Context is king

John 6:29 says, “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

“I read this passage and I think, ‘What makes people get this verse so mixed up?' " says Jordan. "I’ve watched great, brilliant, well-educated, highly-motivated theologians and Bible teachers take that verse and do what I just said.

“There are two problems. One is they ignore the comma in verse 29, because if you don’t pay attention to the comma, you read the verse wrong. Two, they ignore the context in which the verse is found. Consequently, they don’t know how to define the terms in the verse.

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“In chapter 20, John makes an editorial comment about what he’s doing. John 20:30 says, ‘And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.’

“Jesus did many miracles that John doesn’t record. The next verse says, ‘Believing you might have life through his name.’ In other words, the Book of John is a compilation of a series of miracles that Jesus did that confirm HHis claim to be ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God.’

“There are miracles that are specifically selected out of His ministry, each one confirming the fact and the truth that He presents Himself as the Messiah. So the book is written around a series of miracles.

“In chapter 6, the miracle that starts the chapter is the feeding of the five thousand. Verse 10 says, ‘And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.’

“Notice it’s five thousand men. It’s not even counting the women and children that may have been there. Verse 14 says, ‘Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.’

“In other words, they see the miracle of the five thousand and they say, ‘This is the Messiah; this is that prophet like unto Moses.’ So you think they got what was going on here but keep reading.

“Verse 15 says, ‘When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.’

“They’re ready to make Him king. You would think they really got the issue of the miracle; that He’s the Messiah. So why does Jesus go away and hide?

“He doesn’t just depart into the mountain alone. It says, ‘And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea,
[17] And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. [18] And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
[19] So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
[20] But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.
[21] Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.

“Now, that’s quite a miracle. Not only does Christ defy the elements by walking on the water, He defies space and time . . . they’re in the middle of the Sea of Galilee out here and He gets in the boat and immediately they’re on the other shore.

“So, there are these staggering miracles going on here. Well, in verse 22: ‘The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone.’

 “ ‘How’d you get over here?! Yesterday, you were on the other side, your disciples left. We know you didn’t go with them. There aren’t any boats left. There’s no cars, no transit, no Rent-a-Car. How’d you get over here ahead of us when you didn’t go with your disciples?!’

“They’re all perplexed about what’s going on. Here’s where it gets—the Lord’s going to talk to them in verse 26: ‘Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.’

“He goes right to the heart motive they had and He said, ‘You didn’t seek me because you saw a miracle and believed what God’s Word told you through it; you sought to make me king because I fed you. All you were interested in was the physical effect of the miracle. You weren’t concerned with the real underlying purpose of the miracle.’

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“Now, understand, God had been dealing with the nation Israel from its very beginning with miracles. You know that.

“John 4:48 says, ‘Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.’

“In I Corinthians 1:22, Paul told them, ‘The Jews require . . . not seek, not want, but REQUIRE. They won’t believe without it.’

“In the verse back in Psalm 74, they say, ‘We see not our signs.’ They belonged to Israel, and if they didn’t have them and see them, they were complaining. They wanted proof that God was speaking, that He was communicating, and He had worked with them with signs and miracles to confirm His Word to them, so they weren’t shocked that there was a miracle.

“It was something they expected to happen, and the purpose of the miracle Christ did should have been very clear to them. It was proof to Israel that He was the Messiah.

“But He said, ‘When you looked at the miracle, the issue wasn’t what the miracle was designed to teach you spiritually. You guys got fed and you figured out, Hey, we make this guy king and we can get fed.’

“He’s saying, ‘Don’t worry about satisfying your physical wants because it’s just a temporary thing. Your hunger’s going to return.’ Christ’s got some spiritual food that’s going to last forever and He wants to give it to them.

 “John 6: 28 says, ‘Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?' It's, 'We do (they want some merit) that we might.’

“When you get here, the question is, in the context, ‘What are the works of God that they want to do?’ Well, what was the work of God they just saw Him do? He fed the five thousand. They're saying, ‘What can we do that we might do miracles like you did?’

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"In John 9 is the story of the man blind from his birth.

“Now, in this blind man the works of God are going to be made manifest. What’s manifest in him? Jesus says to him in verse 7: ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.' The man 'went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.’ He got his sight.

“You go down in the passage and the Pharisees begin to question him about Jesus and all and asked, ‘Who did this to you?’ The guy says, and it’s one of the great testimonies in the Scripture, ‘I don’t know about all that stuff you want to argue about, but this one thing I know; I was blind and now I see.’

“You see, the work of God that was manifest in him was a miracle.

“John 10:32 says, ‘Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?’ Verse 38 says, ‘But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.’

“You can go all through the Book of John and He says, ‘Believe me for the work’s sake.’ Why? Because the works were miracles being done to demonstrate that ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.’

“Now, in the context in John, they say, ‘What can we do to do the miracles of God? We want to do miracles like you do, Jesus!’

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“Come back to John 6:29 and let’s notice the comma now that we know the context: ‘Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.’

“The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand was the work of God, comma. It’s not a straight-through sentence; it’s a comma. What was the purpose of the miracle of feeding the five thousand? That you might believe on Him whom He sent.

“The miracle was to demonstrate that ‘Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God,’ and they got it because in verse 30 it says, ‘They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
[31] Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’

“They understood that the work of God was the sign that He just did for them. So rather than ‘the work of God’ in the passage being God implanting faith in somebody, or rather than it being just a statement without a comma that says that faith is a work, what He’s saying to them is, ‘This is the work of God. This miracle over here, God did that, and He did it so that you would believe that I’m the Messiah.’

“If you miss that comma in there, and you just read it without the comma, you wind up not getting it.”