John 6 - 2012

John 6:1-15

Stephen Caswell © 2012

I have been involved in many VBS programs and never cease to be amazed how God uses the little we have. The last VBS I lead at Baptist we had about 200 kids come each day and 500 came to the parents night. We had about 50 leaders helping during the week. Others helped to prepare crafts and food. Still more people helped on the Friday night. We saw about 30% make commitments and the whole ministry was given free of charge, although some gave donations because they wanted to.

What do you look for in effective ministry? Warren Weirsbe describes Christian ministry like this. Ministry takes place when Divine Resources meet Human Needs through Loving Channels to the Glory of God. Today, I would like to look at some of the principles of . Today the needs around us are so great. How can we make a difference? Where do we begin? What can you do when the resources aren’t adequate? John 6 answers these questions. We will see how the Lord Jesus Christ overcame human inadequacy. We will see 3 things: The Multitudes, The Master, The Miracle.

1. The Multitudes

a. Great Needs - John 6:5: 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?

Jesus knew how great the needs were. The people of like all of us had incredible spiritual needs. They also had immediate physical needs. The feeding of the 5,000 is one of the few miracles recorded in all 4 Gospels. As we read the various accounts we get a detailed description of the day. Christ and the disciples had gone aside to a quiet place to rest for a while. They had just returned from a ministry trip in the region. The disciples had been very busy preaching about the .

Luke 9:10-11 shares that they were now having a time of Rest & Recreation, yet, Jesus still received the crowd. 5,000 men, plus women and children came to Jesus with various needs. The Lord ministered to all their needs. He healed the sick amongst the crowd. He also taught them about the . This dealt with their most important need; their need of salvation. Christian ministry is not physical or spiritual, it’s both. The Salvation Army used to have a slogan when ministering to the down and outs of society. Soap, Soup and Salvation. It’s not an either or situation. We minister to the whole person.

b. Limited Resources

John 6:8-9: 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?

Jesus asked Philip where they could buy food for all the people to test him. Philip replied that 200 days wages wouldn’t be enough to give everyone just a little. Perhaps Jesus asked Philip this question because it was close his home town of . He was a local and should have known where the local markets were. Philip’s reply was we can’t meet the need Lord, we just don't have the money. This is a problem Christians are always confronted with. We just don’t have enough money, resources and workers to help everyone. Yet the disciples were wrong. They had the Master with them. Jesus is always sufficient. He can always meet the great needs of this world. The disciples answer was to send the crowd away hungry. Luke 9:12: When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.

Another disciple, Andrew found a young lad with a small lunch. He brought the boy to Jesus with his small lunch of 5 barley loaves and 2 fishes. Andrew then correctly observed, but what are they among so many?

c. God’s Concern

Mark 6:34, 37a: And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. Jesus answered and said to them, you give them something to eat.

Christ looked upon the crowd very differently to the disciples. Firstly, Christ lifted up His eyes to see the crowd. Then He considered their needs. The word saw, θεάομαι in John 6:5 means to behold, contemplate, view attentively, indicating the sense of a wondering consideration involving a careful and deliberate vision which interprets its object. He didn’t see them as a multitude as the disciples did. The disciples saw the crowd as a problem they couldn’t solve. They wanted to send the problem away.

Jesus saw them as individuals, sheep without a shepherd. He saw their individual needs. The good shepherd is concerned about lost sheep. He wants to save them and bring them into the fold. Therefore he commanded the disciples to give the people something to eat. They weren’t just a multitude but individual people with real needs. A shepherd feeds his flock. Jesus fed them spiritually and now He was concerned about their physical needs.

Application

How do we view ministry? The needs of our community are great. Our resources are limited. Money, time and workers seem insufficient. Do you see the needs as too great for us to make a difference? Have you responded like the disciples did, sending the crowds away? Or do we view the multitudes like Jesus did? He saw them as individual lost sheep needing a Shepherd. Have we forgotten that the Master is with us and His resources are sufficient? Lets meet the needs of those God brings into our lives!!

2. The Master

a. Brought To Christ

John 6:9: There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?

