Audio： A Passion to Know Him - Part 1 — K.P. Yohannan

Brother K .P. Johanan is going to raise some questions for us about the use of our time. There we are. Richard Buse here. If we think about it, the change from self to unself in the early Christian church has been the greatest revolution that the world has ever seen.

We live today in a self-centered society that typically considers our own well-being before others. What would happen if we placed others before our own self-interest, as Jesus did? Today, the road to reality takes us to John, chapter 6, which beautifully portrays God's heart towards the lost, the suffering, the needy.

Christ truly cares about others, but do we? Here's Brother K .P. to help us think this through.

Jesus Trains Disciples Through the Gospel

Turning Bibles to the gospel according to John, chapter 6. Here in chapter 6 of John's gospel, we have the story of Jesus feeding the 5 ,000. This is recorded in all the four gospels, quite an important event.

Everything Christ did during his three and a half years of life, his priority was to train his disciples for them to become the kind of people that will change the world. It was not simply him passing on information or teaching on doctrines.

Rather, if you read the four gospels and see the kind of thing Jesus talked about, he never said, you know, don't believe like the Pharisees, don't teach like the Pharisees. No, he said, don't be like them, because they are the people who came to Christ not to find change in their own life, not for eternal life, not for God and him alone.

They came for so many other things. And the Lord said that to them one time, you come after me for the miracles, the bread and the food and all this stuff. And then you search the scriptures, you study and read and analyze and learn all the doctrines and you are so holy in your own sight who you are, but you never will come to me so that you may have life while the scripture talks about me.

That's what Jesus said. When you read the Bible, it's all about me, but you will never come to me. You only come to the information. You only come to the Bible. You only come to the doctrines. So Jesus compared this hypocrisy, shallowness, lack of reality in a tangible way by using a group of people, these Pharisees.

And the Lord said, don't be like them. So whatever you read, the events that is recorded in the scripture, the Lord Jesus is using that to train his disciples to become the kind of people later who will change the world.

Scripture as a Call to Personal Transformation

And that is what it's all about. So when you go to the scripture, our primary attitude must be, Lord, what is it that you are telling me? What are the things I must change in my life as you put more light upon my life?

And I see darkness. I see things I never saw before. Lord, change me. And so the word of God becomes light. And so we change. This is what we should be looking for. Those who go to the Bible to learn and get information, they will find it, but they will never change.

And that is something that we need to keep in mind. So when we come to the gospel of John chapter 6, as we participate in this event, this huge miracle, I mean, out of nothing, something so significant.

Can you imagine 5 ,000 men and all the women and everybody else there, and they got nothing to eat. And all of a sudden, a huge miracle takes place. Let's look at these verses. John's gospel chapter 6, we'll read beginning with verse 5.

Jesus Feeds the Multitude

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? He, that is Jesus, asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?

Jesus said, how will the people sit down? There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about 5 ,000 of them. Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.

He did the same with the fish. Amazing. You read in other gospels in more detail about, you know, the description of this, like Mark chapter 6, verse 32 on, you can read about that. So, here is a scene, if you can just close your eyes and imagine this large field, plenty of grass like we have here in the compound, and 5 ,000 men and surely a lot more people.

It's all there, it's a huge multitude, and they came after Jesus. Surely, they didn't come after Jesus thinking that, oh, I'm hungry today, I'm going to get a lot of, you know, nice food. They came, obviously, to hear Jesus.

They came, obviously, to be touched by him, to meet their inner need, healing or whatever it was they were looking for. So many came because they heard, through so many sources, this great man, this individual who says he's a Messiah, he's doing a lot of things.

Out of curiosity, a lot of people came. People came after Jesus. Truly a mixed multitude for so many reasons. I know people that listen to me over the radio. I mean, when I read those letters, you can just imagine the kind of people.

Lawyers, doctors, then housewives, teachers, then auto rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, Adivasis, people who live in little huts up in the mountains. I mean, it's amazing, the cross-section of people that listen to the broadcast.

The same with the television, you know. Somebody asked me the other day, you think people have television in all the houses? I said, you know, you can go to Bombay, sometimes beggars are carrying television on their back.

I mean, everybody's hooked. You have all kinds of people. Jesus had the same experience. He was facing this multitude. When he saw them, it says that he had compassion. He had feelings for them. He knew their condition.

