Sunday School Lesson

February 23

Lesson 13 (KJV)

Ever-Persevering Petitions

 

Devotional Reading: Psalm 13

Background Scripture: Luke 11:1–13

Luke 11:5–13

 

5. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

 

6. For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

 

7. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

 

8. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

 

9. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

 

10. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

 

11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

 

12. Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

 

13. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

 

Key Verse

 

I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.—Luke 11:9

 

Lesson Aims

 

After participating in this lesson, each learner will be able to:

 

1. State the main lesson of the parable.

 

2. Explain how prayer is asking, seeking, and knocking.

 

3. Identify one reason for lacking persistence in prayer and make a corrective plan.

 

HOW TO SAY IT

 

Cornelius

Cor-neel-yus.

Gentiles

Jen-tiles.

Judea

Joo-dee-uh.

synagogues

sin-uh-gogs.

 

Introduction

 

1. Seeking a Blue Doorknob

 

A shaggy-dog story is a long-winded tale with an underwhelming punch line. The point of such a story is that the joke is on the listener, who has paid attention for far too long and has not been rewarded. One shaggy dog story tells of the search for a magical blue doorknob in the Empire State Building. The storyteller can stretch this joke to include as many of the building’s 102 floors as desired (each with dozens of doors with knobs). The story can end with the questioning of a janitor on the top floor who says, “Oh, they took out all the colored knobs years ago.”

Have you ever experienced frustrating and fruitless searches, quests that are like the punch line in what turns out to be a shaggy-dog story? Have you ever made repeated requests of someone and not received any kind of response? Have you ever knocked on a door when you knew someone was behind it but did not hear a word?

The fruitless search makes us think, Give it up! The ignored requests say, Don’t bother me! The unopened door says, Leave me alone!

Perhaps your prayer life has felt that way at times. Your prayers seem to float to the ceiling and no farther. Earnest petitions yield silence day after day. Lamentations 3:44 seems all too real: “Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.” What are we to make of these times when God seems slow to answer?

 

B. Lesson Context

 

Luke’s two books, Luke and Acts, have repeated mentions of people praying and frequent teachings on prayer. We cannot read these two books without noticing that Jesus was a man of prayer (see Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, 28; 11:1; 22:40, 41, 44, 46; etc.) and that the first-century church was a community of prayer (see Acts 1:14; 13:3; 21:5; etc.). The Jerusalem church made prayer a priority (2:42). Cornelius, a Gentile, was a God-fearing man before his conversion, partly because he devoted himself to prayer (10:2).

The church inherited this reverence for prayer from its Jewish roots. Ancient Jewish synagogues and the temple itself were ideally to be houses of prayer (see Isaiah 56:7; Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46), dedicated spaces where people could pray alone or in community.

Prayer by Jesus and first-century Jews was rooted in the Scriptures (Genesis 21:16–18; Exodus 32:11–13; Jeremiah 10:23–25; etc.). The Old Testament shows prayer as addressing the Lord as the God who hears, cares, and is powerful to act (Exodus 2:23–25; Psalm 65:2; Daniel 9:19).

The previous lesson looked at the Lord’s Prayer as found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9–15; see lesson 12); Luke’s parallel for that teaching opportunity (although not his version of the Lord’s Prayer itself) is the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17–49). Between that event and today’s lesson occurs a miraculous healing and a resurrection (7:1–17); interactions with various people (7:18–50); more teaching (8:1–21; 10:38–42); calming a storm (8:22–25); an exorcism, resurrection, and healing (8:26–56); sending of the 12 (9:1–9); a miraculous feeding (9:10–17); private conversations and the transfiguration (9:18–36); another exorcism (9:37–43a); conversations and opposition (9:43b–62); and the sending of the 72 (10:1–24). Only then do we arrive at Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer (also known as the model prayer) and today’s text that follows it.

As Luke 11 opens, Jesus was praying. When he had finished, a disciple asked Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus’ response was to offer the prayer of Luke 11:2–4. The text for today’s lesson offers further insights on prayer.

 

I. Persistent Request

(Luke 11:5–8)

 

1. Inconvenience (vv. 5–7)

 

5, 6. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

 

The setting of this parable is that of the relationship of two friends who are also neighbors. These are people who are likely to have engaged in sharing and borrowing things from each other over many years. Such a relationship is to be assumed as normal and healthy by Jesus’ audience.

