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And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds gathered to him, and again, as was his custom, he taught them.
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And Pharisees came up, and in order to test him, asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
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He answered them, What does Moses command you? They said, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.
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Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
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But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
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So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.
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And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.
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And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them.
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And the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them,
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Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
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Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.
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And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him,
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Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him,
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Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments.
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Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud.
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Honor your father and mother. And he said to him, Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.
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And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, You lack one thing.
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Go, sell all that you have, and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
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And come, follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.
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And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.
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It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
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And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, Then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said,
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With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.
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Peter began to say to him, See, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said,
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Truly I say to you, There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.
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But many who are first will be last and the last first. And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking ahead of them.
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And they were amazed and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying,
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See, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the
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Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him.
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And after three days he will rise. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him,
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Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them,
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What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.
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Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which
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I am baptized? And they said to him, We are able. And Jesus said to them,
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The cup that I drink you will drink and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized.
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But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those to whom it has been prepared.
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And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to himself and said to them,
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You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.
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But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
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For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
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And they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd,
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Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was
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Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
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And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.
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And Jesus stopped and said, Call him. And they called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up, he is calling you.
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And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you?
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The blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you well.
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And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Let's pray.
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Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the clarity of this text. And Lord, we thank you for the words that Christ spoke, that only those who come to you as children will receive the kingdom of God.
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And Lord, we know elsewhere in the scriptures that those who fear you, those who come to you with a pure heart or a whole heart, these are who you listen to.
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And we pray, Lord, that we would demonstrate these fruits in our lives by the power of your spirit, that we would come to you as children in faith, looking to your word, that we would come to you in reverential fear, that we would come to you with our whole hearts, our hearts that are undivided.
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We pray, Lord, that we would look to Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith. And Lord, as we behold you in the text this morning, as we listen to the scripture that is read and the sermon that is preached, we pray,
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Lord, that you would teach us something about who you are. Teach us something about ourselves and our sin and what we need to do in order to best please you.
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Lord, we just pray that in the power of your spirit, we would be attentive to what is preached this morning and that you would give us wisdom in how we can best apply it and live it out in our day.
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Lord, thank you for this time together. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's turn in our
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Bibles to John chapter 6. We're finally out of John 5 and entering this chapter 6, and I think we'll be here a while,
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I suspect. Here we have the fourth sign that is recorded by John in his gospel, that of the feeding of the 5 ,000.
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And so we want to address today the first 14 verses of John chapter 6, and I'm reading from the
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New King James Version. After these things, Jesus went over the
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Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And then a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs, which he performed on those who were diseased.
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And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. Now the
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Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
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But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
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Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.
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Now one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?
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And Jesus said, Make the people sit down. And now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
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And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down, and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.
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So when they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.
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And therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.
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And those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.
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In our study of John's Gospel, we have been addressing both the signs and the discourses of Jesus.
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There are seven signs that John records in his Gospel, and each sign gives way or sets the stage for a prolonged discourse of Jesus.
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And so here we have the fourth sign, the feeding of the five thousand, and we'll have the rather lengthy discourse of Jesus, the fourth discourse later on in the chapter that we'll begin to address probably two weeks from today,
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Lord willing. Of course, the feeding of the five thousand is one of the most familiar miracle accounts in the
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Gospels. And one reason for this familiarity is that it is the only miracle performed by the
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Lord Jesus that's recorded by all four Gospel writers, excepting for the miracle of the resurrection, of course, of Jesus himself.
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Commonly, the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke cover the same miracles.
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And so many of the miracles have three accounts of them in those three
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Gospels. But John's Gospel is quite distinct from the synoptics and records different miracles of Jesus, except for this one, this feeding of the five thousand.
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However, even though there are four accounts of this miracle, there are different emphases that are found in the various accounts.
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And then spiritual mind might put forth the challenge, why the needless repetition of four accounts and why the divergent details of this one miracle of the feeding of the five thousand?
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Well, we, of course, as Christians, understand that the blessed Holy Spirit moved upon these
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Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, to record each event in a way to communicate, to instruct and inform the people of God about spiritual truth.
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And even though the miracle of feeding the five thousand is found in all four
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Gospels, there's a different emphasis in each of the Gospels regarding this miracle.
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In Matthew's account, for example, there are several points of emphasis. First, in Matthew's Gospel, the
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Lord Jesus is set forth as an example to his disciples in that he fled persecution in order to teach the word of God to others.
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That's the underlying theme in Matthew's account of feeding the five thousand.
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And then later, Jesus would tell his disciples of their need to flee persecution in order to take the
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Gospel to the Gentile world. And so basically, he illustrated before them, demonstrated before them, what they would do as well in their
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Gospel mission. But in addition, Matthew presents the crowds as following Jesus and his disciples among them.
