A Study of the Book of John
“That You May Believe”
Sermon # 18
“Little Is Much When God Is In It!”
John 6:1-15
“After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. (2) Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He per-formed on those who were diseased. (3) And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. (4) Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.”
Although John begins his account with the words “after this things” he does not tell us what “this things” are. But the parallel accounts do, Matthew connected the Lord’s retreat to the desert place with his hearing the news of John the Baptist’s death (Matt. 14:13). Mark (6:30-31) gives us an additional motive, the Disciples had just returned from their mission, and they and the Master needed time for refreshment of body and spirit.
So to get some rest from the crowds that followed Him and seeking time to deal with the news of the murder of John, Jesus and His disciples withdrew by boat across the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum to Bethsaida.
But a great crowd followed Jesus into a deserted (uninhabited) area. Verse two tells us why the people followed him, “Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.” The three verbs in this verse are all in the imperfect tense indicating continuous action. It would read literally, “A great multitude was following Him because they were seeing His miracles which He was doing.”
When the people found out where Jesus was bound for and while Jesus and His disciples made the trip by boat, the people followed along the shore and actually got there before He did. When He arrived He found a large crowd to greet Him. The presence of these huge crowds entirely defeated the whole intention of making this trip.
In a way the story really begins with a problem. The problem was that there was a large group of people, they were in a deserted place, it was late in the afternoon and everyone was hungry.
I don’t know about you but, when I am faced with a big problem in my life it is hard for me to see anything wonderful about it. What I usually see is yet another demand being placed on me and frankly, I wasn’t looking for another demand. I was looking for a little relief. Has anyone else noticed that life can get a little demanding?
Now here is the problem, the disciples have 5,000 hungry men on their hands. Matthew tells us (Mt 14:21) that this number does not include women and children so the total could be as much as 10,000 – 20,000.
John says in verses five and six, “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?" (6) But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.”
John tells us that Jesus said this to test Philip. I think that it is essential that we understand that Jesus already knew what He was going to do. He did not need Philip’s advice, he wanted Philip’s confidence, he wanted his heart.
Jesus used this as an opportunity to teach the Disciples. What we have here is a test of faith. Yet, when the Lord tests our faith it never in order that He might know what we would do. The test of faith is to reveal to us the condition of our faith and the truth that our trust is never misplaced when it is placed upon the Lord. We often say we believe something and really think we do in our heads but we only really know what we believe when we are forced to stand on them in real life. God knows what His plans for us are, and yet He does not often let us in on His plans before hand.
In today’s text we will discover three important truths.
First, Christ Desires That We Live In Dependence. (vv. 1-9)
God’s desire is always that His people live by faith. We are told in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” As I have already said, the story really begins with a problem, what to do with all these hungry people. And as always when we are faced with a problem believer’s are faced with the dilemma of whether or not they will live by faith. As we look at the story we see the disciples display three different responses to the problem that faced them.
•The first response was to attempt to get Rid of the Problem. The disciples initial response is given in the parallel account in Mark 6 in which the Disciples say “send the people away so they could go and buy themselves something to eat” (Mark 6:36). The disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds home, so that they could obtain food. On the surface this appears to be a request based upon the disciple’s compassion for the crowds (though I doubt that it was such). It seemed a very reasonable solution. It even seemed to be the only possible solution.
How shocked the disciples must have been to hear Jesus’ response (Luke 9:13): “You give them something to eat”. The disciples thought that acquiring food was the people’s problem. Jesus told the disciples it was their problem.
•The second response of the disciples as seen through Philip, was to approach the problem and search for a human solution. We see this option in Philip’s response as given in (John 6:7), “Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little." See how much money could be collected and see what might be done.
In his answer Philip says that two hundred denari would not be sufficient for this need (KJV uses the word “penny”) – the denari was a silver coin that was about the normal day’s wage for a working man at that time. So if a denari was the equivalent of a day’s wages then two hundred denari would be about eight month’s wages.
Perhaps Jesus had hoped to hear Philip say, “Lord, You Can Get Us Through This.” Instead Philip thought the problem was bigger than both of them and backed down. Philip calculated, he calculated that wasnot enough resources to take care of the problem, but Philip calculated without faith.
John tells us that Jesus asked Philip about food to test him and certainly it is implied here that Philip failed the test.
In effect Philip said, “Yes I know that at Cana you turned the water into wine. I know you healed the nobleman’s son. I know you made the paralyzed man to walk. But I am not sure You do anything now.” We do that too. We have seen God work in other people’s lives, but we do not let that knowledge carry over into our lives. Or we know that God has worked in the past, but we are not sure that God can take care of us now.
•The third response was to expect Jesus to do something. We see this option at work in Andrew’s response given in verses eight and nine, “One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, (9) "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"
Andrew is also overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem but he takes a different approach than Philip. Andrew did a little better than Philip. At least he looked around to see what could be done and had the nerve to mention one resource so small that he must have been afraid that the other disciple would laugh it off.
We are not told who the boy was, or how Andrew found him. Nor are we told whether the young boy offered his lunch or whether Andrew had to persuade him. What we are told is that he had “five barley loves and two small fish.” We need to not misunderstand the word “loaves” it is not referring to the kind of loaf we might buy at the supermarket or bakery. He is talking about something much smaller like a dinner roll. We are also told that these loaves are made of “barley” which is the cheapest grain and tells us that this boy was from a poor family. Andrew reveals his thoughts when he says, “but what are they among so many?"