You often find Andrew bringing someone to Christ. Firstly, he brought his brother Peter to the Lord. Look how mightily the Lord used Peter after He had been trained. In Christ’s hands Peter became a mighty man of God who lead 3,000 to Christ on the Day of Pentecost. Here, we read that Andrew brought a small boy to the Lord with his meager lunch. Leading people to Christ is the best thing that we will ever do. It lasts for eternity.

The boy is to be commended for giving his entire lunch to the Lord. He was unselfish. He could easily have kept back something for himself; but instead he gave it all. He placed it in the Master’s hands. He didn’t have much; but what he did have he gave to Christ.

God doesn’t want 10% of our time or 10% of our lives or 10% of our money. He wants all of us; He wants 100%. Romans 12:1: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

A sacrifice belonged to God. It was brought to God and offered up completely. In the same way a living sacrifice belongs to God. Too often, we break up our lives into little sections. We divide sacred from secular. We give God a piece of this, a bit of that and a smidgen of something else. What God wants is all of our lives. He wants to use us in our communities, in our jobs, our Churches, and in our families. Living sacrifices belong totally to God. This little boy gave all that He had. This is why God used it so effectively. In a similar way, the widow put 2 mites into the temple treasury; she put in all she had.

Take All The Keys, Lord

Dr. F. B. Meyer came to a crucial, transitional time in his ministry. He sat dejectedly in his study. My ministry is unfruitful, and I lack spiritual power, he said to himself. Suddenly Christ seemed to stand beside him. Let me have the keys to your life, Christ said. The experience was so realistic that he reached into his pocket and took out a bunch of keys! Are all the keys here? Yes, Lord, all except the key to one small room in my life. Christ said: If you cannot trust me in all rooms of your life, I cannot accept any of the keys. Dr. Meyer was so overwhelmed with the feeling that Christ was moving out of his life because he was excluding Him from one interest in his life that he cried out, Come back, Lord, and take the keys to all the rooms of my life! We give Christ all or none.

b. Blessed By Christ - John 6:11: And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them ....

Ministry without God’s blessing is a waste of time. Jesus gave thanks for what had been provided. He didn’t complain that it wasn’t enough. The Lord Jesus gave thanks for what God had provided blessing the meal. Mark 6:41 and Luke 9:16 give us further detail: He looked up to heaven. Real ministry is sourced from heaven. James 1:17: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Ministry requires God’s blessing if it’s to be effective. Let’s thank God for the resources we have and ask Him to bless them. Let us ask God to meet the great needs around us. Let’s not complain that we don’t have enough money, workers or resources. Instead we ought to pray that God will bless what we do have.

Jesus had no money and one small lunch to meet this great need. In the Master’s hands a little becomes much. If God blesses what we do it will be sufficient to meet the needs. Jesus had just 12 men to distribute the food to a crowd of about 20,000 people. Yet, they did it. In 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 Paul asks who is sufficient for ministry? He answers the question in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. When we give ourselves 100% to Christ He makes us sufficient!!!

c. Broken By Christ

Mark 6:41: And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them;.

After blessing the loaves and the fishes the Lord broke them. To meet the great needs Jesus had to break the loaves and fish. Once broken they were miraculously multiplied. John 12:24: Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. When we say that someone is broken we usually mean that they are repentant, humble, soft. God can’t use people who are hard or rigid. So He breaks us first. I mentioned that God wants us to be living sacrifices and one of the results is that we might know God's good and perfect will.

Personal Experience

When we give ourselves 100% to Christ He will use us in amazing ways. Yet it will be painful as God allows us to suffer for His name. He gently breaks us and molds us. Our own plans and dreams are forgotten as we embrace God’s will for us. Knowing Christ and pleasing Him consumes us and the suffering doesn’t worry us.

Sometimes family or friends will criticize you, turn on you. Christians may call you fanatical; but don’t quit. I have found from 5 years in pastoral work that sometimes the people you have been helping will spread gossip about you. Even though it hurts, God allows it for our own good. He uses it to soften us and make us more like Christ. As we yield to God’s will and power in our life, The Lord uses us; often we don’t even know it. He works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. We are but channels that Christ flows through. Humble people are totally dependent upon God for their life and service.