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And he does this to emphasize the matter of discipleship. That's one of the themes, major themes of Matthew's Gospel.
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But in addition, the account in Matthew is designed to lead his disciples to greater faith in him, to provide for their needs and to enable them to minister to others as his apostles.
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And so it was a confirming miracle to them. Just as he provided on this occasion, he'll provide for them in whatever they might face in the future.
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There's a different emphasis in Mark's Gospel, however. Mark's account emphasizes
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Jesus' compassion on the multitudes as a flock without a shepherd.
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And so Jesus feeding the five thousand in Mark's Gospel really sets forth
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Jesus as a fulfillment of what the Old Testament prophets declared would characterize the coming
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Messiah. As one wrote, Jesus does what God promised to do in Ezekiel 34.
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I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. I will feed them in good pasture.
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And so Jesus acts as the shepherd of God's people like Moses and even God himself.
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And that seems to be the major idea or theme of Mark's Gospel in his account of this feeding of the five thousand.
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What of Luke's Gospel? Well, the record of Jesus feeding the five thousand in Luke's Gospel serves to show that the
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Lord was able to help his disciples do what they were otherwise incapable of doing.
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As one wrote, at the end of the day the twelve would have sent the crowds away to provide for their own food and lodging.
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They were not aware that they had any resources of their own with which to feed them. But Jesus was able to take their limited and totally inadequate resources and give them back to them in such a way that they were able to feed the crowds and have enough to spare.
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And thus the narrative in its Lukean form depicts the inadequacy of the disciples in contrast to the ability of Jesus to help the crowds.
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And with this help the disciples could do what otherwise they could not do. And so again it was like a training session for their future ministry.
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What is the emphasis of John's Gospel that we have before us in these first fourteen verses of John chapter six?
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Well John's Gospel uses the miracle to set forth the Lord Jesus as the fulfillment of the typology of the
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Old Testament. In other words he is the anti -type of Old Testament types,
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Old Testament events and pictures. The typology of the Old Testament of Moses providing bread from heaven for the
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Israelites. And here Jesus is providing bread for these five thousand.
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And so the parallel is there and this of course is more fully seen as we get into the discourse of Jesus later in John chapter six.
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And so the conclusion of those who witnessed the miracle was this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world and they are referring to the promised prophet that Moses declared would come.
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And so the miracle serves as a sign providing the setting for Jesus to teach what's recorded later in John six.
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And in that extended fourth discourse that we will be considering later we see his deity and pre -existence set forth.
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The doctrines of election are clearly set forth by Jesus in the sixth chapter.
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The factual calling of God unto salvation, perseverance of the saints and the promise of the future resurrection of his people.
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It's a very rich passage this fourth discourse. I have a book in my library written by a man named
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Kenneth Good who was a Baptist, Evangelical Baptist in the mid -twentieth century.
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And he wrote a book on the doctrines of grace, Calvinism. And it was all based on John six alone.
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All five points of the doctrines of grace are set forth in John six in the discourse of Jesus.
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They are stated here in this block paragraph we read. But we'll see it more clearly as we get into that discourse.
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And although all four gospels record this miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand, there are details in John's gospel that are unique and not to be found in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
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Here's a setting forth of some of these distinctives again in this block quote. In this account we see that the reason for the multitude's presence was the attraction of the signs that Jesus wrought.
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They followed him because of the signs they saw and that he was healing those with disease.
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John also records Philip's perplexity as to the feeding of the great crowd. That is not found in Matthew, Mark or Luke.
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And his little piece of mental arithmetic which showed so clearly the impossibility of a solution out of the disciples own resources.
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Two hundred denarii of bread wouldn't feed even this multitude giving them a little bit each.
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And he tells us that it was Andrew who brought the boy forward. It is in this gospel that we read of the proximity of the
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Passover, in other words the exact location, the bread as barley loaves, and of the reason for gathering up the fragments, and of the effect on the people in general.
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Clearly John has quite a lot of information not derived from the Synoptists.
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That would be Matthew, Mark and Luke. Characteristically John describes what happened as a sign.
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The effect of the sign is to make some people think of Jesus as a prophet and some wish to make a king out of him.
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And so there is uniqueness in this setting forth of this miracle here in John's gospel.
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Edward Clank he is a professor at Biola in Southern California. He wrote quite a good commentary on John's gospel.
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I'm enjoying it. And he sought to set forth the main idea of this episode and the role that it serves within the larger gospel story, the narrative story of John's gospel.
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And so here is his main understanding of the idea of the first 15 verses of John chapter 6.
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When humanity did not know for what it was hungry, Jesus came into the world becoming the host in a strange land of darkness and providing true food that satisfies every desire.
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The church must recognize Jesus as he is, not as it wants him to be, allowing the prophet and the king to be what he also came to be, the one who serves.
