John 6

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0:00 It's a fun story. Just feeding the five thousand. And it's the gospel reading that we were assigned for this week. If you have one of these little march cards that goes through the text that we're reading for the week, it has an Exodus 16. It's all my read for the call to worship. We have New Testament and Galatians and our gospel, John chapter 6, 1-15.

0:30 I'm going to look at here, John chapter 6, 1-15. I'm not being silly. I did notice for the first time that I picked up leftover bread. They did not pick up leftover fish. So, I don't know if it was just cooked really well, or people made sure they got their protein and didn't want as many cards. But what's that? The fish wouldn't keep. That's true. The other thing that's interesting about this story is this miracle is in all four of the gospels,

1:08 which doesn't happen very often. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all record a story about Jesus feeding people from one lunch in the wilderness. Five loaves in the two pieces. So, you get the feeling that this story really made an impression. It was one that nobody forgot and everybody included. And it might be because there were so many people that saw it happen. If this story is circulating and Matthew, who was there and is retelling it,

1:45 then it stands to reason that many of the people who ate the food are still alive when it's being read. Isn't that interesting to think about? That when Matthew is circulating his story about this time that he spent with Jesus of Nazareth, and he includes the story of the feeding of 5,000, as it's passed around among the Jewish diaspora in Jerusalem and Samaria, around the area, people might be reading the story of Matthew's story of his time with Jesus and go,

2:22 oh my gosh, I was there for that. He killed my kid and then I ate the food and there was more bread than I could handle. So, I just left the extra on the ground. I didn't know they had 12 baskets left, that's amazing. And so, it's reasonable to me that this story is included in all four gospels because it involves so many people. That there would be a lot of collective memory about that day.

2:52 Let's look at it here in John. The other thing that's interesting, right in the first verse it says here, after this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, most of the context of this occurs. And I said maybe two weeks ago that these gospels are written in this Greek form, the Bios style, which these early first and second century Greek styles telling the story of people's life

3:24 are less interested in a comprehensive chronological accounting of facts. And more interested in aligning stories about a person's life in order to communicate some truth about them. It's not as though the stories are not true, the stories are true, but the author makes choices about how they are arranged and which stories to include in order to communicate something true about the person. And so Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are writing these Greek forms called Bios

3:54 in order to communicate a truth about Jesus of Nazareth. And it's a little bit nuanced and different for each of them, which is why they don't all include the same stories or even in the same order. But the reason that I bring that up is that it's interesting, in almost every occurrence, each of the four times when they talk about the story of the feeding of the 5,000, it starts with Jesus trying to get away from some folk, because he is tired. And so he goes off to the wilderness. And one, he's like, he's just crossed the Sea of Galilee to get away,

4:27 and they run around and meet him and march. And then John, he says it this way, after this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius. And a large crowd was following him, definitely a large crowd. 5,000 families, like, ruins the grass behind them when they're walking. Right? Like, I mean, that's a signal. That's like a herd of people.

4:59 And a large crowd was following him because they saw signs that he was doing, that he was doing on the sick, the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain and then they're sat down with his disciples. He got away to the wilderness, up onto the mountain, and the Passover is approaching, so he sits down with his disciples, and they're going to have his time together. It is worth noting that there are a couple of times in the life of Jesus where he has his big crowd.

5:35 Remember when he's going down into Jerusalem, we'll get to Palm Sunday in a couple of weeks, but he's got a big enough crowd that it takes notice. As he's moving, he heals Lazarus and comes down through Jericho, picks up Blind Bartimaeus, and goes into the triumphal entry where it's enough that it feels like a parade. At this place, he's got 5,000 families following behind him. Jesus is making a name for himself by this point in this story. He has the 12, and then around the 12, the Mary's, and there's a sort of a larger kind of cadre of people,

6:08 but then these people are really asking, you'll see at the end of the story, they want to make him a king. We don't always think about Jesus that way, so I just want to point it out. It's not like some pastoral theme where he's got a few people and he's feeding them. There's 5,000 families marching out into the wilderness to try and find him. I don't know what 5,000 families looks like even walking, really, but that's a mess of people.