When God breaks His servants, He cleanses us, softens us, refines us and fills us. Like the song. Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me, break me, melt me, mold me, fill me. Chuck Swindoll said this; Before God can really use someone He has to hurt them. Look at the Apostle Paul. Acts 9:15-16: But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of . For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake. God won’t use proud, self sufficient people; He uses humble, broken servants who depend on Him.

was once given a very flattering introduction before speaking. After he came to the pulpit he said this; I am just a small servant of a very Illustrious Master. I have read 2 biographies about Hudson Taylor. He suffered a lot of hardship, persecution and personal loss. He was often sick. He was constantly maligned by Christians and even by his fellow missionaries. Yet, God used Hudson Taylor mightily. He reached thousands of Chinese and western people for Christ. God used Him so much because the man was humble, broken, soft. The Lord greatly multiplied the work of this broken servant.

Application

Our own resources are meager like the little boy’s lunch. We don’t have much to give to God. But have we given God all that we do have? Have you placed everything into the Masters hands? Have you given the Master your family, your home, your possessions, your job, your time, and your life? God wants all of it! Do we ask the Lord to bless our lives and our service for Him? Our Christian service will accomplish nothing unless God blesses it! Are we allowing the Lord to break us? God can’t use proud people with hard hearts and their own plans. We must be broken, humble and contrite for God to use.

3. The Miracle

a. Meeting Physical Needs

Matthew 14:14: And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

Because Jesus loves us He is concerned about all of our needs. He has compassion on us and knows our weaknesses. He wants to minister to the whole person. As you read Gospels you constantly find Jesus helping needy people. He cleansed the lepers, healed the sick, made the blind to see and the lame to walk. He raised the dead and cast out evil spirits. Jesus loves us and His compassion is seen in His miracles toward us needy sinners.

John 6:10-11: 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. 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 had the people sit down on the grass. The word sit down, ἀναπίπτω, is the word used to describe people reclining at a meal table. The meaning of this word in the New Testament was always to lie down in order to eat. Jesus, the Master of the house was providing a lavish meal for His guests. Therefore the people had all that they needed. John 6:11 says that they all had as much as they wanted. The word wanted, θέλω, means to will or desire. They were filled, completely satisfied by Christ. God’s provision is always enough, and amazingly there was food over. They had more food at the end than the beginning. Philippians 4:19: And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. William Carey said attempt great things for God, expect great things of God.

The Lord told the disciples to gather up all of the leftovers. Nothing must be lost. Why? Because the remaining food could be used to meet further needs. We must never waste God’s blessings. When God gives us an abundant blessing let us use it to the full. Don’t waste a bit. Use it all for the glory of God. Meet all the needs that you possibly can.

b. Jesus Wanted To Meet Their Spiritual Needs

Jesus longs to meet our deepest need, our need for salvation. We read in Mark's Gospel that Jesus taught the crowd many things. Luke says that He taught them about the and healed those who needed healing. Jesus taught them how to enter His kingdom through repentance and faith. Jesus used many of His miracles to explain spiritual truth to the people of . In fact John referred to some of Jesus' miracles as signs. In this chapter you find the word sign used 4 times. A good sign tells you accurate information. So too Jesus miracles pointed to Himself, the Truth. What signs did Jesus do?

Jesus cleansed a number of people in of leprosy. Because leprosy made someone unclean they had to be cast out from their families and friends. After Jesus healed them they were welcomed back into the community and were reunited with their families and friends. Tragically, sin like leprosy causes us to be cast out of God's family. As sinners we cannot enjoy a relationship with God.

If we don't deal with our sin it will separate us from God for all eternity in a place called hell. The Good News is that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 If the Son sets you free you are free indeed. We need only to believe that Christ died to save us and ask for God's forgiveness and cleansing. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Jesus healed a number of people from blindness. Blindness robs us of the beauty of God's creation, like watching the sun rise. Sight enables us to appreciate life and see what is happening around us. The world is dark to a blind person. Blind people can't see where they are going. Sadly, Jesus warned of the spiritual blindness that sinners have. This type of blindness prevents us seeing life from God's perspective. People who are spiritually blind live for the moment and give no thought to eternity. They can't see that judgment and hell lies before them. They can't or won't see what God has prepared for those who love Him. The truth is, believing is seeing! Not the other way around. The blind man in John 9:36-38 confirms this. To believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our personal Savior is to truly see.

