those men, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, they said, this is of a truth,
that prophet that should come into the world. And so this is
after the feeding of the 5,000. And they were speaking of what
Moses said in Deuteronomy 18, 15, when he said, the Lord your
God is gonna raise up unto a prophet, like after me, like me, hear
him. You're to hear what he says.
And so they're recognizing, hey, this is the prophet, right? This is the prophet. And no doubt,
These words are beginning to reach, get around all the people
that are there and likely would have reached the ears of the
disciples themselves. And I would think if I was a
disciple of the Lord in that day, I would have taken that
to be a good thing. Wow, they're getting excited
about my master. They recognize him as the prophet
that Moses spoke about. So these are favorable words.
And then we hear that they wanted to make him king. They wanted
to make him a king and the Lord shields, he protects his disciples. He protects them from what's
going on. Look at verse 15, when Jesus
therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force
to make him a king. The Lord recognized this, and
he recognized what's going on. They're going to set him up. They're going to take him, put
him forward before them, and then they're going to go and
make noise about the fact that this is our king. We're not under
the rule of Rome anymore. This is our king. And you can
imagine that would have been very dangerous for the disciples. All right. They would have been
marked out as insurrectionists because they were the closest
to Christ. And so he's delivering them from
this insurrection, if you will. He's protecting them from the
government coming against him because he was set up as a king. These people were looking to
use Christ. They were looking to use Him
for their own purposes. But our Lord, He delivers His
people from that danger by sending them away. And what we see here
in this proving, if you will, is our Lord retires to his father
to pray. He sends his own people away,
he disperses the people, and he goes to the father. And what
we see is that, you know, when the world would
use us for its own purposes, right, when it's clamoring for
our attention, when it's trying to get us to do what it would
do, the safest place for us is with the Lord, to pray to him,
right? When it would use you for its
own ends and for its own purposes, we see our Lord retired to a
place alone and prayed to his heavenly father. And the point
here is that we're going to come into dark times ourselves, right? We're going to come into darkness
from time to time in this world. There's times where we're going
to feel alone. There's times when we feel scared,
and afraid, and fearful, and we're gonna have times where
it appears dark to us. We will be in darkness, but what
the Lord is showing to us is that we're never alone. We're never alone, and your Lord
is always working He's never sleeping, he's never taking a
vacation, he's always there. You're never alone and all things
are being worked for your good. He's not left you nor forsaken
you as we'll see here in this text. And so what the Lord does
here is he shuts down the rhetoric that's being talked about because
it's very, it's a dangerous rebellion. Over in Matthew 14, which is
the parallel passage here, Matthew 14, 22, And 23, we're told that
straightway, right away, Jesus constrained his disciples to
get into a ship. They're talking like, this is
the prophet, he's the king, let's make him a king and go overthrow
the Roman government. And he constrains his disciples
to get into a ship and to go before him unto the other side
while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the
multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And
when the evening was come, He was there alone. He was there
alone. And what we see here is that
when this world, right? Beware of the people of this
world that speak of Christ only as a prophet, right? There's a lot of people that
see Christ as a prophet, a good man, a man who has some wise
things to say. who's, if you hear his words
and live by his words, you'll be a good moral person and you'll
do well in this life and have a good judgment in the day of
judgment. And beware of the people of this
world that speak of Christ as the king. And what I mean by
that is, as the one who has the authority to judge, to discern
a matter and to make a judgment about it. Because a lot of people,
they call Christ a king, they call him Lord, but they do so
with the thought that he's going to come and set right all these
people that are doing wicked and evil things. He's going to
tell this one, you're a sinner, he's going to put that one in
their place, and I'm going to stand there and see him make
right everything that was wrong that these people have done in
sinning. They see Christ as the king who's
going to judge others, but they don't ever see themselves as
the one who's going to receive a negative judgment. So beware
of people of this world that speak of Christ as a prophet
and as a king, but despise him as their redeemer. A lot of people
are talking about the Lord and they're boasting of themselves
being Christians, especially as the world moves into trouble.