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Now, I don't know if you recognize what Clank was doing, but he was ultimately taking us out of the historic situation and showing us how this served in instructing
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Christians to whom the gospel was addressed, Gentile Christians later on in the first century.
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It's quite intuitive on his part. Well, we'll next consider the details of the account in verses 1, not through 15, we'll leave that for next week, but 14.
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And as we do so, we'll consider some of the implications and the applications that the Holy Spirit has set before us.
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So let's consider the meaning of the details. We first read of the setting of this event in verse 1.
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After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
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And so the setting is in the region of Galilee that is really on the east side of the
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Sea of Galilee. Whenever the region of Galilee is mentioned, the Sea of Galilee, it's always from a
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Jewish perspective, which was mainly on the west side. They traveled across the sea, they're on the east side.
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We of course are most familiar with this called the Sea of Galilee, but there are several names in scripture that are attributed to this large freshwater lake.
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And so the Sea of Galilee is also called the Lake of Gennesaret. That's Luke's term,
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Luke 5 .1. So it was as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets.
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That's the only place in the Bible where the Lake of Gennesaret is named.
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There are two other places where the land of Gennesaret is identified, but it's the only place where the
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Lake of Gennesaret is mentioned. And then in our text we have the reference to the
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Sea of Tiberius rather than the Sea of Galilee. He actually mentions them both. And the
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Sea of Tiberius was actually the official name, became the official Roman name of the lake beginning about A .D.
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20. And of course we're talking here about around A .D. 30 when this event took place.
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Herod Antipas, the regional ruler under Lord, appointed by Rome, named the lake in honor of Emperor Tiberius of Rome.
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There was also a town on the shore, the southwest shore of Galilee, named
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Tiberius as well, but he named in honor of Caesar the lake after Tiberius.
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Among the Jews during our Lord's earthly ministry it would of course have been known only as the Sea of Galilee.
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Well, John probably threw in this detail, the Sea of Tiberius. He's writing 60 years after the fact because he was writing to a
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Gentile audience and they wouldn't have necessarily known about the Sea of Galilee, but they would have known about the
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Sea of Tiberius. And so they made reference to this Roman name.
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We read in verse 2 that Jesus was not alone as he crossed the sea, but large crowds were following Jesus because of the signs they witnessed of him.
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We read a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased.
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I suppose some followed him in boats, probably most of them followed him on the shoreline, trying to keep him in view perhaps as he was in the boat traveling across the northern end of the sea.
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Interestingly, in verse 2, the two Greek verbs that are used there are what's called in the imperfect tense.
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When in Greek, oftentimes this imperfect tense is used to emphasize a continuous action.
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And so that's what John is penning here actually. He's saying that this great multitude were continually following him.
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And it's also because he was continually performing signs before them.
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And so the tense is pretty significant here in verse 2. And so as we've been following the course of John's gospel, we've been emphasizing most
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Jesus down in Judea, then he kind of goes up to Galilee, then back to Judea. It seems like he hadn't spent a great deal of time in Galilee.
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But actually this verse indicates that the knowledge of him and they were seeing all kinds of signs done by him, that the
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Lord had been in this region quite extensively and had been ministering for quite a length of time and it resulted in all these people continually following him.
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John described the miracles Jesus performed as signs that the people followed Jesus because of them.
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And we will see, however, later in the chapter that the people were sadly seeking
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Jesus not because these miracles directed them and identified them to the person of Jesus.
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In other words, they really weren't looking to them as signs that point beyond the miracles to the person of Jesus but they were looking to the signs themselves, the miracles themselves.
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In other words, it would be like people today only going to church for what they could get out of it rather than coming to truly worship the
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Lord. That's basically what they were doing. It was not because they believed in him to which the signs pointed, rather they were looking to the miracles themselves, the signs themselves, not to him to whom they pointed.
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And by the way, here John refers to many miracles as signs, but in John's Gospel he singles out seven in particular to set the stage for seven discourses, but there were many more miracles, many more signs than just the seven.
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We read that after Jesus and his disciples had crossed the sea, they came to or went up on a mountain.
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So verse 3 reads, And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.
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Interestingly, the text specifically declares that Jesus went up on the mountain, not just a mountain.
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There is no Greek indefinite article, that's the word a or an.
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There certainly is a Greek definite article which is translated by the word the, and when the definite article is included it's there for a reason.
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It's definite, it points to something particular, unique, special about this mountain.
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In other words, the presence of the definite article may be a suggestion that this is a rather symbolic action,
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Jesus going up onto this mountain. And so some suggest that maybe the narrator of John's gospel is setting forth the scene intending to echo the scene of Mount Sinai with Moses going up on the mountain.
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And although there are, we will see some clear parallels with Moses and Sinai, I think frankly it's a little bit of a stretch here to place that kind of meaning upon this noun because of the definite article.
