John 6: There Is No Hopeless Generation

Introduction

A few years ago, a major burger chain ran an ad in Sweden showing slightly lost young people, set to a very popular old Swedish song whose title means "Open Your Door." The slogan said, in essence: "We have believed in hopeless generations since 1973." Watching it, Karin Dernov, a pastor at Immanuel Stockholm, thought: "What about the Church? We do too, and for much longer than 1973."

What does a hopeless generation look like in Sweden in 2026? The preacher remembers a conversation with a group of young people. One of them told her: "Maybe it's because it's so hard to find meaning. It feels like nothing really matters." Climate crisis, wars and alerts close to home, school shootings, gang clashes: there is a lot of fear among young people, and hope can be hard to find.

The theme of her message comes down to one sentence from Jesus: the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like children. Starting from the feeding of the crowd in John 6, she shows that God sees more in us than we see in ourselves, whatever our age.

Message Outline

1. The Church believes in hopeless generations

Many young people ask life's big questions: "Is there hope? Is there anything that holds firm when so much is shaken?"
Karin Dernov acknowledges that every generation goes through hard times, but she dares to say that young people today are, in many ways, more vulnerable than she was at their age.
The Church has an important role to play right now, with its habit of speaking about existential questions and the hope it carries.
The Bible is full of examples where God uses young people, trusts them and involves them. Not only the strong, but often those who would call themselves hopeless. In the Old Testament as in the New, God sees more in us than we see in ourselves.

2. Jesus puts children at the center

Today we find it normal to hear that children matter. In the culture of the time, that was not always the case.
Yet Jesus says: "Allow the little children to come to me! Don't forbid them, for God's Kingdom belongs to such as these" (Mark 10:14).
Children are not only important in the kingdom of God, they are models. We rightly think that adults should be models for young people. But children are our models too, especially when it comes to trust and faith.

3. Jesus also cares about your hunger

In John 6, more than 5,000 men are gathered around Jesus. "I suppose there were many more people," the preacher says with a smile. They have seen his miracles and want to understand who he is.
Jesus asks Philip: "Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?" (John 6:5). This one sentence says a lot: Jesus cares not only about our spiritual needs, but also about our physical ones.
"There is no spiritual life on one side and an ordinary life on the other. There is only one life, and that is where he wants to meet you, whatever it looks like."

4. The question is not whether you have enough

Philip calculates that there is not enough money. Then someone says a small, wonderful sentence: "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish" (John 6:9).
"We adults are there with our Excel spreadsheets, calculating the possibilities according to finances, buildings, skills, experience. Meanwhile, a child shows up with his five loaves and two fish."
Karin Dernov admits she would probably have reacted like the disciples: "What are you thinking, little guy?" But the boy gives what he has to Jesus and trusts him to make something of it.
"The question is not whether you have enough. The question is: whose hands are you placing what you have into?"
Children approach the world and God with a special openness. One day, a classmate of her son's, an 11-year-old boy brand new to church and full of questions, asked her in the car whether everyone could go to heaven, even a murderer. She answered that the Christian faith says a person can be forgiven for anything. After a silence, he suggested: maybe if you have been very bad, you first go to another heaven where you receive so much love that you become good, before you are ready for the big heaven.
She does not say his theory is right, but that boy knew something about God, about his love, and about the fact that only love can change a person. "Children may not know everything, but they understand a lot. Be open when you talk with them: God may want to teach you something."

5. Young people are the Church of today

We often hear that children and young people matter because they are the future. The text shows something else: the boy is not important later, he has something to share here and now. "Children and young people are not the Church of tomorrow. They are the Church of today."
Jesus says: "Have the people sit down" (John 6:10). No solution is visible yet, but he begins to organize and make room, as if he knew what was about to happen.
The Church must do the same: make room for young people without yet knowing what will happen. Room to wrestle with their questions, offer ideas, experiment, walk alongside someone more experienced, and even fail. "Have we really made room for the younger generation?"
For a long time, people thought young people needed to be entertained with good activities. Many long instead to be taken seriously, to contribute, to make an impact. "Let's do things with young people, not for young people."
An author who came to Immanuel to present her book told of her childhood in Tensta, a suburb of Stockholm, in the midst of gang violence, where she lost friends and her own brother. On the subway, Karin Dernov told her about the church's community meal, where 300 to 400 people come to eat, served in part by young volunteers. The author replied: "That is exactly what would have been good for many of my friends": doing something meaningful, being useful, growing up feeling like a good person.
"What you water grows." If you believe the best about a child, you often see the good grow. She illustrates it with humor: praise your eldest son for lending his Star Wars hat to his little brother, or your husband for folding sheets so well, and they do it again.
"There is no hopeless generation. There is only a generation that needs hope."

