“Life is difficult.”
So says the first three words of a best-selling book by Dr. M. Scott Peck, an author and Psychiatrist, who wrote “The Road Less Traveled.”
And He goes on to say that the key to dealing with the difficulty of life is just simply realizing and accepting the fact that life is going to be difficult. That’s just the way things are.
However, I beg to differ this morning, based on the story we’re about to consider in John chapter 6. It’s the story of the feeding of the 5,000. And though there might be some value in realizing and accepting that life is difficult, for the believer, I believe the key is to recognize life’s challenges, life’s difficulties are tests from the Lord, tests that can be passed with flying colors if we first give ourselves completely to Jesus and His purposes.
That truth is well demonstrated by the story we have just read, the story of how Jesus turned an impossible situation into a picnic at the lake. A story that was so impressive to the disciples who witnessed, that it is the only miracle story, apart from the Resurrection, that is recorded in all four Gospels. It was an experience which our Lord Jesus intended to use as a means of convincing those who were following at the pinnacle of his popularity that he was more than a mere miracle worker, that He was more than a prophet, but that He was the Prophet whom Moses predicted would come into the World, the Ultimate Deliverer of Israel, and as it would turn out, any from among mankind who would come to Him in faith.
As I mentioned this tremendous miracle happened at the pinnacle of Christ’s popularity in Israel. He’s a little more than two years into His ministry and has at this point spent a number of months in the northern province of Israel as it existed in His time, in His native province of Galilee. From the other Gospel accounts, it becomes evident that Jesus had sent the Twelve off two-by-two onto their short-term missions trips preaching about Jesus to the various towns and villages of Israel. They have returned from these trips telling Jesus about all they had taught and done. And once they have done so, they are then so busy with the ministry and the fame and press of the crowds around Jesus, they don’t even have time to eat. And more than, news, sad news, has just come to Jesus that John the Baptist had been executed, his head brought on a plate to Herod the Tetrarch. And as Jesus assesses the situation, He understandably comes to the conclusion that it’s time for a break, it’s time to get away to pray and for the disciples to rest. And as he had been ministering near his now home-town of Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, He and His disciples get into a boat and head to a fairly deserted area along the shores of the Sea along the northeastern section of that lake, not far from the town of Bethsaida-Julias.
And that’s where we pick up the story in John 6:1: “After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude was following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.” In other words, Jesus was healing everybody, His fame had so spread that He was an absolute sensation. And apparently, those who watched Jesus and his disciples head to “other side of the Sea” judged the trajectory of the boat and headed to where they thought he would land. And some actually ran ahead of Him and got there before Him and the disciples did, and then others followed. And not far from the small town of Bethsaida-Julia there are some hills that rise as high as about 2,000 feet, before which there is a plain that then meets the lakeshore. And verse three tells us that Jesus went up on the mountain, and He sat with the disciples. And it’s now the time of the Passover, the third during Jesus’ ministry, so it’s in the spring of the year when the grass on the hills would be green, just as it is this spring in the hills around Reno this year. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and there was a remarkable sight. Verse 5, a great multitude was coming. This despite the fact it was very late in the day. And the other Gospels tell us that Jesus got up and taught them and was healing them for this is where He had compassion upon them, seeing them as flocks of sheep without a shepherd.
And then He turns and asks one of the disciples, namely Phillip, “Where are we to buy bread that these (multitudes) may eat.
Now we have no idea why Jesus singled out Phillip. He was a native of the other Bethsaida, on the other side of the sea. Perhaps he had some idea where there might be a place to buy food. I suspect that Phillip might have been the resident statistician among the disciples. And so Phillip sets to calculating, and as we will be told, there were five thousand men among this multitude. Matthew 14:21 makes it explicit that these were besides the women and children, and so a conservative estimate is that here, in this lonely place, a considerable distance from any substantial city, there are at least 10,000 people who in the excitement of the moment have followed Jesus into this empty place.
And then we find out something very interesting about why Jesus asked such a question. For the Apostle John here adds in verse 6, “And this He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.” Now make note of this verse, and what it says, because we will come back to it. But clearly Jesus wanted the disciples to make an assessment of the situation; He wanted them to note just how difficult, how impossible the situation was, before He acted to save the day.
