The Jesus Series: Jesus Keeps Giving Sunday, July 22, 2018 John 6:1-13 If you are a visitor, we are spending our Sunday mornings for at least a year going passage by passage through the Gospel of John, to look at the life and ministry of Jesus. We finished up three weeks in John 5, and I see a similar number of weeks being spent in John 6, if not more. This is a RICH chapter, with a lot of treasure to mine out. It is full of the glory of Christ, built on the foundation we laid last week where Jesus told the religious leaders that ALL of the Old Testament pointed to Him; It is quite the roller coaster, at the beginning we will see a multitude of people desiring to be with Jesus; A crowd that was ready to make him their king; and by the end of the chapter many, including some of his early followers will have left him; finding his words intolerable. We will see how that unfolds, but for today we are starting with the first 13 verses of John 6; and the event that sets the scene for the remainder of this chapter; The only miracle of Jesus - besides his resurrection - that occurs in all 4 gospels. We will also heavily rely on Mark 6, which gives an account of this same event and compliments John s telling of it very well. A lot has occurred since the events that John told us about in chapter 5, that the other gospels fill in for us. Jesus is back in the northern part of Israel in Galilee and there he sends out the 12 Apostles two by two, on a king of evangelistic training mission, giving them authority over unclean spirits, and telling them to go out and preach repentance and heal the sick. During this time, Herod - the ruler appointed by Rome over the Galilean area - murders John the Baptist; the cousin of Jesus who was the forerunner to his ministry. John s execution is an event that no doubt grieved and drained Christ and his disciples. The Apostles returned to Jesus and begin to tell him all of the amazing things that they had done and taught. Simultaneously many were coming to Jesus asking for healing and listening to his teaching. So much, that Mark tells us that they could not even find a moment to eat. Jesus was fatigued; His disciples were fatigued - mentally, emotionally, and physically. So Jesus said to them, let s go to a desolate place by ourselves and rest a while. So they got into a boat, probably near Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee (also called - as John points out - the Sea of Tiberias by the locals) and headed to a village in a mountainous part of Israel called Bethsaida,
which literally means Desert Place. Jesus and the Apostles probably took a boat to avoid walking through the villages along the coast and gaining more attention; But - Mark 6 tells us that many saw where they were going and recognized them, and ran there around the head of the lake on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. They were waiting on him when he got off the boat. And - Mark 6:34 says that Jesus, as fatigued as he was, hoping for rest and solitude - had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. I titled this sermon, Jesus Keeps Giving - because as we will see this is all about his provision for helpless and hopeless people; at the expense of himself, his own life. Even for a people whose motives were impure and self centered. John 6 tells us this crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing. Much like the crowds throughout John so far, and the crowds in our own day, they are very interested in Jesus as a miracle worker, and a sign-doer; but not in Jesus the person, the son of God who came to take away their sins. This is an important distinction that will play into this text in the weeks ahead. And will lead us to ask ourselves, Why do we seek Jesus? John now picks up the story in verse 3, Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. The Passover was the annual Jewish festival, the centerpiece of the Jewish religious calendar. This is the 2nd of 3 Passovers that John mentions. The first was in chapter 2, so that helps you with timeframe as about a year has passed from the events of chapter 2 until now. But the mentioning of the Passover is extremely significant -more than simply marking time. The original Passover prepared the Jews for their Exodus from slavery in Egypt; a final meal that was eaten in captivity, whose centerpiece was a lamb that was slain to provide for the family; innocent blood covered the doorpost of the home - and when the angel of death came through Egypt to carry out God s wrath against sin, it passed over every home where it saw the blood of the lamb. The Jews then left Egypt into the wilderness, headed to the promised land. While in the wilderness God provided for them through Mannah, a bread like substance that came down from Heaven. The NT makes clear that all of this ultimately pointed to Jesus. For believers, Jesus is our Passover lamb, and his blood cover our lives so that the wrath of God against unrighteousness passes us over; and He leads us in a greater Exodus out of the slavery of sin. And this 2nd Passover mentioned in John, will in coming weeks lead us into a very rich, and very hard, discourse on Jesus as the bread of Life, the mannah of Heaven that comes down just as it did in the wilderness, for the nourishment and satisfaction of souls. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat? 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. The crowd is swelling. As the original group ran around the lake, they no doubt attracted others who followed; not to mention there are already crowds beginning their journey toward Jerusalem for Passover. And Jesus teaches all who gather. It begins to get late, it is a desolate area, and they have no food. They probably have Sprint, so there is no signal to order pizza, and the disciples wanted to send the crowd away to the surrounding villages to eat; But Jesus keeps giving. He knows this crowd is physically hungry but spiritually malnourished; And he plans to provide completely; And furthermore He has planned this moment as an opportunity to declare who He is and
to strengthen the faith of His Apostles. Jesus tells them, You give them something to eat. John specifically mentions that Jesus tests Philip. And Phillip looks at the crowd and answers very realistically. There are 5,000 men - and Matthew very carefully points out even more women and children. So this crowd may have been 15-20,000 easy. And Philip starts talking about their budget, I Totally get Phillip. but what He is really saying is, Jesus, are you feeling ok? We cannot possibly feed this many people. Think about what you are asking us to do. Apparently there was no higher thought it is mind, then simply the reality of the situation. Some of us are like that. We approach every situation in life, strictly realistically. Where every challenge we face is met primarily with a natural solution. For us, it is that God has given us common sense and natural reasoning, and He helps those who help themselves ; Jesus asked Philip, What are we going to do? and maybe He thought, Jesus wants me to resolve this ; Jesus is looking to me to come up with solutions. I need to come through. The first test was to see how Philip would react to a seemingly insurmountable challenge. And the real solution was to admit a total inability to solve the challenge and turn to Christ saying, You re the answer. You can provide, Jesus. If you will. I remember when we first started praying for ourmissionary friend who was told she was blacklisted and would not be let back in the country where she served; And she had some suggestions to try and enter the country through a smaller airport; or to pay off an official. Reasonable, natural solutions to a hard challenge. But when she prayed, Jesus told her go through the busiest airport. And when she got to immigration and prayed, Which of these agents do I go to? He told her - It doesn't matter, you pick. He was proving to her, He was the provision not her craftiness. In the midst of everyday challenges, If you and I are not careful we will end up like Phillip. Standing in the presence of the Sovereign King of the universe, counting our pennies to see if we can come up with a solution to pay for what He has already decided He is going to do. In the account from Mark, Jesus responds to this budget analysis, by telling the disciples to go find out how many loaves you have. John continues this way 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter s brother, said to him, 9 There is a boy here who have five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? 10 Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost. 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelves baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. The young boy may have been associated with the disciples somehow Or he could have offered what he had as the Disciples were looking; regardless to Jesus request to find out what they have, they produce 5 barley loaves (which would have been bread cakes; this was the bread of the poor). And 2 fish (specifically in the greek little fish - think sardines - which were common around Galilee and would be smoked or pickled as a side dish for the barley cakes). Essentially this child had a lunchable. So Jesus had the people sit in groups of 100 s and 50 s per Mark. If you are an administrative type person that excites you. And he took what little had been brought to Him and He began with Thanks to God. If Jesus used the common form of Jewish Thanksgiving he said, Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth. Jesus blessed God, not the food. And from there, Jesus distributes as much as they wanted. John stresses the Lavishness with which Jesus supplies: Seconds, Thirds, Fourths. This crowd ate, until they had their fill.