They see things and recognize things and they can't wait for
the Lord to come and to judge the wicked, but they never speak
of him being their Redeemer. They're the good people in their
own minds and in their own rhetoric. And Christ is the Savior of sinners. He came to save sinners, people
that cannot save themselves, that have no righteousness of
their own to recommend them unto the Father. These people need
salvation. They need what the Lord alone
can do for them. And so those that speak of Christ
only as prophet and only as king, they don't speak of themselves
as the sinner who needs that precious blood covering their
sin. And so what we see here is Christ
sends these people away who spoke well of him as prophet, spoke
well of him as king, but he didn't go with them. He left them alone.
He sent them away from him and away from his Disciples right
verse 15 says he departed again into a mountain himself alone
alone. He didn't dwell with them and
We see that we ought not dwell with them either. All right,
the Lord clearly Delivers his people because we know him as
as Redeemer. We know him as our Savior right
and that's something that the world never sees they never see
Christ as their Savior and And this world will use you, right? They'll try to recruit you to
their agenda, to their purpose. They'll take your sons and your
daughters and use them for their own means. But the Lord delivers
his people from that. That's not our purpose is to
do what they would have us to do, right? We're not here to
change their world. We're here to preach the gospel
and that our Lord will use to change the world of his people.
Sinners saved, he'll change their world. All right, now the next
thing we see here, having been separated from this world, while
living in this world, it means that we, as his disciples, we're
going to have nights of darkness. We're going to come into dark
times ourselves. We're going to feel alone. Look
at verses 16 and 17 in John 6. We're told that when evening
was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea, and entered
into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it
was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them." And so it may
feel like it's dark, like darkness has set upon us. And that can
be a scary and fearful time when we feel alone and cut off and
in the dark. But there is a blessing in it.
Our Lord, on purpose, will shut his people up into darkness. And in that darkness, there's
times where We are made to feel our sin. We're made to feel guilt
and to feel shame. We feel that in the darkness. There's times where we feel lonely
and confused. We don't have the answers to
the questions that we have. There's times where in that darkness,
we're made to feel the doubts that we have. We're made to recognize
that there's unbelief in me. All right, we feel that darkness
in ourselves. But it's in these times that
the Lord is making us to see and to know our failures, right? He's bringing us down from a
high opinion of ourselves and shows us that we have a desperate
need of his grace, that we're insufficient. And we might find
that he is all sufficient. And so the Lord does this for
his people, putting them in the dark, in mercy, in mercy, right? If you remember, as we saw back
in Matthew, it was the Lord himself that constrained his disciples
to get into the ships. He knew exactly what he was sending
them into. And it got dark for these disciples,
and we're told that Jesus was not come to them. They were without
Christ. They were in the dark, going
into difficult times, and Christ was not in their immediate presence
and it began to get difficult the wind rose and got contrary
to them and it got choppy and dicey and hard in that sea says
verse 18 the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew and
Mark 6 48 adds that Christ saw them toiling in rowing right
he saw them toiling away in that rowing it was hard it was very
Difficult for the wind was contrary unto them now. We're gonna focus
on believers in darkness, but Unbelievers are always in darkness. They're always shut up in in
darkness. All right, and and all they have
for a light is the the sparks from their own fire that they're
kindling and creating right and if you ever watched a ember go
up it wanders up kind of there like us like a wandering star
and then Drifts off away from the heat and ever it descends
back down on the heat it always goes away from the heat to the
cold to the outer darkness and and away from the truth of the
Lord all right, so They have darkness. Wandering stars is
all they have to follow, all right? But every child of God
is going to have dark nights. You know, Job said, when I waited
for light, there came darkness. There came darkness, right? There's
times when we've waited and we've cried out to the Lord. And when
we thought that he should appear, we found more darkness. darkness
and it was a frightful thing and a terrifying thing at times
and because we didn't know why the Lord didn't answer us but
the Lord would have you to know that though you're surrounded
by darkness though there are times when you feel overwhelmed
by that darkness and you're crying out to the Lord and all you hear
is silence in response your Lord knows he sees you just like he
saw these disciples toiling and in Rome. He saw them in the darkness. He saw their need and he sees
you his people. He's not forsaken you. He means
it for your good over in Isaiah 5010. He assures us saying that
they that walk in darkness and hath no light. He says let him
trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. When it's dark, that's not the
time to be turned away from your Lord. That's not the time to
be turned out of the way and to just give up and throw up
your hands and say, this is all hogwash. No, stay upon the Lord
and seek him because he's teaching you. He's proving you in it,
in it all, all right? So your God is in the midst of
the darkness with you. He's upholding and commanding
all things, and nothing's outside of his control. Over in Revelation
1, verse 20, he tells us that there's a mystery, the mystery
of the seven stars which thou sawest. He's speaking to John.