6:38 And a large crowd was following because they saw the sign that he was doing a sickening. Now, a Passover feast of the Jews was at hand and lifting up his eyes, then seeing a large crowd was coming towards him. Oh, he's like, looks up and it's like, here's the 5,000 families. Oh. And Jesus said to Philip, hey, where are we to buy some bread so that these people may eat? He said this to tempt him for he himself knew what he would do.

7:11 John gives us that little insight. Don't know how he knew that. Maybe Jesus told him later. For 7, Philip answered him, Jesus man, 200 denier I would not buy enough bread for each of them to eat just a little. And one of the disciples, Andrew Simon Peters, brothers, said to him, hey, there's a boy here who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, but what are they for so many?

7:43 I wonder, Andrew is known for being the evangelist. He's the one that goes to get his brother Peter and look, I haven't met the one Jesus. Andrew seems to have this thing where he's quick to be a faith, like kind of a thing about him and he wants to bring other people along. So I wonder if he knew that the meal was too no avail. Wouldn't do anything. Why even bring it up? And so it seems almost like Andrew is willing to be in a position that Jesus may know something that he doesn't.

8:27 And right there is the beginning of faith. Jesus might know something that Andrew doesn't. And that's a hard one for us to take in. Like certainly Andrew knew there's no way you can feed 5,000 families on one little boy's lunch.

8:57 Also, how did the kid have lunch? Like certainly a mom packs that lunch for him. Right? Like, and was his mom not there? Like did she not pack lunch for herself as well, just for the kid? That of all those families who have got one little kid's lunch. I like to think that he came by himself and his mom stayed home because he had some sense. There's a boy here who has five barter loads and two fish, but what are they for so many?

9:34 And Jesus said, have the people sit down and now there was much grass in the place so the men sat down and about 5,000 in number. And Jesus took the loads and when he'd given things he distributed to them those who were seated. So also the fish as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill he told the disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. And so they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barter loads. Left by those who had been eaten.

10:04 See, just the load of the leftover. Okay. When the people saw the sign that he had done they said this is indeed the prophet who has to come into the world. Okay, what's interesting in John's account is that nobody tells Jesus to send everybody away. See that? He sent, let's see.

10:37 Lifting up his eyes he said to Philip, where do we buy bread for these people? And he said this is a testament for anybody who would do and Philip answered, we don't have enough money man. You can't do it. And one of the disciples Andrew Simon Peters brothers said to him, there's a boy here who has five loads and Jesus takes over from there. So they don't even have a reasonable answer. In a couple of the other accounts they're like, Jesus you've got to send these people away. Actually the disciples come to Jesus and a couple of the other accounts and say, hey it's getting to be dinner time. You've got to send these people away so they can eat man.

11:07 You've got to come up with a reasonable solution to solve this problem. Right? And this one Jesus jumps to the punch. He sees him coming and he says, hey Philip, what do you want to do with Philip? I've got no clue man. There's no way we have enough money to solve this problem. And Andrew's like, I don't have a clue either, but here's this little thing. Like this guy has five loads and two fishes, maybe we could eat, maybe he's thinking that. Right? And here's then the next part there, in a tough spot because Jesus prays for the five loads and two fishes and then gives it.

11:42 And I do think like two fish split between 12 people that fish in six parts goes out to each of the 12. You get a sixth of a fifth and he tells you to go pass it out. And that's an awkward moment for a minute. It's interesting that Jesus still makes the disciples go through this process. Certainly he could have formed a buffet line or he could have just kind of, I don't know, miraculously moved the food out to the people.

12:15 But he goes through this mechanism of making the disciples break off a piece of bread and give it to them. You want some more? He said to give them as much as they want and they just keep passing it out. And at some point I wonder, like when do they go? At some point the disciples go, they got to start to get giddy. Right? And then they just start throwing the bread. I mean, at some point you got to go, this is, I can't believe this and see if you can get ahead of it. You know?

12:45 You're passing out faster, faster, faster, faster. Fine. So what does it do to the disciples to experience the unexpected provision of God in that way? I think it's like, I think, I mean, of course, like later they forget it, you know? But I love that, I love to try and imagine the experience of that. And you can see why Jesus might make him go through that.

13:17 And the thing for me, I mean, there's a lot we could take from this story, you know? And I think that there's something in offering that food for Andrew. But the thing I want to think about is that idea that maybe Andrew recognizes that Jesus knew something that he didn't.