And so Phillip does exactly what Jesus knew He would do. He makes his calculations and answers Jesus in verse 7: Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone one to receive a little.” Now as, some of you know, a denarius represented a day’s wage for a common laborer in that day. And so he’s saying that about six to eight month’s wages for a man would not be enough to provide more than a little food for each person that was present. And so there was a major problem, there was an impossible situation. A vast crowd of people were so enthusiastic about what Jesus was doing that now they found themselves stranded nearly in the wilderness, without food, and it’s dinnertime, and they are famished, and even if the disciples had the money, it’s unlikely at that time in the evening that that much food could be found in the small fishing village that wasn’t too awfully far way.
But again, take note of verse 6: Jesus deliberately tested Philip, and I’m sure all the other disciples with the question, “What in the world are we going to do? There’s no way we can feed all these people. This is not merely a difficult situation, but this is an impossible situation. Life had just become not only difficult for the disciples in their fatigue from a trying day of ministry, it had truly become impossible.
And all along, the Lord knew what He was going to do.
Tell me something. Do you think the Lord still tests His followers this way these days?
Yep, you bet. Absolutely. This was by no means an exceptional situation. Abraham had been tested this way repeatedly, especially when he set out to sacrifice His son Isaac on Mt. Moriah, and God had provided. Moses and the Jews in the wilderness were repeatedly tested in this way in the wilderness, when there was a lack of food, or a lack of clean water. And Proverbs 17:3 assures us of this fact not only about the past, but the present and the future, that just as “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, so the Lord tests hearts.”
And what is the purpose of these tests? Well, James 1:2-4 tells us that we are to “Count it all joy when we encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance and we are to let endurance have its prefect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
And all along the Lord knows what He’s going to do about the difficult or impossible situation we face. But does He tell us? Nope. He let’s us wonder, that is He leads us to learn to trust, and then, and only then, does He do it.
So are you challenged by life this morning? Has life become difficult, financially? Has it become impossible relationally? Is it just plain a total struggle. Well, I understand, I identify? Whatever are we going to do?
One thing we must do, as believers. We need to learn to receive life’s challenges as tests from God to improve and prove our faith. Did you get that this morning? For the believer, life is not accidentally difficult. It is expressly and purposely difficult. God has so purposed that it is difficult or impossible from time to time, day after day. And for the believer, and the believer only, it has a spiritually redeeming purpose. God is improving your faith, improving your character and testing and proving you. And the best way to be prepared for that in advance is to recognize that those impossible and very difficult situations come straight from God and are intended for your good, your improvement, and for His glory.
So as Peter puts it in I Peter 5:12, “Don’t be surprised by the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.” If you’re a believer, it shouldn’t seem strange, it’s a part of the life and the training God intends for you in this life, as you learn how to become more and more like Jesus. So receive each of life’s challenges as though each one is ordered just for you, for the improvement and the proof of your faith and your Christ-like character. The advantage we have as believers is that the difficulties of life aren’t accidental and aren’t for no purpose but serve a great purpose in making us more like Christ.
So receive those trials as from God, and then give yourself to Christ--give yourself and all you have for God’s purposes. That’s the second key when you encounter one of these impossible situations. Give thanks to God for what’s happened and give what you have to Jesus for His purposes and glory.
Well, at this point in the story, some of the disciples begin scrambling. Is there anyone in the vast crowd who thought ahead and so prepared just in case they found themselves hungry ahead of time. And there was one, or at least someone’s mother, who thought of every possibility with regard to the welfare of her child. And Simon’s brother Andrew, the quiet helpful Andrew, always willing to do whatever He could do for the cause of His Lord, finds a lad, a mere boy, who brought a lunch, a dinner, for himself.
Verse 8: “One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There is a lad here, who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people.”
So having encountered the assessment of the chief statistician, now we come to the friendly helper who has done the research with regard to the available resources. And the report is not good. Andrew’s almost embarrassed to mention it. There’s a boy whose Mom has sent his lunch. Oh, I don’t know if it was his Mom, but I just can’t imagine a man, much less a boy, being so organized, so prepared in advance. Instinct just tells me from my mother’s concern for me, that there must be a woman behind this, a good and loving woman, a Mother. And after all, it is Mother’s Day today! Bless the Mother of that child!