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Leon Morris kind of took issue with this view. The place of these happenings is defined as the mountain.
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This expression occurs several times in the gospels and raises the question whether there was a particular mountain which
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Jesus and his immediate followers familiarly knew as the mountain. If so, we have no means of identifying it.
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In any case, the expression may mean no more than the hill country, and that's probably right.
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There are actually no big mountains over there on that side, at least for some distance. And then
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D .A. Carson wrote of this articular construction, in other words, a noun with an article, a noun with a definite article, the word the.
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The Greek toros, that's the Greek word for mountain, does not necessarily refer to a particular mountain or hillside, but may simply mean the hill country or the high ground, referred to the area east of the lake well known today as the
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Golan Heights. Interestingly, Mark's solitary place is not in conflict with this description, but is presupposed by it.
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Jesus sat down with his disciples, apparently intending to be alone with them, as Mark makes clear, and only then observes a great crowd closing in on him.
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And so it's probably more reading into the text than out of it that John meant that this mountain was a symbol of Mount Sinai that Jesus ascended with his disciples.
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And I, by the way, I think this is a good example of the maxim, a little knowledge of Greek is a dangerous thing, or it can easily lead some to make unsubstantiated claims.
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And I might just add this word, in general I discovered over the years, unless a man is really competent in these matters, when
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I hear on the radio or television, the Greek says or the Hebrew says, I give it no credibility until I check it out personally.
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And I fear that a lot of times a speaker can, it's almost like a spiritual hammer where they come down upon their hearers.
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The Greek says, the Hebrew says, how do any of us respond to that? You know, it almost gives an undue authority to the person and I don't think it's necessarily healthy.
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That's why I don't often frankly refer to things obscure in that way. Now interestingly, we read a detail in the next verse, it seems that a casual reading to have been inserted for no particular reason.
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It's just kind of thrown in here, it seems at first glance. Verse 4 reads, now the Passover, a feast of the
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Jews was near. Of course, that would have primarily taken place down in Jerusalem, although people all over observed it.
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Now, it's true that in John's Gospel, various themes and feasts are emphasized.
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And as one wrote, here we have a number of Johannine or John's characteristics and interest in feasts and time notes and the reference to the
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Jews. But there may be something more suggested by this little detail than we might first think.
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We might read over that rather quickly and not see the significance. There is a rather obscure commentator,
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I happened to find his book online when we started this study last spring,
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I think it was. Because I found that so many people were quoting him and yet I had to publish his book back in the 40s and I was able to get a copy and he wrote concerning this.
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Excited by the power of Jesus to heal the sick, a large crowd of Galileans followed him into the deserted and mountainous district east of the
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Sea of Tiberias. What took place there was already familiar to the readers of the Gospel. But the evangelist, that would have been
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John, the Gospel writer, does not merely repeat the story in its well -known form. He adds that when
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Jesus fed the multitude, the Passover was at hand. And so at the very time the priests were preparing to kill the lambs and the
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Jews were assembling their families to eat unleavened bread and the flesh of an unblemished lamb to commemorate their past deliverance from Egypt, to acknowledge the power and the mercies of God and to be reminded of their peculiarity as his chosen people.
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The Passover was the most characteristic feast of the Jews because though primarily the commemoration of a past event, it also provided the ground of hope for a present deliverance and for the arrival of a future deliverer,
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I believe. Men thought of the present prophet like unto Moses and the Messiah who would be their king.
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It was therefore not irrelevant, or at least it did not seem to the evangelist to be so, that Jesus should choose this occasion when the
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Jews were seeking to kill him, to gather his disciples about him and to feed the people with bread, or that afterwards in the synagogue of Capernaum he should proclaim himself to be the living bread and finally offer his flesh that men might live and not die.
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The movement from the miracle, this fourth miracle, to the discourse, that would be the fourth discourse, from Moses to Jesus and above all from bread to flesh is almost unintelligible unless the reference in verse 4 to the
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Passover picks up, and then he quotes several verses as well, and he argues that this verse, the
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Passover at hand, governs the whole narrative. It gives it a historical and spiritual context.
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In other words, John's reference to the Passover does help link with Moses, Jesus with Moses, and the
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Lord Jesus is a true Passover. The Lord himself is the true bread that feeds the
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Lord's people rather than the manna and the wilderness that Moses gave them. And so what's being suggested throughout is that Jesus Christ is the full realization of the hope of the
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Jewish people that they had held through history. And so that declaration of the
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Passover at hand is quite significant and gives a context to this entire event.
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What we then read in verses 5 and 6, then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
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But this he said to test him, for he himself, that is Jesus himself, knew what he, Jesus, was going to do.
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But he used this occasion to test Philip. Jesus was concerned for the physical well -being of these many people that followed him.
