MORE THAN A MEAL: Jesus was testing His disciples.
- John 6:6.
- John tells that Jesus is doing this to test the disciples. Obviously, throughout His three years of ministry He was pushing them to grow and learn the lessons of the Kingdom.
- Now, He asks them to sort out this difficult situation. I don’t think He had much expectation that they would get the right answer at first, but I do think He wanted them to learn the right answer through the experience.
- What can we learn from their experience?
- We will be put in situations by Jesus that test us too. He is far more interested in our growth than in our comfort.
- Maybe we can learn something from the disciples’ experience that can help us when the tests come.
LOOKING OVER THE TEST:
- There is one big point I want to draw out of this, but to get there we will look through the story of the miracle.
1. THERE ARE GENUINE NEEDS.
- John 6:5.
- There is a huge crowd here. They’ve been traveling with Jesus for a while now. They are hungry.
- We are going to talk in this sermon about how Jesus wants to work through us. One of the reasons He wants to do that is because there are so many genuine needs in the world.
- There are people struggling with depression.
- There are people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
- There are people who have embraced the American Dream and been left feeling empty.
- There are people who see no point to their existence.
- There are people who need practical wisdom to live well.
- All around us are people with genuine needs. And we have not been called to stay inside the safe, secure walls of the church and tell each other how God thinks we’re great. We have been called to go out into enemy territory and rescue as many POWs as we can. We have been called to proclaim hope in a desolate land.
2. WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TO MEET THOSE NEEDS.
- John 6:6-9.
- Philip is in the ballpark on the expense. It would be enormous. Andrew is right that there was a little there but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the need.
- We are often overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of the problems around us. We are all painfully aware of the societal problems we face as a country right now. The opioid crisis. The bitter political divisions. The depression and loneliness.
- We are also aware of the problems of the church. So many who have an empty “belief” that doesn’t change their behavior. Structures that emphasize stability over ministry. The confusion of religious belief with political allegiance. The American church is so off-track.
- What’s our response? Generally it is to shrink our vision of what we can do and settle for less. We understand how little we have in our hands and so we expect a small impact.
- Just to use the example of baptisms, most churches have come to accept as normal that they will have only a handful of baptisms a year. In fact, even among bigger churches, there is no expectations of dozens of baptisms. And so we don’t pray for that. We just know it’s not going to happen.
3. LITTLE IS MUCH WHEN JESUS HAS IT.
- John 6:11.
- Objectively, there is not enough to feed even a fraction of the people. But, as the hymn says, little is much when God is in it. Here Jesus performs a miracle of multiplication, taking the little available food and transforming it into enough to feel perhaps 20,000 people plus have twelve baskets of leftovers.
- This is, I believe, a major problem for the American church.
- First of all, we are so impressed with what we do have in the way of resources that we feel like we can handle it on our own. America is a wealthy nation and so we’re used to being able to do it on our own.
- Second, because of the first point, we generally take the limit of our resources as the limit of what God can do. In the economy of the Kingdom of God, that’s a pretty small vision. And so we see a pretty limited move of God within the American church.
- What would this story tell us? That we give what little we have to Jesus and ask Him to do greater things with it. One of the lessons of this story is that Jesus can do so much with so little. But we have to bring it to Him. We have to come with faith in His power.
- We need to have a bigger vision. On how many can be saved. On the impact of our ministries. On our growth in Christlikeness. On the impact of our church in this community. But that starts with taking what we have to Jesus and asking Him to multiply it.
4. JESUS USED THE DISCIPLES TO PULL IT OFF.
- John 6:11-13.
- Jesus could have just made the food magically appear in front of the crowd. Jesus could have just made their bellies full. There are numerous ways He could have done the miracle.
- But Jesus chose to use the disciples for the distribution.
- That is fitting, because it’s a picture of the way that He uses the church today.
- Jesus has chosen that we would be His representatives in this world. He uses us to tell people about the bread of life. He uses us to show His compassion and healing touch.
5. JESUS WASN'T INTERESTED IN IMPRESSING THE CROWD.
- John 6:14-15.
- As we’ve repeatedly noted, Jesus does this miracle as part of a test for His disciples. He is hoping they get the right answer. Others watching get the wrong answer, though.
- In vv. 14-15 the crowd sees the miracle and is ready for a coronation.
- At one level, one might presume this is something that Jesus would welcome – a fast track to the palace! But Jesus knows that they want this for all the wrong reasons. They’re not interested in spiritual transformation. They just are impressed by the miracle and the hope of increased prosperity and so they want to give Jesus the keys to the palace.
- Their fickleness will come to the fore later in this chapter when difficult teaching from Jesus causes many who had shown some interest in Jesus to walk away. They don’t really want Jesus – they want what they think He’ll do for them.
- And Jesus is ok walking away from that offer of power. Why? Because He knows what’s in people and He already has all the power He needs from the Father.
CONCLUSION:
- The main point to draw out of what we’ve looked at today is that Jesus will put us in situations where we don’t have the ability to solve problems and fix situations without His help. Those are moments when He wants us to rely on His power. Our tendency instead is to just expect less.
- What are we not seeing God to because we don’t have the faith that He can bring it about?