13:47 The Old Testament reading that they gave us for today is Exodus chapter 16. And if you want, you can look there, but I'm just going to tell you the Cliffs Notes version of it. They're like, they're out in Exodus. Remember God has miraculously delivered them from the strongest military power of the day. They've been placed for 200 years.

14:18 They lived in Egypt for 200 years before that. So they have 400 years of identity of being foreigners in a foreign land. And they have a vague notion that before they came into Egypt that they had a God of their own. And then that vague notion comes into the person of Moses who then defeats all the Egyptian gods, walks them out of Egypt. Actually, Egyptians start to come with them. They give them soil from their house. They give riches from Egypt and they leave.

14:48 And then they defeat Pharaoh's army. They walk across the Red Sea miraculously. They're on their way to Sinai. Before they even get to Mount Sinai to meet with God, to have God speak to them, shake the mountain and manifest presence come down into earth. Since it hasn't been since the time of the first ones in the Garden of Eden, they're already crabbing. Right? And they crab over and over again. And this in Exodus 16 is before the Ten Commandments are given.

15:19 So before Exodus 19, where they meet with God on Sinai. And in the 15th and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, like Jesus is out in the wilderness in Don's Gospel. And the people of Israel said to them, would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, where we sat by meat pots and ate bread to the full, where you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill the full assembly with hunger.

15:49 The whole people, some people debate how many, but over a million people wandering seemingly in a legitimate desert are worried about where they're going to get food. I just want you to see it's a reasonable posture to take. They're hungry. Where does food come from? But for the fact that they've seen the miraculous provision of God, they might, like Andrew, take the posture that maybe God knows something that I don't know.

16:23 India has got some idea that I don't have a grasp on yet. Maybe there's some notion that God has planned for me, that I don't approach griping nearly with my own solution. A reasonable raffle solution is we're out here in the desert and going to die. Egypt knows how to make food. Let's go back there. Maybe now that we've shown them what's up and we killed their army, we can develop some kind of reciprocal relationship.

16:53 We'll still make the things. They'll feed us. That's a reasonable strategy. But God knows something Israel doesn't. Something Israel doesn't. Sometimes I have this relationship with my children. We're about to go somewhere. And I have in my head that it's going to be good for them. Where we're going. I know that we're going on a place they're less excited about, so we'll stop and get an ice cream.

17:29 But I don't want to talk all about it because maybe I'll change my mind. I mean, I'm there behavior. Or maybe we won't go by the place or maybe it'll be closed. But I have in my mind a thing that she doesn't know. We're getting the car and then the children are crabbing and I wish they would just have patience and trust. They don't have a situation for them set aside. You could see God bringing his people through and he's just delivered them and he's taking them to Sinai.

18:03 Defining now to their people. The presence of God. A description of life with him. Setting them aside as a treasure and they're worried about the meat pots in Egypt. And he's like, you know, I know something you don't know. So they're in the wilderness in response to their griping. They'll probably planned anyway. He has meat fall from the sky. And in the morning. When I started to think about this story of a whole nation of people thriving in the desert.

18:35 Water coming from rocks. A bread falling in the morning. Meat in the evening. I thought, man, when you are the people of God, there are times where the rules of the world just don't apply. One little kid's lunch is enough for 5,000 families. When you're the people of God, sometimes the rules of the world just don't apply. Or God knows something more than you. And then it becomes like trying to figure out when do you make a choice for faith.

19:17 So I just wonder if the 5,000 families walking out of the desert, what they thought they were going to do about food. They didn't know what they were going to do about food. Like, they know what time it is. They know how far away from things they are. But you know what? Dude, this guy, Jesus is here. Did you see the things he's doing for the sick? Food can wait. Food can figure itself out.