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He felt it was his responsibility to feed them, even though their resources were quite limited.
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And so he asked Philip about available resources. John included the detail that Jesus knew what he would do.
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This miracle was for the benefit of the multitude present, but also more specifically and directly for the benefit of his disciples.
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He was teaching them that if they would desire and be willing to care for others, the Lord would see to it they had the means to do so.
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And I think that's an important lesson. The Lord has the ability to provide for his people when it's their intention to provide for others.
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Paul would give forth this principle to the church at Corinth with view to their collection for poor believers in far -off
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Judea. Paul wrote of the Lord's ability to give them money, basically, so they could give to the needy people.
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But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
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Sowing here is to give to people in need and to the Lord's cause.
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He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or necessity for God loves a cheerful giver.
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And then he makes this statement in verse 8. God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
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In other words, the Lord can enable you to give to others in their need.
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He's able to send money to you that you may not currently have when he burdens you for some concern or need.
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And then he quotes the Old Testament. As it's written, he has dispersed abroad, he's given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.
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Now may he who supplies seed to the sower, bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality which causes thanksgiving through us to God.
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Oftentimes God will greatly bless his people because he intends them to bless others.
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And we should never think that somehow the Lord gives us so that we can hoard it and just use it for our own purpose that's not good.
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And I think the Lord's blessing our own church family in this manner is quite evident through this past year. And I wonder if it's not, at least in part do, and I'm only guessing here, because of our faithful missions giving.
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I mean the Lord is incredible. At the end of the year Jane started figuring out the total mission giving and if you throw in the radio ministry, last year this little church gave $83 ,000 to mission.
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That's significant for a group like us. I don't know how it happened other than the Lord provided.
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And so the Lord is able to make all grace abound toward us that we had all sufficiency and all things to give in abundance to his good work.
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And we should thank God for that and believe God thank him for doing it in the past and believe that he'll do it in the future.
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And I think that's how we should live not only as disciples but as a church.
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Notice however the attitude our Lord had toward these people in general. Jesus believed that it was his responsibility and the disciples opportunity to feed this large number of people even though they didn't have the means.
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Jesus had genuine sympathy and concern for these many people. And Matthew's account is very clear to state
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Jesus' concern on this occasion. In Matthew 14 the parallel account when
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Jesus heard it he departed from there by boat to a deserted place by himself and when the multitudes heard it they followed him on foot from the cities and when
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Jesus went out he saw a great multitude and he was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick.
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And when it was evening his disciples came to him saying this is a deserted place the hour is already late send the multitudes away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.
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But Jesus said to them they don't need to go away you give them something to eat. He cared for the multitudes and I think this is important for us to understand.
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Now we're reformed in our understanding of the scriptures and one of the truths of scripture we recognize and affirm is the unique special covenant of love that God has for his chosen people.
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The Bible makes this very clear. God calls his people my people. He speaks of his people in endearing terms his sheep, his bride, the apple of his eye, numerous other terms throughout all of the
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Bible. God repeatedly refers to his people as his beloved.
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He doesn't refer to those outside of Christ as his beloved. God has a special everlasting eternal covenantal love for them because of their union in his son.
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Because he loves his son with an infinite love he loves those who are in his union with his son and that's why
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God loves us with a special love. Not because we're more lovely, certainly that's not the case. But God loves his people with an everlasting love.
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However, although God loves his people uniquely and specially we affirm that God has compassion for many who are not numbered among his chosen people.
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He is loving toward many people that he does not love covenantally. They're not in Christ.
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Because the nature of God is love. Not because they're lovely, but because God is loving. He loves his own people because they are rendered lovely in Christ but he is loving to sinners that are unlovely because God is loving by nature.
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Remember how God appealed to Jonah when Jonah was disappointed God spared Nineveh, that Gentile city.
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Jonah got depressed and God appealed, should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120 ,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left all so much cattle.
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Sadly, often times we're impatient even hard hearted to those of the world whom we perceive to hold values contrary to the word of God, whose morality conflicts with our own.
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And we not only have little pity and patience toward them, but sometimes we have attitudes and opinions of them that are wholly incompatible with the
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Christian faith. We ought to be concerned about people and their souls. Sometimes we may degenerate to the spirit of the sons of thunder.
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We read of them in Luke 9. These were two apostles. Came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.
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He sent messengers, his apostles, before his face. And as they went they entered a village of the
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Samaritans to prepare for him, but they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.
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They were anti -Jew, he was going to Jerusalem, they didn't want any part of Jesus. So when his disciples
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James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?
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But he turned and rebuked them, said, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of, for the
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Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. These two disciples, two brothers, thought that these unbelieving, not, shouldn't be
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Jews, should be Samaritans, were undeserving of the utmost punishment due to their sin of rejecting
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Jesus. They desired that justice would be rendered to them then and there, but they didn't know what manner of spirit they had.