Midnight in Judea is truly the middle of the night. Because providing light after dark uses expensive oil for lamps, people rise shortly before sunrise and are in bed an hour or two after sundown. A normal day near the equator might begin about 5:00 a.m., and a household might be in bed by 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. By midnight, families are sound asleep, having been so for four or more hours.

An unexpected visitor turns one friend into a host in this parable. Ancient customs of hospitality differ from ours. A person on a journey might drop in unannounced, leaving a host scrambling to provide food at unusual hours. A host’s failure to provide a meal for his visitor is a social error of inhospitality, even without prior notice of arrival (compare Genesis 19:1–3). Yet, we should not accuse the host of poor planning. His family may have eaten every piece of bread at the evening meal, assuming their supply would be replenished the next day. The unanticipated guest has created a crisis, and the rules of hospitality must be honored.

The host needs bread, three loaves. His claim to have nothing may be a way of saying that his food stock is quite inadequate. Bread is baked frequently, even daily. It does not keep long and tastes best when fresh. Friend A is hoping that sleepy Friend B has some bread left over from the previous day.

 

7. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

 

Jesus’ disciples are undoubtedly surprised at the reaction of Friend B. They understand the inconvenience, but they also know that the expectation of village hospitality makes it imperative that the sleeping friend help, even at midnight. He says he cannot rise, but the truth is that he lacks the willingness to get up and help. The parable thereby contrasts an ungracious attitude to God’s graciousness as revealed in the model prayer (see Luke 11:3).

 

1. Yielding (v. 8)

 

8. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

 

Friendship alone is not a strong enough motivation for the man to help. Not even social customs of the day move him to action. What finally motivates him to action is his neighbor’s importunity.

The Greek word being translated, used only here in the New Testament, normally carries the sense of shamelessness. But that sense does not quite fit the context here. Rather, the sense is something closer to desperation that overrides shame. The word pushes past courteous politeness (that might easily take no for an answer) to ask again and again until the request is granted.

The point as it applies to prayer must not be missed: persistence is important. Prayer is a laying bare of the heart before God. If a request is not worth repeating as a daily petition, it may be deemed as whimsical or unimportant. Prayer that is persistent and personal is powerful in God’s eyes. Needs are daily; therefore our practice of prayer must be ongoing, never taking for granted the gracious provision of God.

We should take care here, though. Persistence in prayer is not effective because we somehow wear God down (see last week’s lesson). That’s not how it works with God. Persistence in prayer is a test for us, not for Him.

 

What Do You Think?

What are some ways to increase your bold persistence in prayer?

 

Digging Deeper

Considering passages such as Job 38:1, 2; Jonah 4; and Malachi 2:17, what guardrails should you put in place to ensure that your boldly persistent prayers do not cross lines that they shouldn’t?

 

Don’t Stop Believing

 

For two years, my oldest boy struggled. A small legal problem became a two-year string of escalating trouble. His trouble stemmed from continuing to seek out the wrong crowd and flouting every rule the county set forth. My family prayed constantly, but the situation just kept deteriorating. He lied and stole. He became violent. He had to be placed in a shelter; he was admitted to the hospital for an overdose.

I cried out to the Lord, for what seemed like the millionth time, to deliver my son and my family from the constant chaos. Like the neighbor in need, I persisted. I prayed. I asked for strength when my despair threatened to overcome me. I didn’t stop knocking until, in all His great mystery and love, God answered my prayer with a yes. My son began to improve and remains healthy to this day.

As Jesus tells us, we must never stop knocking. And unlike that frustrated friend who grudgingly got up to answer the door, Jesus is never reluctant to answer our prayers. His timing is perfect, and we err when we interpret a delayed answer with reluctance.

—P. M.

 

II. Tenacious Prayer

(Luke 11:9, 10)

 

1. Asking, Seeking, Knocking (v. 9)

 

9. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

 

The parable of the two friends gives context to the famous verse before us. It is the application of the parable (compare Matthew 7:7). The host has asked for bread, sought bread, and knocked on his neighbor’s door until it was opened for him. All of these are presented by Jesus as commands of what we are to do: ask, seek, knock. All three have a sense of continuation: keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.