Jesus’ command to feed this crowd reminds us that faith is seldom learned in the classroom, but is learned in the crises experiences of life, when we must obey God without all the visible means available to do so. The disciples need to see that they can accomplish things they never dreamed of doing through their association with Jesus.
The two greatest faith killing phrases heard in the church of today is “We have never done it that way before,” and “We could never do that.” These statements have a way of limiting our vision and squashing our ability to see with faith because of practical concerns or because of traditional ways that things have been done in the past. When we are in a pressing situation we often tend to focus on what can not be done and so the disciples respond in verse nine, all we have is “…five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"
Perhaps the saddest thing is that the disciples who have witnessed Jesus perform many miracles, had no expectation that he would be able to meet this current need. But they had forgotten that they were speaking to the Creator of the universe, “calls those things which do not exist as though they do.” (Romans 4:17). How like us they are. We too remain dull to the power of Christ, no matter how many times he may have met our needs in the past, the next crisis always seems to cause us to question God’s ability to meet our needs. How silly!!!
The whole point of the story is the insufficient becomes sufficient when placed in the hands of God. Or as the old song states; “Little becomes much when God is in it!”
Not Only Does Christ Desire That We Live In Dependence but…
Secondly, Christ Delights In Using That Which Is Placed At His Disposal
The only food available is that of a poor boy’s lunch, just two small loaves and two small fish, but it was enough for Jesus.
(vv. 10-11) “Then Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. (11) 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.”
Jesus and his disciples are in an isolated place with a large crowd of people. As I have already stated some have estimated that the crowd that day, if the women and children were added (only the men were counted) might have been fifteen or twenty thousand.
Mark tells that Jesus had the Disciples
seat the crowd into groups of fifty and a hundred (Mark 6:39-40). Jesus gave the bread to the disciples, who acted like ushers by giving the bread to the crowd. Mark also tells us that He blessed the five loaves and two fish (v. 41) he broke them and “gave them to the disciples.” The word he “gave” is literally in the imperfect tense and means he “kept giving” them to the disciples. I can’t prove it but I believe the miracle took place in the hands of Jesus. Jesus kept producing bread and fish in his hands with the super-natural power of the Creator. Jesus kept on creating tons of barley cakes and fish between the palms of his hands until all of the thousands were fed. The lesson is that Jesus does not demand what we cannot supply, he only requires disciples through whom he can work!
Explaining Away the Miracle
There have been many attempts to explain what happened that day on rational grounds, quite simply because some would prefer not to see a miracle here. Some have that if there was “any” miracle here it was a miracle of sharing! They say that when the crowd saw the little boy’s lunch in the hands of Jesus they were ashamed for keeping their food to themselves. Suddenly thousands of little lunch sacks that had previously been hidden, appeared and everyone began to share with everyone else. The point of the story then becomes a lesson on generosity, not the power of Christ to perform a miracle. Isn’t that touching? Yet the crowd had followed Jesus in a spontaneous fashion and those there was not time for planning ahead for packing a lunch. The text of this miracle was not that this crowd overcame selfishness but that Jesus performed a miracle to prove that He was “The Bread of Life.”
Others have maintained that Jesus’ teaching was so marvelous that the people fed on his word felt no physical hunger. And while I agree that the teaching of Jesus was that marvelous, you have to feel sorry for those whose God is so small that He cannot do the miraculous. Only a miracle would explain the twelve leftover baskets for fragments from the meal and why according to verses fourteen and fifteen the crowd wanted to make Jesus a king.
In verse twelve we read, “So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost." (13) 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.”
Everyone ate until they were filled and even then there were twelve baskets full of fragments of the meal left over.
Not Only Does Christ Delight In Using That Which Is Placed At His Disposal but …
Third, Christ Deserves Not To Be Used (vv. 14-15)
Verse fourteen and fifteen reveal what happens as a result of the miracle, “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” (15) Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.”
The reaction of the people to Christ miracle was not altogether noble and selfless. Indeed it will be revealed that the crowd will be willing to support Jesus only as long as He gave them what they wanted. John tells us in verse sixty-six that after some really straight talk to his followers that “from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with him no more.” (John 6:66)
William Barclay makes this very clear in
his Commentary when he writes, “When we want comfort in sorrow, when we want strength in difficulty, when we want peace in turmoil, when we want help when life has us down, there is no one so wonderful as Jesus. Then we talk to Him and walk with Him and open our heart to Him. But when He comes to us with stern demand for sacrifice, with some challenge to effort, with the offer of some cross, then we will have noting to do with Him. When we examine our hearts, it may be that we will find that we too love Jesus for what we can get our of Him, and when He come to us with great challenges and demands we too grow lukewarm, and even resentful and hostile to this disturbing and demanding Christ.” [William Barclay. “The Gospel of John” Vol. 1 (Westminster Press, 1958)
“Little Is Much When God Is In It!”
John 6:1-14
Jesus presented the Disciples with a problem that was clearly designed to have no human solution.
First, Christ Desires That We Live In ________. (vv. 1-9)
Faith Options in A Real World
The disciples were faced with three possible options.
•Get Rid of the Problem (Mark 6: 36)
•Search for a Human Solution - Philip’s Response (John 6:7)
•The Third Option Was To Expect Jesus To
Do Something. - Andrew’s Response
(Jn. 6:8-9)
Secondly, Does Christ Delights In Using That Which Is Placed At His ___________
Third, Christ Deserves Not To Be Used
(vv. 14-15)