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When we desire that God bring his judgment on others who may be deserving of his punishment, when we fail to have concern or compassion on others, and I'm talking about non -Christians, we're not thinking in Christian ways.
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We are not thinking spiritually. We're not aware of the spirit that is characterizing us.
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We should be praying, Lord, please have mercy on them, that they do not receive from you what they deserve, but that you would make them the recipient of your mercy, not the object of your wrath.
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We should be more like Stephen, rather than like Jonah. Our Lord had compassion on the multitude, and we ought to have compassion upon the multitudes of people who are lost in their sins, who are having difficulty in their lives, and who may need and profit from our assistance.
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And here we see in John 6, our Lord desired to feed this large gathering of followers, and illustrates the kind of spirit and attitude that we ought to have.
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And you know, we're in a social culture and political climate, you know, where the lines are pretty clearly drawn, them and us, in so many different ways.
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And there are a lot of non -Christians that may be in a so -called our political camp or cultural camp.
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But the way they're acting and responding to those on the other side is not what we want to be characterized by.
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You know, we ought to think as spiritual people and Christian people, and have concern and compassion on those that are in sin, just as the
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Lord showed compassion upon us. Now, John's Gospel records the beginning of this miracle to be a test that Jesus posed directly to Philip.
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Again, we read in verses 5 and 6, Jesus lifted up his eyes, seeing a great multitude coming toward him.
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He said to Philip, Where? Where? We shall buy bread that these may eat. But this he said to test him, for he,
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Jesus himself, knew what he would do. And so the Lord was testing Philip. Why Philip? Well, because Philip was from Bethsaida, and Bethsaida was very close nearby.
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If anybody knew where they could get food for this occasion, it would be Philip. He chose to test
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Philip. By the way, this is one way that you may train and develop another into a more faithful and informed disciple of Jesus Christ.
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Look what Jesus does here in this instance. You pose a situation to him and call for his explanation or a solution to the matter.
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It moves him to think about matters carefully. I imagine Philip immediately began to think in these ways.
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It leads him to determine precisely what his responsibilities are before God in a given situation.
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And it causes him to have to think biblically. What would the Lord have me do?
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What can I do with this challenge or opportunity before me? Or better, what can I believe
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God can do using me in this matter? He was challenging
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Philip and stretching him, as it were. This year
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I'm reading through the Spurgeon Study Bible. It was published last year with the new Christian Standard version.
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I love the Spurgeon notes. I was reading Spurgeon's comments on our Lord healing two blind men in Matthew's Gospel.
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And when they came into the house where Jesus was, Jesus asked them, Do you believe I can do this? And basically
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Jesus was asking Philip, Do you believe that I can do this? Feed this 5 ,000? Now here's
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Spurgeon's note on that text of these two blind men. When he entered the house, the blind men approached him.
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Jesus said to them, Do you believe I can do this? True faith believes that Jesus Christ can do this.
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It believes, of course, that he is able to do 20 ,000 other things, but it believes especially that he can do this.
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To forgive this sin of which I am so deeply conscious. To remove this trial with which
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I am now so sorely afflicted. To sustain me under this temptation which so fiercely assails me.
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To strengthen men to accomplish this duty which so clearly is before me. As each special case arises, faith will exercise itself upon that particular thing and believe that Christ can do this.
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There's an application for you. Do you have some issue, some problem in life that you don't have the resource to address this?
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You know, Jesus, you know, asks you, Do you believe I can do this?
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We are to exercise faith in these matters, faith in him. He can do far more than what we are able to do.
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Well, before Philip, this situation arose which was, humanly speaking, a near impossibility to meet.
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Jesus tested Philip, essentially asking him, Do you believe I can do this? And so it is.
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The Lord brings us into situations, particularly when we desire to be true, devoted disciples, as Philip.
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And he tests us. The Lord, of course, does not tempt us. The devil tempts us.
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But the Lord may use the devil tempting us to test us. He said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
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But in this testing of Philip, the purpose, again, was really not to discover. Jesus was not attempting to discover what
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Philip would do. Jesus was tempting Philip to discover what Philip would do. He already knew that he was going to feed the multitude.
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Again, why did our Lord single out Philip? Perhaps because Philip was from the nearby town of Bethsaida. If there were any among his disciples who would know how to produce food for this large group of people, it would be
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Philip. But Philip didn't fare well in this test. However, I suspect he came out stronger for it, didn't he?
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He probably came out of this a little more humble, which is always an improvement. In verse 7, we read
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Philip's response to our Lord's question. Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have even a little.
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Of course, a denarius was the average day wage of a common laborer. You could have a common laborer go out for 200 days and his salary would not be able to purchase enough bread for so many for each one to have even a little.
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Humanly speaking, Jesus and his disciples did not have the resources available.