He said, in my right hand, you saw these seven stars and the
seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels,
right, or pastors. of the seven churches and the
seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."
All right, now when are stars and candlesticks useful? When do you use the stars? When
do you look at the stars? Like you think of those that
navigated in the ships. When did they look to the stars?
In the darkness, at night. All right, when do you pull out
a candlestick and set a candle on it and light a candle? It's
in the darkness, right? These things are given to you
in times of darkness. That's when they serve to help
in times of darkness. And so your God is telling you,
he has a complete number of stars. He has a complete number of pastors
for a complete number of churches, which he's given to you, brethren,
to help you, to help you in those times of darkness, in those times
when it's night, when it's the night season and you would feel
alone and afraid and discouraged. He's given you those tools, stars
and candlesticks, right? He says in Psalm 134, verses
one and two, it's a short Psalm and the first two verses say,
behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which
by night, which by night stand in the house of the Lord, lift
up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. So our suffering,
though we suffer now in the darkness, it shall end in praise and blessing
to your God. He promises you that. He provides
for his people. And so no night season is ever
wasted on the people, all right? It shall be profitable to your
souls. You shall have what you have
need of having, all right? When you seek the Lord, the Lord
shall appear in the time of his appearing. You look for his appearing,
you wait upon him and don't be turned away. He shall appear
for you as people. All right, now, the other thing
that we see in the darkness, is that it affords that time
for our Lord to appear most gloriously to us in a way that he would
not otherwise have appeared unto us. So there they are in the
sea, they're struggling, they're toiling and rowing, and basically
they're getting nowhere. They made it out a certain distance,
but eventually it stopped. That wind rose up and they could
not make any ground. It was then that Christ appeared
to them out of the darkness and it was such a way that had the
most impact for them. Our brother was reading from
2 Samuel 9 of Mephibosheth and Mephibosheth was terrified because
he was called to the king and typically you put to death the
offspring of the former king lest they should rise up and
seek to overthrow you and Mephibosheth thought He was in darkness. He
was terrified. He was afraid. And then he heard
David say, don't be afraid Mephibosheth. I mean to do you good. I mean
to do you good. And that's what we see here with
these brethren. Look there at verse 19. So when
they had rowed about 25 or 30 furlongs, they see Jesus walking
on the sea and drawing nigh into the ship, and they were afraid. And so they're out there. They've
gone, I think, about four miles. They've traveled. They're in
darkness, the winds against them. It says somewhere in one of the
accounts that it was the fourth watch of the night, which is
around 3 a.m. And you that have had long nights,
you know how exhausted you could be at that hour. And they're
rolling and toiling and going nowhere fast. They even had 12
baskets of bread in that ship with them, but they weren't able
to take a bite of it. They couldn't feed upon the bread
of life that was there in the boat with them. But it's at this
time that Christ appeared when they were most desperate, when
they were in that dark, they became afraid, even more afraid
when they saw him. And they were terrified. And
Matthew says they were troubled when they saw Christ saying,
it's a spirit. And they cried out for fear. And it was when
they cried out for fear that our Lord said, don't be afraid,
it's I, it's me, it's your Lord and your Savior, right? So that
was a comfort to them. So when it's dark and most terrifying,
that's when Christ will appear his people, that's when they'll
see his salvation. Verse 21 says, then they willingly
received him into the ship and immediately the ship was at the
land whither they went. Right, so we see miracle upon
miracle, there was the feeding of the 5,000, he walks upon the
water to them, but when he entered that ship they were immediately
at the destination that they were going to. And it speaks
to what our Lord does for us, how he is the calm for his people
in the storm. And when that lesson that he's
teaching us, when it's received, when it's obtained, the trouble's
over. The trouble's over. Whether he
gives you rest and peace in your mind about it or he delivers
you out from it. We're not always delivered out
but sometimes it's reconciled for us by the Lord in peace and
in comfort and we're able to move on from it. And so what
these brethren, what these disciples learn is that Christ is more
than a prophet and they learn Christ is more than a king. They
learn by experience that Christ is their Savior. They learn that
He's their Savior. He's not just some prophet, not
just a good man, not just a king who has authority to judge the
wicked. He's their Savior. And that's
what He's teaching His disciples. You're going to experience His
salvation so that you know and confess I'm not following him
just because he's got a few good things to say. I'm not following
him because he's the judge in the end, but he is my savior.