And what he has is some Tuna Fish sandwiches. Enough for his own personal picnic on the lake. But the Apostle John, having been a commercial fisherman, and a commercial fisherman on the Sea of Galilee no less, before he became a fisher of men, provides more detail than the other Gospel writers. The other disciples describe the fish simply as Ichus, or Ichthuos, simply generic for fish. But John, being a See of Galilee fisherman, tells us precisely what kind of fish they were—opsarion, in the Greek. Small fish, small fish like Sardines in the English. According to a Jewish commentator thoroughly immersed in the culture of the Jews, these opsarion were sardine-like in size, and there were millions of them in the Sea of Galilee. And I have here with me something that has become a common lunch for me—sardines in small can. The largest sardines fill this small tin up when there are three of them. And this boy had only two sardine-like fish. Just enough for him, not for a crowd of thousands.
And what about those five barley loaves, the bread of the poor. Well, I imagine big, full, loaves—like American store-bought bread. Well, my imagination was wrong here, again. For these loaves were flat and round, I imagine now, like pita bread. In other words, a thorough examination of the total resources of this entire crowd of more than 10,000 people yields the discover of a lunch sufficient only for a boy.
Upon this revelation, Jesus does something very strange. He tells the disciples to have the people sit down, in groups of 50s and 100s according to the other Gospel writers. And he takes the loaves, according to verse 11, and he gives thanks for what God has provided, and what the little boy has provided, and He begins to distribute it. And He keeps distributing it, I take it to the 12, and they keep distributing, and I imagine there must have been some huge smiles, and some incredible looks and there must have been great amazement. And when all the serving had been done and everyone had gotten as much as they wanted, everyone, that is every one of more than 10,000 people had eaten and were filled, they were satisfied. It was incredible.
And not wanting to waste a thing, Jesus sent out the disciples to collect what was leftover, the leftover fragment, and they collected 12 full baskets full of the left-over fragments!
What had happened? Another incredible miracle by the greatest miracle worker in Israel since, since Moses, who had given that bread that came down from heaven in similarly lonely places, in impossible situations, repeatedly, that God had led the people of Israel into.
It had all started with that little boy who was willing to share his lunch—to give it to Jesus for whatever he could make of it. Pretty generous of that little boy. I imagine he was hungry and feared that there wouldn’t be enough for him, if he had shared it. But the key was whom He shared it with, whom He committed all that He had to. It was Jesus, who was trustworthy, who was also the God-Man, the Messiah, who could do anything He pleased, and He is pleased with anyone who is willing to give his all to Him.
Now I’m not saying God is always going to work this kind of miracle physically for each of us, but there is a spiritual truth to be seen here. When we give all we have and all we are to Jesus, when we give ourselves to God first, when we thank God for what He’s given us, there’s no telling what God will do with our impossible situations, with our very difficult circumstances. When we yield ourselves and all we have to the Lord, the Lord can bless that mess, and make something special happen, and even turn impossible situations into something like a picnic at the lake, in which thousands are blessed because of our humble sacrifice of ourselves and what we have for the Lord’s purposes.
Remember Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will be added unto you.”
And you probably don’t remember another passage from II Corinthians 8:3-5. It’s another story about the lack of things, it’s during an economic recession in Macedonia. People were really hurting there. They were struggling financially. But the Apostle Paul told them about what was going on for Christians back in Jerusalem, from which the Gospel had come to them and the Gentiles originally. The Jews were persecuting the Christian Jews in Jerusalem. And there was tremendous poverty among the Christians in Jerusalem. They were losing their jobs right and left because of the great persecution. They were losing their houses and their fortunes because of the persecution. They were suffering greatly. So when Paul proposed to these new Christians in Macedonia, they gave generously, very generously, they gave beyond what they could afford. Let’s look at the passage now: II Corinthians 8:3-5: “For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God.”
Did you notice that same pattern again? What did they do when they were in, what Paul calls, “a great ordeal of affliction, in verse two? When they were in great poverty, they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to the Apostle Paul and His associates, and then there was an incredibly generous gift offered for the saints in Jerusalem. Incredible! What God can do in an impossible situation. It happens when we first give ourselves and all we have to the Lord, and then to others.
That’s what this little boy did. And when we and all we have are given into God’s Hand, into Christ’s hands, it’s amazing what He can do with and through us. Our trial, our impossible or very difficult situation can become a blessing for many.