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Matthew Henry wrote of Philip's struggle, See the weakness of Philip's faith, that in this strait, as if the master of the family had been an ordinary person, he looked for supply only in an ordinary way.
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Christ might now have said to him, as he did afterwards, Have I been so long time with you, yet hast thou not known me,
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Philip? For as God to Moses in a like case is the Lord's hand waxen short, too short to save, are we at thus to distrust
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God's power when visible and ordinary means fail, that is, to trust him no further than we can see him?
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I hope we understand that our Christian life is to be one in which we are exercising faith for the
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Lord to do things that are beyond our capability and beyond our resources. We shouldn't be thinking at things in a human way, but we tend to be as the same mind as Philip.
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Well, then another disciple spoke up, this being Andrew, verses 8 and 9. One of his disciples,
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Andrew, Simon's Peter's brother, said to him, There's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?
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Interestingly, Andrew was also from the same town as Philip, Bethsaida, nearby. Did Andrew seem to have a hint of what might be done with these five loaves and two fish?
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I think not. He's probably asserting what they all thought, they didn't have enough.
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I read one commentator however, Andrew should be commended though, he didn't hide these barley loaves and fish for themselves, they were willing to give it, or distribute it to the crowd, and I think that was a good point.
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A principle may be found here, even when our resources are meager, we should not withhold from blessing others what little we may have.
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The Lord is able to multiply things. Andrew knew he didn't have much, but what little he did have, he was willing to give it away for the benefit of others.
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And it's again, a spiritual law, it's a law in the spiritual realm, if you care for others, then the
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Lord himself will take care of you. You know, the scriptures say, he who has a generous eye will be blessed for he gives of his bread to the poor.
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Proverbs 19, whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, he will repay him for his deed.
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The old adage, you can't out give the Lord, is a truism. Try it, you're not going to do it.
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The Lord blesses. On the other hand, failure to care for the poor when it's in your ability to do so, shuts you off from the blessing of God.
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Solomon wrote, there's a severe evil which I have seen under the sun, riches kept for the owner to his hurt.
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The whole capitalist system, of course, free enterprise was devised by John Calvin in Geneva.
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The Protestant work ethic, you know, where people were granted liberty to be able to work themselves and their labor and their own family to support themselves.
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But it was always with you so they would have the ability to help others within the community.
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And what we have now in our culture and society, where basically you get what you can and hoard it all for yourself and use and expend it on yourself, that is in conflict with how
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Christians have historically viewed free enterprise and capitalism. We don't have time, but we could go back to the story of the widow.
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Elijah went to the widow. Remember, she only had enough food to feed herself and her son.
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Elijah said, you go first and prepare a cake for me, and for yourself and your son, and the
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Lord will take care of you. And then, of course, you know, the Lord provided her throughout that entire period of famine in which her resources never were exhausted.
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Every time she went to the urn, there was more flour. Every time she needed whatever she needed, it was there.
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And that is really one of the keys in the spiritual realm for Christians, of course, is that when we give to others, the
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Lord promises to give back to us. And that's, you know, we are opposed to the health and wealth gospel and all that, but there are spiritual principles in effect that are true, and they're true for Christians or non -Christians.
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My dad was not a Christian all his life, but he was old school, you know, back when there was a Christian worldview.
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And he was a very generous man to others, but he would only do it in secret.
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I remember going to a Boy Scout camp. I was probably 11, 12 years old with my brother, and we used to have these lousy pup tents, you know, when it would rain, you'd run your finger on the canvas and it would start raining through.
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And this one year, we went out and we had all these brand new, nice, you know, 8 -10 men tents.
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Brand new. And what a treat. And through the week, at some point, the
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Scoutmaster came up and said, I really thank your dad for providing these new tents. I didn't know anything about it.
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And he said, yeah, he gave only one condition that I wouldn't tell anybody was him. I don't know why he told me.
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He just assumed I knew. I didn't know. But that was old school. And he was always honest in his business.
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I remember one occasion, if you don't mind me deviating a little bit, he had a grocery store in San Jose, and he bought two properties, and again, he's not a
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Christian. And he wanted to put stores there and expand the business. He couldn't get a a, couldn't get the county to zone it for business.
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He had these well over a year, couldn't do it. Well, my dad was in a bar one day, talking to a friend, and the friend says, oh,
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I can get zoning for you. He came back in a week. Cost you $2 ,000 each. I can get you zoning.
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But my dad knew it was going to be a bribe to a county official. My dad sold the properties.
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Out of principle, he just refused to do it. He refused to be dishonest because somehow he knew it would come back on you.
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There are spiritual laws that God has established. And sadly, they used to be in place in our society, but they're gone now.
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One more, if you don't mind me saying. My grandfather was an oil driller in the Mojave Desert for 36 years for Standard Oil.