In this chapter, it is unmistakable that the asking, seeking, and knocking are referring to prayer. This persistence is unlike the prayer practices of pagan Gentiles of Jesus’ day. Greek and Roman religions often view prayer as a device to manipulate or cajole a god or goddess to shower fortune on the person praying. For this reason, Jesus previously warned His disciples not to follow these empty practices (Matthew 6:7). Fundamentally, the Gentiles are unsure their gods hear them or will want to help even if they are listening. Jesus’ disciples need have no such fears; unlike the inhospitable neighbor, our God loves to give us what we need when we ask (6:8, 11).

 

What Do You Think?

What are some steps to strengthen the process of asking, seeking, and knocking?

 

Digging Deeper

Will it be important in answering that question to distinguish asking from seeking from knocking? Why, or why not?

 

1. Receiving, Finding, Opening (v. 10)

 

10. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

 

The potential for misunderstanding here is great. So it bears repeating that we must not see these verses as teaching that we can wear down God by endless, repeated requests until He gives in. Prayer in that case is not a conversation with our Father. Rather, it becomes a tirade that will not cease until demands are met. This danger of misapplication is also a caution for the similar parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1–8). The thrust of this parable is that “men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (18:1).

The thing to remember is that in both of these parables the persons who grant the requests are not sterling role models for us. Jesus’ listeners do not want to be the inhospitable and insensitive sleeping friend of the two-friends parable. They also abhor the judge who does not care about justice. Does this, then, teach us anything about God? Is God, who hears and grants our requests in prayer, anything like these two men?

The answer is obviously no; God is not like this (Jonah 3:6–10; 4:2). The parables, at one level, set forth a lesser-to-greater comparison: if the lesser individual grants the request, how much more is the greater individual (God) willing to do so! At another level, these parables teach us about the nature of prayer and how we should practice it. We must be persistent. A prayer life that makes a request once then abandons it is not much of a prayer life.

God is always faithful to respond appropriately to our needs. But let’s be honest: Are we sometimes too proud to ask God (or anyone else) for help? Do we think we always should try to meet our own needs without God’s help? Though asking for what we need goes against cultural expectations of rugged individualism, God expects us to ask Him for what we need each day. We do not have access to the decision-making process of God when it comes to our prayer requests. But in all cases, we can remain confident that God is hearing us every time we pray and giving us the answer that best suits His purposes and our needs.

An important point in this and the previous verse is that a specific kind of person is in view here. Today’s lesson text occurs within a long teaching section that deals with how Jesus’ disciples are to think and behave. Thus when Jesus refers to people who ask, seek, and knock, He is referring to the kind of person who has the sort of relationship with God that Jesus has been describing all along. In other words, these verses are directed to the kind of people who ask, seek, and knock while having godly motives and goals.

 

What Do You Think?

What are some ways to model persistence in prayer when you yourself have not yet received, found, or had doors opened?

 

Digging Deeper

At what point in a Christian’s prayer persistence should he or she reexamine the nature of the unanswered prayer itself?

 

III. Faithful Response

(Luke 11:11–13)

 

1. Imperfect Givers (vv. 11, 12)

 

11, 12. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

 

Jesus begins a second illustration about prayer to make a different point. Only a heartless father would ignore the pleas of a hungry child; only the cruelest of fathers would respond to cries of hunger with the substitutions of a stone for bread, a serpent for a fish, or a scorpion for an egg. Beyond being not edible by a child, such things are outright dangerous: teeth would be broken on biting a stone; a snake would bite a child rather than the reverse; a scorpion would sting.

 

What Do You Think?

How can we encourage those who feel God has given them “a scorpion” for “an egg”?

 

Digging Deeper

As you encourage such a person, how will you know when the time is right or wrong to point out passages such as Psalm 13; Jeremiah 20:7–13; and/or Romans 8:28?