6. Together, across all generations

In the story, a young person gives, Jesus gives thanks, the miracle happens and the disciples distribute to the crowd. It is not a matter of young or old, but of everyone together: whatever your generation, you bring what you have.
At the 40th anniversary of the church where she was previously a pastor, a 17-year-old girl testified: her friends who do not go to church cannot believe she has so many adults who care about her besides her parents. In society, the ages usually live separately.
The secretary general of Bris, a Swedish children's rights organization, confided to her that young people in the country lack stable adults around them. "Here, the Church has a treasure. How are you making the most of such a unique intergenerational community?"
Karin Dernov is herself the example. At 13, after a sermon on the importance of older friends, based on Paul and Timothy, she went up to a white-haired woman: "Can we go for coffee? I need an older friend."
That woman welcomed her into her home and talked with her about everything. Over the years she went through great losses, but she never put on an act: she let her see her pain, her doubts, her anger at God, and how, in the midst of it all, she held on to God, "or rather, God held on to her." Their friendship has lasted 36 years.
A year ago, this friend, now about 85, told her how much her curiosity and youthful energy had helped her in her darkest hours. The relationship is mutual: young people need older people, and older people need them.
The church's youth department plans to launch a mentoring program at the new year that connects young people and adults.

7. Passing on the faith, not the institution

The theologian Andrew Root observes that the Church often thinks that if young people just show up, it will be saved. Young people then become a means of saving the Church.
What must be passed on is the faith, not the institution: loving young people and inviting them to meet Jesus Christ, who loves and seeks every human being, and whose bread can satisfy our hunger.
The preacher says she feels full of hope when she meets the younger generation: there is so much love and fighting spirit in them. But many need to feel that there is room for them, that they are not alone, and that adults see them and care for them.
Whatever your age, dare to keep giving your bread and your fish, even if you think you have little to offer. Do as the children do: what we give him, he multiplies so that it is enough and becomes a blessing for those around us.
It is not a matter of strength. When she feels she has so little, she says from the bottom of her heart: "I need you, Lord." It is the song she listened to before every interview when she applied for this position about three years ago. "When we acknowledge that we cannot rely on our own strength and we trust him, anything can happen."

Key Takeaways

There is no hopeless generation, only a generation that needs hope.
Jesus makes children into models of trust and faith for adults.
The question is not whether you have enough, but whose hands you place what you have into.
Children and young people are not the Church of tomorrow, they are the Church of today: make room for them, doing things with them and not only for them.
Fellowship between generations is a treasure for both sides: young people need older people, and older people need young people.

Personal Application

What are your "five loaves and two fish" today, and what keeps you from placing them in Jesus' hands?
In the way you serve, are you more on the side of the Excel spreadsheets or of the boy's trust?
What good do you see in a child or young person around you, and how can you water it this week?
Is there someone from another generation you could invite for coffee, to receive as much as to give?
In your church, what concrete room do you make for young people so that they can propose, serve and even make mistakes?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the boy in John 6 teach us?

While the adults calculate, a young boy gives Jesus his five barley loaves and two fish, and Jesus turns them into a miracle. For Karin Dernov, the question is not whether you have enough, but whose hands you place what you have into.

Why say that young people are the Church of today?

The boy in John 6 is not important later: he has something to share right away. Karin Dernov concludes that children and young people are not the Church of tomorrow but of today, and that the Church must make room for them to ask questions, propose ideas, serve and even fail.

Why is fellowship between generations so valuable?

Many young people lack stable adults around them. The Church is one of the few places where all generations meet. Walking alongside someone who has followed Jesus longer can change a life, and the relationship goes both ways: older people need young people too.