He didn't have to wait for one representative to come and say, Hey, Jesus, see all these people? Thousands of people, they've been walking so many kilometers. They're tired and worn out. They can hardly walk.

Can't you see these people carrying little babies? Old people, they hardly can walk. They're crawling. I mean, this is not fair. You have to do something about giving them some help. No, there was no one coming to Jesus and says, Lord, look at the great need.

No. As a matter of fact, the disciples of Christ, the people that should share the heart and emotions of Jesus. You see, it's absolutely amazing. They could be so close to him, yet they didn't get the feelings, the kind of thoughts Christ is, you know, entertaining.

They are saying, well, it's too many people here. Let them go home and let them get something to eat. It's too much of a problem. They see this multitude as a problem rather than an opportunity. The blind man cries out, Jesus, please.

Hey, shut up. You're creating too much problem for us. They see the cries, the tears, the brokenness, the blind, the needy as a problem. They can't see this as an opportunity. But the Son of God, he is now having that feeling, that hurt.

Well, some saw this as a problem, but Jesus saw it as an opportunity, an opportunity to display his love and care and to teach his disciples a vital lesson. When we return to KP in a minute, he'll encourage us in this sharing of God's love and compassion for others.

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Jesus’ Compassion for the Samaritan Woman

But as we rejoin KP now, we see his heart of compassion for one individual.

In the Gospel of John chapter 4, you read another incident. It's not about multitude. It's not about 10 million people, 300 ,000 people or 5 ,000 people. No, just one little woman who was used, abused, and she comes to the well to draw some water.

I remember the times I lived in North India for eight years, and I remember especially the two years I lived in Tajistan. No matter what village you go, there's a well there for the village. And hardly, I never can remember, I don't think I ever saw one lady, just one woman coming with the water pot to draw water, never.

It's always a group of them. They'll be talking and laughing and gossiping about what is going on in the community, you know, and they come. But here, all alone, because people know her, her reputation is not that great.

She's kind of living in the shadows. Only she knows the deep hurt and the pain she goes through. Somebody said it's hard enough to be married to one man. Now it's not one, two and three and four and five, it's just on and on.

You know, we talk about spiritual things, we sometimes forget the reality, the harsh, cold reality of humanness, the flesh and blood we live with. And Jesus, as a Jew, normally shouldn't go through Samaria.

No, he, no. They find a roundabout to go to Jerusalem. They will not, they will not go through there, or from there to the other, they will not. But it says he must go through Samaria. It was predestined.

It is a choice he made. For what? Just for one woman that nobody cared for, nobody understood, nobody had any sympathy for, nobody had any feelings for her. Only they thought about her body, to use and abuse her for their lust.

But Jesus knew about her. And so he goes and he waits. The disciples go off to buy food. But then when they come back, Christ being hungry and tired and weary, now he loses his appetite, he can't eat anymore.

If you really understand Jesus there, you will see the physical face-to-face encounter with this woman. Seeing the scar, the pain, the endless agony he witnessed in her eyes, began to cause pain in his heart.

And he lost his physical appetite. So he tells the disciples, I don't want any food. That's exactly what it is, you read there. Here is Jesus seeing people, whether it is thousand or hundred or ten million or two billion or one individual.

He cares. This is the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the nature of the Father. You want me to show you God, the Father? He tells his disciples, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.

And we are told, you aspire, you long to be like your Father in heaven. See, brothers and sisters, we have a Christendom, a Christianity today that is so self-centered. All we can think about is me, me, me, mine.

Rejecting Self-Centered Prosperity Christianity

As a matter of fact, the exporting of the prosperity gospel from the United States of America, the shallow, plastic, self-centered to the extent it is satanic. That is, Christ and God and the Bible is for you to become healthy, wealthy and wonderful.

And faith you must use to get what you want. Where do you find that in the Bible? So we have a Christianity that lives there in the town, in the city, in a village. They live in the bubble of their own creation, their world of me, mine, but never their heart break for the lost and suffering multitudes around them.

Take for example, the latest statistics you read about India, the slum dwellers, the thousands of leper colonies, the five million people live in the slums of Bombay. You know, the population of Canada is 26 some million people, something like that.