 

1. The Perfect Father (v. 13)

 

13. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

 

Jesus drives home His major point: even comparatively evil human fathers can and do give good gifts to their children (compare Matthew 7:11). This principle is also true of the sleepy friend of the parable just considered and of the unjust judge in Luke 18. Even the worst of humans sometimes do the right thing, the good thing. However grudgingly, they are able to give good gifts to others. This is a bit like saying that even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally. An endorsement, but not a glowing one!

Yet even the best of people are evil when compared to the Lord (Romans 3:5, 10–18, 23). Thus, Jesus employs a lesser-to-greater argument: if certain good things about us frail humans are true, then how much more will good actions come from our perfect heavenly Father, who has no human weaknesses?

Moreover, the Father’s capacity to grant requests far exceeds giving loaves of bread, pieces of fish, or boiled eggs. Our Father in Heaven gives believers a gift far greater than the most wealthy and generous parent on earth can: His Holy Spirit. Our God cannot fulfill not only our physical needs, He can also satisfy our greater spiritual needs. The gift of the Holy Spirit is one of the greatest blessings of the Christian believer. Luke expands on this in Acts 1:8; 2:38; 5:32; 15:8; etc. Focusing on the gift of the Holy Spirit calls Christians to hope even when in material want.

A caution: Jesus’ teaching is not that God is required to better our lives through material possessions. A popular perception of God says that if you want a better car or a bigger house, all you need to do is ask for it in faith. This theory carries the assumption that God promises us health and wealth; it is a “name it and claim it” view of the gospel. But there is no such promise in the New Testament. Jesus is teaching us how true disciples understand the nature of God; Jesus is not teaching that we can get from God all we want simply by virtue of persistence.

 

What Do You Think?

What are some things your church should be more persistent in asking of the Lord? Why?

 

Digging Deeper

How will you need to change your own prayer priorities so you can best help your church change its prayer priorities?

 

Good, Good Father

 

A few years back, work transferred my husband to Nebraska. The family soon followed. We felt God’s hand in all of it, despite having to uproot our lives. We—two adults, two teenagers, a cat, and a dog—were staying in a hotel room with two double beds and a kitchenette while we searched for a permanent home. But we were struggling to get credit approval.

When an apartment we had been hoping for turned us down, a feeling of worthlessness filled me. As I prayed through those despondent emotions, I remembered who God was. I remembered His clear desire to move our family. Suddenly, I was no longer worried about where we would live. I knew who my Father was.

The next Sunday, the call came that we had been approved for the only rental house available within our children’s school district. Just like that, we had a home. I have a good, good Father in Heaven, one who knows how to give good gifts. Do you?

—P. M.

 

Conclusion

 

1. How Should I Pray?

 

There are many misconceptions about prayer among Christians. These erroneous beliefs can become debilitating. Some say that if God knows all, including our needs, we don’t need to ask for anything. What can we tell God if He already knows everything? “Nothing!” some say. Therefore, this logic says, prayer is pointless. We don’t want to pray wrongly, and we don’t want to suffer from prayer paralysis. We also don’t want to oversimplify prayer, for it represents a relationship with our heavenly Father.

Jesus used two analogies, images we would not expect, to teach us about our prayers to God. First, He spoke of borrowing loaves of bread. Second, He referred to a father providing wholesome food for his child. Sandwiched between (pun intended!) is one of Jesus’ most profound teachings on prayer in all the Bible: His admonition to ask, seek, and knock without giving up. Jesus ends with a reference to the Holy Spirit, presenting this as the ultimate answer to prayer and the gift of the Father.

Just as the unprepared host did not stop knocking or give up his search for bread, so we should not give up on asking God for the things we need. Prayer must be an ongoing conversation with the Lord. Jesus taught the disciples to ask for “daily bread” (Luke 11:3), leaving us to conclude that this request must be done every day. Prayer is a lifetime of activity, not an essay we write and file away forever.

Jesus teaches us that we are not abandoned by God. For this reason, we do not need to devise effective prayer strategies on our own. He has given us examples, and He has given us His Holy Spirit. Paul notes the value of this for us when he teaches that even though we are inadequate in our prayer lives, God’s Spirit will intercede for us to make up for our weaknesses (Romans 8:26). God not only hears our prayers, He will help us if we let Him.

 

 

 

Visual for Lesson 13. As you discuss verse 9, point to this visual and ask how the image relates to the discipline of asking, seeking, and knocking.