He's my comfort and my hope and my life and my all. So know that
your savior still walks upon stormy waters. He still comes
to his people in the darkness, in the middle of the sea and
choppy, harsh, difficult circumstances where we're toiling and laboring
and can't deliver ourselves He comes and brings peace and comfort
to his people. So it's clear that the Lord sent
these men out alone. He knew exactly what would befall
them. Mark said that he saw them toiling
in their rowing. He saw them there in the darkness,
and the wind was contrary to them. And he saw that, I think,
while he was still on the mountainside, before he ever even began to
come out to them and to go to give them relief. And you might
think that sounds cruel. That sounds terrible. Why would
the Lord do something like that if they're his people? Why would
he do something like that? But I would say to you that it's
necessary and that it's gracious. And when you know what you are
in self, right, and how hard we are in heart and how slow
we are to believe all that the Lord has taught us in his word,
he's doing that in mercy to deliver us from the bondage of this flesh
and the deadness of this flesh, making us to see by experience
what he accomplishes in his people. You know, after he gives faith,
Paul in Romans, Romans 5, he talks about how that the Lord
gives patience, and from patience he gives experience. and from
experience he gives hope. Sometimes you may think, why
doesn't the Lord answer my prayers the way he used to answer them
so speedily? When I'd pray and the Lord answered
these things quickly. But he's showing us, he's giving
us patience. He's giving us that experience
so that we're able to serve him and serve one another in more
difficult circumstances, in more harsher circumstances that we
don't wither and fall apart at the first sign of the enemy who
comes against the people. He's strengthening his people. He's strengthening our resolve. He's firming up our faith of
what he's given to us that we may stand in that evil day and
the harshness which the evil one would bring upon us if permitted. So the Lord is the one who sent
his people out here, and it's gracious. It's gracious because
it ended with them having Christ in the ship, and it ended with
them reaching the goal, the end point that the Lord was bringing
his people to. They weren't lost out in sea.
They weren't shipwrecked and lost forever in sea. They were
brought safely to the other side just like your Lord is doing
for you and it's a it is evil this world is evil and there
is dark darkness in in this world and he has promised to save his
people and to deliver them from the wrath of God that's coming
upon the inhabitants of this earth and so he's drawing his
people away from that love and affection for the evil in this
world he's doing that for for his people, all right? Now, unlike
these disciples, there was a whole lot of Jews on land that never
experienced this salvation, all right? We saw that they recognized
him as prophet, they recognized him as king, but they did not
know him as the savior, all right? And so let's pick up on the next
day there in John 6, 24. and on 624, and we'll read down
to verse 26 together. When the people therefore saw
that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took
shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. And when they
had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him,
Rabbi, when camest thou hither? And Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw
the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were
filled. So the Lord didn't even give
them a comforting reply. He didn't even say to them, well,
I came here because I walked on the water. My disciples were
in trouble. They were in a fix. And I delivered
them from that, right? And nothing like that was said
to them. They didn't hear of what Christ had done for his
people. Instead, he points out to them
that what's in your heart is evil. You have evil in your heart. You just want your belly filled
like it was filled yesterday. And their fleshly appetites were
more important to them than their eternal soul. more interested
in what could be gained and gotten for themselves in the flesh than
their eternal salvation. And that makes a lot of sense,
right? When they saw him as the prophet and wanted to make him
king, they were using him, they wanted to use him for their own
purposes, to achieve their own agenda for their greatness and
to overthrow the Roman government. It was for their flesh. And it
shows us that they had no need for a Redeemer. They had no need
for salvation or a Savior. They thought nothing of Christ
in that way. But what the Lord shows us is
that the most gracious thing that he did for them and what
he does for his people is he does bring us into darkness.