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He retired. His boss came by the next day, and my grandfather's out in the shop.
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Holy, I don't see any Standard Oil tools here. 36 years of working for Standard Oil because there aren't any.
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He didn't steal any tools from Standard Oil. It wasn't something you did. So the next day he came over with a truckload of tools.
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Here's about 36 years' worth, fully equipped by my grandfather. That's old school.
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Those days are gone. We live in a different world where now it's okay as long as I don't get caught.
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And that's one reason we're just falling apart at the seams everywhere. I'm sorry.
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We have to get moving here. Verses 10 and 11, right in the middle of page 9, if you will.
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Jesus said, You make the people sit down. And now there was much grass in the plate. So the men sat down, number 5 ,000.
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Jesus took the loaves, and when he'd given thanks, he distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down, and likewise to the fish, as much as they wanted.
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The liberals try and explain away this miracle that the Lord put a guilt trip on them and they had this bread hidden, fish hidden, and they all brought it out.
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Obviously that is a denial of what is stated here. A great miracle took place.
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They had a sumptuous meal. Somewhat. But in another sense, it wasn't sumptuous.
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Apparently barley loaves were not that great. Galilee was the land of wheat. They had a lot of wheat bread.
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This was their staple. Barley loaves were really not desirable. In fact, the
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Jewish Talmud wrote barley was regarded as a coarse food, only fit for horses and donkeys.
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But that's all they had. So they had barley loaves and fish, and I imagine they were probably small dried fish but multiplied, but it was enough and they were all satisfied.
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And so Matthew Henry drew a parallel or application of this. It does not follow hence that we should tie ourselves to such coarse fare.
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In other words, you don't have to survive on gruel and water and place our religion in it, but somehow you're really spiritual if you live in this impoverished fashion.
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When God brings that which is finer in our hands, let's receive it and be thankful. But it does not follow therefore we must not be desirous of dainties, nor murmur if we are reduced to coarse fare, but be content and thankful and well reconciled to it.
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Barley bread is what Christ had and better than what we deserve. And that's true.
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They had enough and to spare. And then verses 12 and 13, when they were filled.
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So when they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost. And they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.
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They were all filled. Here is something practical and wise. You don't just go through life depending on Jesus to multiply the bread every day.
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Gather up. We're going to be hungry tomorrow. And we have it now. And so make provision.
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And plan that. Well their final conclusion when they saw it taking place, they declared truly this is the prophet who is to come into the world.
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And there we have the definite article again. The prophet. Not just a prophet. The prophet. In fact in the
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New King James it's capitalized I think. A specific prophet. This was the prophet who was the
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Messiah. Jesus Christ is prophet, priest, and king. And this miracle confirmed to them.
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Everybody recognize he's the prophet. He's the one that Moses said would come. We are supposed to give heed to him.
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And those who fail or refuse to hear him and obey him are going to be cut off from the people of Israel.
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Israel continued into the New Testament age. The disciples, the apostles, the
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Jewish Christians were of Israel. All those who did not believe on Jesus were cut off from the people because they failed to heed that prophet that was to come.
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And yet in spite of this miracle and the blessings that these people received, we're going to see they were totally inadequate spiritually speaking.
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They received these physical blessings of food. But in reality they were not seeking
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Jesus for who he was. And we're going to see, again next week, probably the week after, the
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Lord rebukes them. You seek me basically so you can have your stomachs filled rather than seeking me for who
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I am. And again sadly, there is a philosophy of church ministry that basically let's build and shape our church so that the people come are going to receive or have their perceived needs filled.
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That's how you build a church today. Jesus could have built a church with 5 ,000 people. They wanted to make him king.
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And we open with 5 ,000 here at the opening of John chapter 6 who wanted to make him king.
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At the end of chapter 6 he only has his 12 disciples and they were being tempted to leave.
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He whittled down the crowd in John chapter 6 because he didn't want that kind of follower.
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He wanted true disciples who believed on him regardless of whether or not they received blessing from him.
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And so we're going to find that John 6 is quite a clarifying and probably a purifying passage with regard to our own perceptions and motivations in seeking the
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Lord. Thankfully the Lord commonly will use some real practical personal need to initially draw us onto himself but at some point we have to deny ourselves and seek him for who he is.
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Because that's true Christianity. May the Lord help us do so. Let's pray. Thank you
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Father for your word and we pray that you would help us to be true disciples of Jesus Christ.
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Help us our God to seek him and to follow him for who he is. He is our prophet, our priest, and our king.
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We believe on him and we submit to him. And as we leave this place help us to go forth as faithful disciples representing him.
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Help us our Lord to go forth and have compassion on those that are ignorant of him or even in defiance of him.
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We know you delight in mercy and we pray that we would be instruments of mercy to others.
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we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.