Can you imagine, you can take the slums of Calcutta and Bombay, you get the entire nation of Canada. Have you ever been to one of the slums of Bombay? I have. Because the stench is so unbearable, you feel like throwing up.

I had to close my nose and walk through the slums because I couldn't take it. Who lives there? Rats? Snakes? Dogs? No, human beings, people. And God made these people in his own image. This is what we sometimes forget.

Christ’s Concern for the Repentant Criminal

Even Christ dying on the cross, in the very last of the last seconds of his life, he is looking to the left, he is looking to the right, he is looking to the left, he is looking to the right, somehow to see if any sign of repentance from these criminals.

It was appropriate, it was just for these two to be crucified in this manner. But not Jesus. In the midst of excruciating agony and pain, he is looking to see if he can save one more before he gives up his life.

And one says, Lord, remember me when you come in paradise. And the Lord said, today you will be with me. What a way to take the worst scoundrel, a murderer, a thief, a rapper, people shy away from that individual.

They are rather stoned to death. Can you imagine, the holy son of God, the creator of the universe says, I embrace you. Today you are going to be with me. How much he cares about the lost and the suffering and the needy.

Becoming a Blessing to Others

So when you read a passage like this, it must make us to ask a question. Do I care about the people around me that are hungry, that are suffering? Those beggars, those lepers, those precious children.

Not one, not two, but millions. They are slaves to matchbox making factories. They are slaves to the owners who make those firecrackers. They never experienced childhood. They do not know what it means to be a child.

You see, if Christianity is for me, to make me a better person, that is the end of it. Oh, my friends, we have missed it. The call of God when he gave to Abraham, who became the father of faith, which some of the dear friends now use his name.

We are the children of Abraham. Therefore, we can claim to be rich and mighty. How foolish. Look about Abraham. When God said, leave your father, mother, everything. Go to a place, I will show you. He was giving up all the riches, all the glory and everything he had in the ancient Ur or the Chaldeans.

He left all. And then he said, yeah, God blessed him. Everywhere he went, truly he did. But what did God say to him? I will bless you and make you a blessing to others. We are blessed so that we can represent our loving heavenly father.

We can represent the caring Christ to give, to help, to walk, to touch, to heal. And that is the call. I want to ask you a simple question. 24 hours a day you have. How much of the time you think about yourself and your father, your mother or your family, your children?

How much of the time you think about someone else in the neighborhood, in the slum or in that village or people who work with you? How much time you pray? All that time of prayer. How much time do you pray and cry and weep for those around you that do not know about Jesus?

They have no hope. They have no understanding. Do you have a list of things that you pray for? Out of that, how many of those lists, those lines, those names, those requests represent somebody else? Or is it all about you?

Self-Denial and the Cost of Discipleship

And the disciples must learn. This is the reason why Jesus said, unless you love me more than father, mother, son and daughter. He didn't stop there. He didn't stop there. And your own life, you cannot be my disciple.

It is not simply talking about self-denial. A lot of people out there, incredible examples of self-denial. They don't have to be Christians necessarily. They give up their house, their clothes, their money and their families and all that.

I mean, they give up all this stuff. They walk away from all these things. They don't care. But Christ is calling for something else. He is calling for denying ourselves. It is me seeing myself not as the most important person, but rather I see I am only a means, a vessel to bless others.

I don't hold myself, my reputation, my what I want as supreme importance. But somebody else.

Considering Others Above Ourselves

Well, do nothing, it says, out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. But in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Yes, our attitude should be that of Jesus. Friends, this has been the road to reality as we have been developing this desire to know Jesus and to share his love and care for others. K .P. Johannan is the founder and director of Gospel for Asia.

Now, there are children in Asia with very little hope and very little knowledge of God's love for them. These children are among the most poor and needy in all Asia. They go hungry every day. They not only have physical needs, but spiritual needs as well.

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Or you can call us, if that's easier, on 01904 -643 -233. That's 01904 -643 -233. Encouraging us to have a passion for Jesus and compassion for the lost and needy. This has been The Road to Reality with K .P. Johannan, a ministry brought to you by Gospel for Asia.

I'm Richard Bews, ending this program's call to be inspired by Jesus Christ and his contagious love for our staggering and dying world.