He allows us to be brought into darkness to feel our need of
him. And then the flip could be seen
in this as well, that the worst thing he could do for us, right? The worst thing that could happen
to us is that we'd be allowed to fulfill all the lust of our
flesh, to have everything go well for us, where all of our
goals are met, all the things we want to achieve in this life
are achieved. We don't know that terror, we
don't know that fear, and we're not made afraid, we don't feel
alone, we don't feel separated or any guilt or shame for our
sins. That's not a good thing, to never
know what we are in our flesh, to not know what an offense we
are to God and to think of ourselves as being acceptable to Him and
pleasing to Him in our works. So, I pray the Lord, let us,
in His wisdom and His time and in His way, that He allows us
to feel that darkness for our good, for our good. that we might
know him as Savior, the one who saves and delivers his people.
And so Christ tells them, it's not that he kept the truth from
them, because he tells them right now in verse 27, he says, labor
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you, for him hath God the Father sealed. And there's that phrase,
Son of Man, meaning, the Mediator whom God has sent, the Christ
whom He sent is the one that provides that life for you. He's the one that gives you that
living bread and feeds you and sustains you and provides for
you, reveals to you that He is your Savior. We need to hear
His voice. If He's our Savior, we'll hear
Him as our Savior. We'll experience His salvation
and deliverance. So their focus was fixed on fleshly
things. They labored hard for those fleshly
things. They had no interest in Christ
the Savior, no interest in the Messiah the Mediator between
God and men. They just wanted what their flesh
wanted. But those who believe Christ
as their Redeemer, these disciples who experienced that darkness
and were made afraid, it's Christ who appeared to them. And when
he appeared to them, they saw him in a light that they never
could have seen, except they had been brought into that darkness.
And they see that God has sealed this one. He is the Messiah. He is the salvation that God
has provided for his people. and all who believe Him, all
who trust in Him, all whose faith is resting upon His righteousness
and upon Him, they shall never be ashamed, and they shall be
saved, and they shall stand before God for all eternity, spotless,
holy, unblameable, accepted by God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So if you've experienced that darkness and His salvation, praise
God. bless His name, and seek to know
Him the way these disciples knew Him. We don't want to be like
those Jews standing on the shoreline who never experienced that. But
I pray the Lord bless you, that He give you that ear of faith
and that hope in Christ. Amen. All right, brethren, let's
close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace, for your mighty salvation, which overcomes
the darkness in your people and delivers us from that bondage.
Lord, help us to know you, not simply as prophet, not simply
as king, but as the savior, as our redeemer, as our deliverer. Lord, we see so many never never
see you in this light but we pray that you would reveal yourself
to us deal with us as we have need of dealing only we ask that
you deal with us graciously and in mercy and in your son Jesus
Christ for he is our hope and he is our salvation Lord we pray
that you bless this people that you help us to hear that we be
not lost and left out in the darkness, but that we be brought
near and gathered in your arms unto our Savior, unto our God,
that we may have fellowship with you continually, that we may
be at peace with our God and at peace with one another. Lord,
help us if there's any that are struggling, that have questions
and fears and doubts. Lord, we pray that you would
appear to them gloriously as you appear to these disciples
that you would comfort your people, that you would reveal yourself
to them and let them know that you are near and that they are
not forsaken, and let them see the good that you have worked
in them through this trial, which you wisely and graciously put
your people through, that we may experience the grace of our
God in Christ. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray these things. Amen. All
right, brother. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 256. It is well with my soul. 256. Yes, yes. Peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught
me to say, it is well, it is well. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trial should come, Let this blessed assurance control, That Christ
hath regarded my help, has shed his own blood for my
soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. I sing of the bliss of this glorious
dawn. I sing not in part, but the whole. is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, haste the day when
my face shall be sighed. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trump shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Thank you.