20,000 people, from 5 barley cakes and 2 sardines. I have always wondered, exactly what this looked like on that day? Did Jesus pray, and when everyone opened their eyes the baskets were filled? Did Jesus gives baskets to the Disciples, and it was like Olive Garden, endless baskets of bread whenever they handed it out? Bill Mounce - a modern Greek scholar - points out that the verb tense in the original Greek indicates a continual or repeated action - rather than a one time completed action; and therefore the ESVs He distributed can rightly be translated as the NASB does He kept giving. If that is the case, this miracle happened in the hands of Jesus - as He distributed the food to the disciples, it kept coming, until everyone was satisfied. Here is the second test: Whatever area of your life your life you suffer lack, and you need the provision of Jesus - What do you do with what little you have? Jesus could have made something out of nothing, but rather He chose to make something out of the little that the disciples produced. Jesus loves to take our little broken bits and pieces and multiply them to give abundant grace to those in need. Five years ago, Alyson and I were in the midst of adopting a little boy from Hong Kong; you might have heard of him; or you might have heard him; And we started that journey knowing God was calling us to it. And as we worked out the details, we discovered it would cost approx $20,000 to complete the process. And we were short by about, $20,000. But we knew this was what God was calling us to. So the first thing we did was we put everything we had into the fund. We gave what we had, and then we started fundraising and waiting. And during that process, I began to sell some items online; Family items that I had been given- coins and collectibles; things that meant a lot to me. But I wanted to sell these things and put it on the adoption to show my son how valuable he was to me. I was always wanting to be the hero. And I earned a decent amount of money. And then one night we were here at the church, and this lady who had been fundraising to go on a mission trip overseas was really upset; she had worked really hard to save her money and fundraise and she was short and the deadline was near and she was going to have to not go; but she knew God had called her to this. And as she shared, we asked her how much she owed and it was almost the exact amount I had earned selling this stuff. And I thought, Wow.that is a coincidence. But as we prayed and talked, I knew that God was pointing toward giving her that money. So I did what I usually do when God tests me like that - I ignored it and hoped it would go away. But the thought persisted; so I talked to my wife and I talked to a trusted friend and I eventually took that money and met the need. Totally not a natural or reasonable thing, considering what we were trying to do. And don t think highly of me, I wrestled greatly with it. Through that, Christ (not me) met the need and the prayer of that young lady; he took the little broken bits and pieces of what I had - and used it to give abundant grace. That same fall, I am teaching at a men s conference on Grace. And I am telling the story of our proposed adoption - not at all about money - but how God had given me a love for this little boy that I had never met up to that point; and tried to somehow tie that back into God s love for us in adopting us into his family. And when I was done, this man that I had never met before walked up and introduced himself and asked me if we could talk. And in that conversation he told me that in a previous career he had travelled the world and he had amassed 1,000 s of airline miles; and he told me that while I was speaking that God told him that He was to give me those miles, and pay for our airline tickets to and from Hong Kong. A gift that was worth 5 times what I had given the young girl who needed to finish her
travel expenses. And a ticket for my son that we had not planned to buy to save money (he was going to sit on our lap for 16 hours to save money- which looking back now one of the 3 of us would have died). God tested that man in what he had, and in doing so he lavishley and abundantly met the need and prayer of my family. Here is the reality - the Lord will test you. He will test to see how you respond to challenges. He will test to see if your trust is in Him or in natural solutions. And the Lord will test to see what you do with what little you have. You and I would prefer that He simply meet the need. If we lack energy, we want him to supply more energy and then we will use it to serve Him. If we lack money, we want him to supply more money and then we will use it to serve him. If we lack time, we want him to supply more time and then we will use it to serve Him. And Jesus says, What do you have right now? Bring it to me. And that is scary, because everything in us says But that is all I have! When Christ calls us to do something, when He has commanded us through His word, it is not reckless to give what little we have to him; it is only reckless to withhold what little have in some vain attempt at self preservation. The NT principle that we see time and time again, is to take what God has provided and steward it well. And trust Jesus for provision. Because He keeps Giving. We get really comfortable, living really safe, but until we are willing to step out to that place Jesus calls us; where unless He shows up - we fall flat on our face, then we won't know what it means to live by Faith. I want to stress this - This is not a call to careless living. We don't just come up with our own ideas, and then ask Jesus to bankroll our plans. But when He commands us, or He calls us; and we know what He is asking us to do - Then the only carelessness is in not trusting Him. How do you know it is from him? Test it. 1) Does it line up with His word? 2) Would it glorify Him? 3) Would it help His church? 4) Would other Christians close to you validate it? 5) What does Jesus say as you pray about it and listen for His voice, and read His word? If it passes those tests - then put what little you have toward it and submit the rest to the Lord. God owns a cattle on a 1,000 Hills. If you are suffering lack right now - it may be God is testing you. It may be God is preparing you. It may be God is calling out to you. But Jesus is Go. Jesus is good. He has not overlooked you. He has not forsaken you. Jesus keeps giving. So put your worries on Him, steward well what little you have, and trust His provision.