Jesus raised people from the dead. Death is a terrible robber that takes our loved ones away. Jesus restored Lazarus and Jairus daughter to their families. Christ could do this because He is the resurrection and the life. All of us are born spiritually dead. God breathed into Adam the breath of life's and he became a living being. Adam and the whole race died spiritually when he sinned against God. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again. To believe in Jesus Christ is to receive His resurrection life into your life.

1 John 5:12–13: He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

After Jesus fed 5,000 people the next day He told them He was the bread of life. What did Jesus mean when He says that we must eat the bread of life? John 6:35: And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

After our mother gives birth to us we have physical life. To sustain this life and grow we need regular food and drink each day. The food we eat becomes part of our bodies. Through faith in Christ we are born again into a new life, a spiritual life. If anyone be in Christ He is a new creation, the old things have passed away behold all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 To grow in the Christian life we must feed on Christ continually. John 7:37: Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (present continuous tense) We must continually drink from Christ. Eternal life begins when we receive Christ into our hearts by faith. The abundant life Jesus promised is only for those who feed on Him daily. Jesus Christ must become our life. For me to live Is Christ to die is gain.

He is the bread and drink we need to take into our bodies every day. As physical food becomes part of us so too Christ becomes part of our lives. 2 Peter 3:18: but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Matthew 4:4 Jesus said that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The 12 disciples fed on Christ by living with Christ and for Christ. They were able to listen to Jesus speak to them as they walked with Him. We need to do the same. Live each moment in the presence of Jesus Christ. John 6:63: It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

Hudson Taylor learnt this from a friend John Macarthy in China, The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun. The Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing, The Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete. Abiding not striving or struggling but resting in the love of an Almighty Savior. He found this to be true as he came to understand the abiding presence of Christ spoken of in John 15.

What disturbs me about this crowd is there obsession with temporary things. 20,000 people shared Christ's miracle of the multiplied loaves and fishes. This wonderfully met a real need they had that day.

Tragically, only few accepted Christ's offer of an abundant life, eternal life in the !! You see, they wanted a king to deliver them from the Romans, heal their sick and give them food. John 6:14-15 says that they tried to make Jesus king by force. Christ’s miracles led many people to come to him but only a few followed Him. Sadly they missed out on God's best, the greatest miracle of the new birth, fellowship with God through Jesus Christ.

Application

Sadly, many people won't admit their spiritual need and won't accept Jesus offer of sins forgiven, eternal life, and entrance into the . Jesus Christ is the Christian life. There is no life without Him. Sin has made us unclean and unfit for heaven far more than leprosy. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from sin and restore us to God's family. We are born spiritually dead, only Christ can raise us to new life. We are born spiritually blind. Through faith in Jesus Christ we can see life from God's perspective with eternity in mind. Our souls are hungry and thirsty, Only Christ can satisfy our hunger with the bread of life and the water of life. We feed on the Bread of life by reading the God's Word, prayer and abiding in Christ. Just as food becomes part of us Jesus becomes our life as He transforms us into His own image.

Perhaps you have attended church for many years. Maybe you even serve in one of the Churches ministries. Maybe everyone thinks that you are a Christian, because you say the right things. Good works cannot save us. You can't fool God. He knows everyone's heart and He knows your heart. When I was 19 I gave my life to Christ. Satan raged a battle in my heart using pride. What will people think if you go forward and make a decision for Christ. You've been going to Church for so many years. Beloved don't allow Satan to keep you out of heaven through pride. If you have never asked Christ to forgive your sins and come into your life you do not have eternal life. I am not saying that to you, Jesus is. He said to Nicodemus, You Must Be Born Again to enter the !!!!

Beloved let me ask you, Are you only seeking the physical things of life? Or have you accepted God's best for you, eternal life, an abundant life, living in a close relationship with Christ. Do you believe that Jesus lived a perfect life in your place so you could be declared righteous? Do you believe that He died for your sins? Have you asked Him to save you from your sin and come into your life? Are you feeding on Jesus the Bread of Life each day?

Benediction

2 Corinthians 13:14: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.