So what’s you’re impossible or very difficult situation this morning. Is it financial? Is it the lack of a job? Is it relational, a husband or a wife or child, or a business associate? Is it emotional—you’re struggling with depression or a hurt, or the outcome of your life?
How are you responding? Do you respond as though this is a test from God? Not just an accident? And are you doing what God calls us to do in the midst of a test—giving ourselves totally to God, and give all we have to Him, and making sure we do things His way, rather than our way? If that’s what you’re doing, then that’s when Jesus can begin working, when He can take all that you give, though it is not sufficient in your hands, it becomes sufficient when committed to His hands, when you become the clay, so to speak, and He becomes the potter. Watch out! That’s when the bread starts flyin’ so to speak, and miracles can happen. As Proverbs 16:3 puts it, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”
Now as this incredible picnic by the lake comes to a close, there’s a buzz in the crowd as you can imagine. Jesus has again exceeded expectations, amazed this vast throng of people and there’s a lot of talk about Jesus and the things He can do, and who this incredible might actually be. And some of the talk is good, and some of the talk, as it turns out, not so good.
The good part is found in verse 14: “When therefore the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
And that’s exactly the point that Jesus wanted to get across. The Passover was nearing, and Moses had been the prophet through whom God had established the Passover celebration, the celebration and remembrance of God’s deliverance of the Jews from their Egyptian oppressors 15 years earlier. And there were parallels. For it was in the wilderness that Moses provided for the 600,000 men who were part of the nation of Israel every day as they traveled through the wilderness. He provided the manna, the bread from heaven. And so now this Jesus, this prophet, has done the same.
And then there was that prophecy Moses gave about a yet future prophet like unto Him.
It’s found in Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, and you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb (Sinai) on the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see the great fire any more, lest I die. And the Lord said to me, “They have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen, like you, and I will put My Words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. and it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.”
And what was distinctive about Moses. Deuteronomy 34:10-12, the last three verses of the books Moses primarily authored tells us what was unique about Moses. No one since him had done the great wonders and miracles he had done, nor had they talked with God face-to-face.” And now here, on this of the feeding of the 5,000, or 10,000, this man Jesus was working wonders like those of Moses and beyond, and He seemed to have that special relationship with God, whom He called His Father, and God answered every prayer He prayed. He even provided bread out of the clear blue. Yes, He must be that prophet Moses spoke about, He must indeed be the Messiah, the Savior of our nation.
And they were right in that.
But in verse 15 we see an ominous note, where they were wrong. Because they had begun to believe that the primary mission of the Messiah would be deliverance from the Roman oppressors of the Jews in that day. And that Jesus would be the King who would bring economic and political revival to the Jews, just when they needed it.
Verse 15: Jesus, therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.
For you see what had happened in that buzz is that the creative interpreneurs among the men that day realized that with a king like Jesus, Israel’s gross domestic product could be dramatically and immediately multiplied even in day. And those who were politically-motivated were thinking that if Jesus could heal everyone and if He could produce bread out of thin air, then He could certainly defeat the Romans and deliver Israel into its predicted Golden Age of the Kingdom.
But Jesus would have none of it. He would not be king of a prosperous nation before it became a spiritual nation. He would not become king of a victorious nation before He became king of the hearts of the nation. For what He was about was not filling men’s bellies, it was not about winning a war, it was about reconciling men’s hearts with God and bringing righteousness and holiness about from the inside out.
And that’s why it’s important than when you see His power, you resist making Jesus into something He’s not. You don’t take him and make Him into something He’s not. You don’t make him into a prosperity Messiah because He’s not about making us rich. You don’t and make him into to a political Messiah because He’s not about making us dominant, right away at least. You take Him for what He is—a righteous and Holy Messiah, who delivers us only when we have given everything, even our sin, to Him, to change.
Our third and final point this morning. When you’re in a crisis, an impossible situation, resist making Jesus into something that He’s not. Instead, give yourself to Him and allow Him to make you into what He wants you to be.
So what are you faced with his morning? What difficult or impossible circumstance do you face. Recognize every challenge you face is a test from God, give it to Jesus, and determine to submit all your are to Him and eventually, the Deliverer, the Son of God and Messiah will make sure you pass the test with flying colors.
Let’s pray.