 

Jesus’ encouragement in Luke 11 is to never give up on prayer, no matter how unfruitful it may seem on any given day. The key is that we keep praying. We keep asking God, seeking His will, and knocking on the doors of Heaven with our requests (using James 4:3 as a caution). Few of us would count ourselves as giants in the world of prayer, so we can make this same request: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1)! Jesus was both a master teacher and the greatest pray-er of all time. His centuries-old words still guide us in this crucial spiritual matter today.

 

1. Prayer

 

Father God, we do have daily needs, things like food and drink that our bodies require. We have personal needs, to be loved by others and to have others to love. Most of all, we have spiritual needs that will only be satisfied by Your Holy Spirit. We knock on Your door to ask that You supply all our needs, all that we seek. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who graciously taught us to pray. Amen.

 

1. Thought to Remember

 

“The worst sin is prayerlessness.”

—P. T. Forsythe (1848–1921

 

 

KID’S CORNER

Follow God or Follow the Crowd

Sunday, February 23, 2020

John 6:15-24

 

John 6:15-24

(John 6:15) So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

The two most important acts by Jesus on the mountain that meant most to the crowd were His healings (for which they followed Him) and His unexpected and miraculous feeding of 5,000 people (or more) using five barley loaves and two fish (which moved them to want to make Jesus their king by the use of force). The teaching that John recorded during this time related to Jesus teaching His disciples by testing and example. Jesus probably also taught the crowd that had gathered, for He “came into the world to testify to the truth” (see John 18:37). Jesus was their King sent from God the Father, but the crowd seemed more interested in wanting Jesus to be the kind of king that would overthrow their oppressors (the Roman Empire) and restore their prosperity. In response, Jesus went back up the mountain where He customarily prayed to His heavenly Father. Those who profess to be Christians might ask themselves in what ways they are different from the crowd that wanted to make Jesus a king in their way.

(John 6:16) Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea,

John gives us a more abbreviated version of the disciples crossing the Sea of Galilee than the versions we find in Matthew 14:22-33 and Mark 6:45-56. John saw no need to record everything in Matthew and Mark, and he did not record Jesus’ instructions to His disciples in Matthew 14:22, which reads, “Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.” Jesus’ disciples did not decide to simply abandon Jesus on the shore and go alone across the sea; rather, they followed Jesus’ directions. Jesus probably sent them on ahead to teach them more about His character and nature, which Mark 6:51-52, implies when writing about the results of their journey: “Then Jesus got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.” They needed to learn more about and trust more Jesus’ compassionate love for them (character) and Jesus’ power as the Son of God and King of the universe (nature).

(John 6:17) and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

The disciples obeyed Jesus and started across to Capernaum (located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee) where the royal official lived whose son Jesus healed and where Jesus lived during His Galilean ministry. John made clear that by the time they departed, Jesus had not come to them. Before coming to them, Jesus dismissed the crowd and then went up the mountain to pray. John emphasized that the disciples were alone in the boat without Jesus, not that they expected to see Jesus walking on the water to join them in the boat.

(John 6:18) The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

The disciples who were fishermen, such as Peter, Andrew, James and John, had sailed or rowed their boats through storms before.  Prior to the experience John related here (reported also in Matthew 14:22-33), we know from Matthew 8:23-27 that once when a storm arose Jesus was asleep in the boat and so great was the windstorm that the boat began to fill with water. After the disciples woke Jesus, He stilled the storm, and in Matthew 8:27, we read. “They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’” (see also Luke 8:22-25). In this situation, the disciples might have begun to think, “If only Jesus were with us, He could still this storm!”

(John 6:19) Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they *saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened.

Jesus would not abandon His disciples to the waves and the wind. Jesus did not still the storm from the mountain top as He could have done easily. Rather, Jesus wanted them to remember that He loved them and would care for them always, even if that meant walking on the water through a storm to help them. When Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father, in John 17:12, Jesus told His Father, “While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.” John’s account of Jesus walking on the water illustrated one of the ways Jesus protected His disciples. On March 8, 2020, God-willing, we will study John 6:39, which reads, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” Jesus was determined not to lose any of His disciples in a storm. After rowing about three or four miles, the disciples, exhausted and afraid because of the storm, were terrified when they saw someone walking on the sea toward their boat. In Matthew 14:26, we learn why they were terrified, “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear.”