19:50 There's some kind of like blind face that's good. If they had gone home and had food, when it was time to search it, they looked at the watch, they see where they are, they searched the reason we should probably head back. That would be fine. They wouldn't be excluded from being people of God. The death and resurrection of Christ would still count for them,

20:21 because they went home to have dinner instead of eating the five loaves and the two fishes. But bummer for them, they would have missed the miracle of Jesus. Right. Forever. They would hear the story, they'd be like, oh my gosh. I mean, I had a full meal at home, but... And there are times all through the story of Scripture where that happens, where you see people making choices. And sometimes it turns out amazing. The one I was thinking about, I heard this week in a little podcast I was listening to,

20:53 was when Chad Rakkine, 2nd, and Ben Ngo go down into the flames. Remember? When they never can ever give them a choice. Bow to me or burn in the fiery furnace. They're like, look, we think our God will deliver us from your fiery furnace, but even if he doesn't, we'd rather burn than bow to you. Right there, there's a choice. God knows something we don't know. Right? Chad Rakkine, a bed Ngo go, no. If I go in the fire first, I burn and die. But God knows something I don't know.

21:23 What comes after death? What comes through the fire? So they go down into the fire. Right? That's not like God knows something I don't know. I'm going to go with God on this one. Right? And it's clear. And the Egyptians stay and get the bread. The other one I was thinking about is, remember the story of Stephen, the first martyr in the church? Stephen is preaching all over Jerusalem and causing problems for the Jewish church,

21:54 so they pull him in from a trial and they go, hey, word is, you're disrupting things by preaching the way of Jesus. Is that true? Even knows these dudes are anger-y. And according to their words, they can stone him to death. And he has a choice. They can say, you know, it's not true. I haven't been preaching the gospel of Jesus. If not something I'd like to state my life on. I'm going to go back over here. At case, he could end up repenting of that and be fine with his life.

22:28 But Stephen says, no, it is true, preaching the gospel, and how does it turn out for him? Or dies anyway? He bets on Jesus, he dies anyway. He gets the vision of Jesus to get the right hand and forgives his accusers just like Jesus. It gets welcomed in the hands of Jesus, but he dies anyway. I'm just saying we make choices of faith and it doesn't always go the way we want.

22:59 But in every instance, God knows something we don't know. Look at this, how the gospel of John N. or this gospel reading ends. Down is the only one who included this little part. So they gathered him up in 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed a prophet who has come into the world.

23:31 Even then, they were about to come and taken by force to make him think. Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. You know, maybe you remember the story about the devil offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and he turns down the devil. But these are Israelites, man. These are like the people who are supposed to like him.

24:01 And they would like to make him king. And Jesus walks away from that. Remind me when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, same situation where the reasonable choice would be to make a deal and get out of the situation of the Garden of Gethsemane. The reasonable choice would be to take these Israelites. Okay, let's do it. I'm supposed to be a king anyway, let's set up a king. We'll get Herod out of the way. Then I'll figure out some deal with Pilate, and then maybe we can put together a team and take over Rome.

24:37 Right? And he doesn't. There's this posture that God knows something. God has a plan, and he's going to bet on the plan of God. And this is the opportunity for us, yes, today. Here's what we have on earth. It's defined ways, places, spaces, times, choices, who bet on the way of God.

25:10 Who approached some positions, some forks in the road, some decisions, as though God knows something that we do not. There have been multiple little turns and corners in my life where I realized the reasonable choice would be fine. It would be fine for me to get to the wilderness, see us in our time, and go home and get some dinner. And the food would be great. But there are also times where there is an invitation to keep pressing on and following Jesus.

25:49 Past what I know, past my own reason and capabilities. To look at 5,000 families and go, look, I don't know what to do, but I got this little bit here. Maybe you know something, I don't know Jesus. Take my little bit and go, hey, what are we going to do with this? I'm saying there are opportunities you have large and small decisions where if you want, you can bet on God and you never know.

26:22 You may see 5,000 people. It doesn't take a lot for God to show up and do miraculous things. This is a little lunch. And those opportunities don't go away just because it's no longer the first century. You and I still have opportunities to see God work. It's just so easy to pick the reasonable choice.

26:54 But every once in a while, maybe. And on the idea that God knows something that you do not. Bet on the idea that God's way might open up a miraculous happening opportunity. Well, let's pray that we could be people of faith. Hey Lord, thanks for this story and for doing it in front of so many people.

27:24 And then for not choosing the way of the people but the way of our God. Earning down that kingship. Good Lord, open up our hearts of faith this morning. Our spirit. Give us eyes to see the places where we could be faithful with just a few things. And keep expanding those opportunities that we might end up being people who are faithful with much.

27:56 Let's get in Jesus name before His name.