(John 6:20) But He *said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

Jesus needed to speak only a few words. Jesus’ presence calmed their fears and assured them that they had not seen a ghost; rather, He had come to their aid. John did not teach about Peter walking on the water after he saw Jesus (Matthew had already written about Peter doubting and needing more faith). By demonstration, John achieved His purpose which he clearly stated in John 20:31, “These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” Matthew 14:33, summarized the disciples’ reaction: “And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”

(John 6:21) So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

When the disciples learned that they had not seen a ghost, but Jesus coming to cast out all their fears and save them, they became willing and wanted to take Him into the boat. The very moment they took Jesus into the boat, the boat reached land where they were going. In a moment, Jesus got them exactly where they needed to be and met their needs. The moment we truly receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, as God’s Messiah, as the Son of God as revealed in the Bible, Jesus gives us the power and right to become children of God—immediately we receive the gift of eternal life.

(John 6:22) The next day the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone.

The crowd knew that Jesus had worked a miracle and had fed them with enough food left over for His disciples; therefore, the crowd wanted to make Jesus their king by force. They probably wanted to do so even more the next day. Jesus had sent His disciples on the ahead of Him by boat to Capernaum. Then, unseen by the crowd, Jesus had walked on water, gotten into their boat, and traveled with them to the other side of the sea. The crowd did not know where Jesus had gone or how He had left them.

(John 6:23) There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

Tiberias was about 6 miles south of Capernaum on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. Those who arrived from Tiberias soon learned that Jesus had fed a large crowd there after saying a prayer, which John described as giving thanks. They probably also learned that the people Jesus had fed wanted to make Him their king. Those Jesus had fed may have recruited some who had newly arrived from Tiberias to take them to Capernaum to search for Jesus. Capernaum was located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.

(John 6:24) So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus.

After searching diligently for Jesus, the crowd got into the newly arrived boats from Tiberias and went to Capernaum in Galilee (where Jesus had made His new home). They were probably motivated to find Jesus because of the free food that He had given them. The free food that He gave them was easier to get than food from fishing, from harvesting grain, or from baking bread. With Jesus’ abilities, they knew they would not need to work or pay taxes to the Romans again, so they wanted to make Jesus their king.

 

 

Follow God or Follow the Crowd

Sunday, February 23, 2020

John 6:15-24

 

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 (John 6:15—KJV). So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone (John 6:15—NASB). When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself (John 6:15—NRSV).

When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he offered Jesus a kingship over all the nations on earth, but of course Jesus would need to bow under the devil’s authority. After Jesus healed every disease of those who came to Him, and after He had fed about 5000 people using only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, crowds of people wanted to make Jesus their king. Jesus could do everything their religious and political leaders could not or would not do. Jesus could miraculously meet everyone’s physical needs, so Jesus may have been tempted to allow the crowd to raise an army and by force make Him king. However, Jesus knew that He had come to do the will of His Heavenly Father rather than follow the crowd. Jesus came to meet people’s eternal needs: people’s need to live forever free from sin in the presence of their loving God. Jesus knew that the kingdom of which He was already King was not of this world. Jesus knew that He had to teach people the truth about God rather than be made a king of this world in opposition to his Heavenly Father. Jesus knew that He came to suffer and die on a cross to glorify God and then rise from the dead so He could give the Holy Spirit to His followers. We do not know what Jesus prayed to His Father on the mountain, but He probably prayed for the continued strength and wisdom to do His Father’s will unto death—a strength and wisdom His Father gave Him.

 

Thinking Further

Follow God or Follow the Crowd

Sunday, February 23, 2020

John 6:15-24

Name ___________________________________

1. Why do you think the crowd wanted to use force to make Jesus king?

 

 

2. Why do you think Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself?

 

 

3. Do you think the disciples right or wrong to leave Jesus and start across the sea to Capernaum by themselves? Why or why not?

 

 

4. What may have the disciples learned after they had gone three or four miles?

 

 

5. Why do you think the crowd left for Capernaum to look for Jesus?

 

 

Discussion and Thinking Further

1. Why do you think the crowd wanted to use force to make Jesus king? They knew Jesus was a man of peace who was so humble that He probably would not assert himself to become a political king and raise an army to defeat the Romans; therefore, they wanted to use force to make Jesus their king. They probably also wanted someone who would give them free food, meet all their physical needs, and heal all their diseases.
2. Why do you think Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself? Jesus did not want them to make Him a king by force, and He did not want to involve His disciples in the volatile situation, so He sent them on ahead. He wanted to be alone with His heavenly Father in prayer and receive the rest that only His Father could give Him.
3. Do you think the disciples right or wrong to leave Jesus and start across the sea to Capernaum by themselves? Why or why not? The disciples were right to obey Jesus. Because John did not tell us everything we learn from the Gospel of Matthew (there was no need for John to repeat all that he knew Matthew and Mark had written), we might mistakenly think that the disciples went off on their own and left Jesus behind. By sending the disciples on ahead, Jesus knew He would be able to teach them more about himself as their Savior and Lord.
4. What may have the disciples learned after they had gone three or four miles? They learned that it would have been helpful if Jesus had been in the boat with them, even if asleep, because they knew that if He had been with them, they could awaken Him and He would have quieted the storm. They would soon learn that Jesus loved them so much that He would even walk on water through a storm to protect and save them. They learned more about Jesus’ character and nature and gladly welcomed Him into their boat.
5. Why do you think the crowd left for Capernaum to look for Jesus? The next morning, they were probably even more determined to make Jesus their king, and they may have learned from the disciples and/or Jesus that He had sent them to Capernaum, where they hoped to find Jesus. Or they may have known that Jesus had made Capernaum His home in Galilee and went there to search for Him.

 

 

Word Search

Follow God or Follow the Crowd

Sunday, February 23, 2020

John 6:15-24

Name __________________________________

 

D M E C R O F T K I N G Z G Z

N U G W Z K E I B Q N L V L Q

A A I T I W U Y T I B U W E W

L N S M N T D W A Y Q X V Z R

F R A F M T H T I S M E N D P

V E N E A E N D Q N N C M K A

T P M O L U D H R I D R X E Y

Q A B W O A T I N E M O S G X

H C P M O W L G A K W W Y I R

I K E S K F U C D T L D C W C

J S Z B I B G H G J E F K S R

K E V W N Y N V W N Y L N F G

R I S R G L U S R J U P Y M N

A Q H U B I D E I F I R R E T

D Y E A S G A H U C X N V H O

 

Force

King

Withdrew

Mountain

Evening

Sea

Boat

Capernaum

Dark

Wind

Terrified

Immediately

Land

Crowd

Looking

 

True and False Test

Follow God or Follow the Crowd

Sunday, February 23, 2020

John 6:15-24

Name ___________________________________

Circle the True or False answers. Correct the False statements by restating them.

1. A crowd wanted to use force to make Jesus king. True or False
2. Jesus prevented them from making Him king by going home to Nazareth. True or False
3. Jesus’ disciples started across the sea without Jesus. True or False
4. On the disciples’ way to Capernaum, the sea became rough and a strong wind blew. True or False
5. The disciples saw the ghost of Jesus walking on the water and leading them through the storm. True or False
6. Jesus wanted to terrify them so they would never go anyplace without Him again. True or False
7. Jesus reassured the disciples and told them not to be afraid. True or False
8. When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they wanted to take Him into the boat. True or False
9. While Jesus slept in the boat, after an hour more of sailing, the disciples reached land disgruntled and exhausted. True or False
10. When the crowd could not find Jesus or His disciples, they got into boats and went to Capernaum. True or False

 

True and False Test Answers

1. True
2. False
3. True
4. True
5. False
6. False
7. True
8. True
9. False

10.True

 

 

Prayer

 

Father God, we do have daily needs, things like food and drink that our bodies require. We have personal needs, to be loved by others and to have others to love. Most of all, we have spiritual needs that will only be satisfied by Your Holy Spirit. We knock on Your door to ask that You supply all our needs, all that we seek. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who graciously taught us to pray. Amen.