Jesus Redefines Faith

Jesus grace leads us to rely on Him

Last week, if you were here with us, Brad talked about the parable of the hidden treasure where one sells everything they have in order to receive the greater treasure that is hidden. To recognize the surprising value in following Jesus over wordly things. Today, we are going to look at the cost of the kingdom and the role that faith plays in understanding that cost. Faith can often be a difficult thing to give because the world is full of things telling us to have faith in them. People bet billions of dollars on sports betting, gambling, and lottery tickets because they have faith they can get rich with the right bet. People fall for online scams because they have faith they can trust another person to be truthful with their claims of a lost relative dying or that they have won some sort of grand prize. Some of us don’t want to put our faith in one thing so we spread out our resources to many different things hoping that one of them will stick.

But we are looking for something to have faith in, we are looking to put our hope in something bigger…we just have a hard time fully trusting anyone or anything.

There is one important idea that we see throughout these miracles in this passage. In v. 14 it say that Jesus had “compassion” on the crowds, even as Jesus is attempting to move away from the crowds. Notice what these people do in order to get to Jesus. They follow Him on shore for miles on shore while they watch Him on the boat. They beg Jesus to heal their sickness. That Jesus “had compassion on them” is an abbreviation of Mt. 9:36 where it says Jesus had compassion on the crowds “because they were like sheep who do not have a shepherd.” These were people who were outcasts many times because of their disease and sickness. Instead of caring for them the Pharisees threw them out.

Jesus has compassion on them because they had no one leading them spiritually, they were hungry for spiritual food. He heart was moved by their hurting, by their oppression. And Jesus was going to satisfy their longing.

He doesn’t ignore the needs, He doesn’t show frustration with their constant asking. In fact, it reminds us of what Jesus said in the sermon on the mount “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you”, or what James says in James 4:2 “You do not have because you do not ask.”

Because Jesus want to show them His power, in in revealing to them His supernatural power He is leading the disciples to understand the importance of faith in following Him. Our theme has been “the cost of the kingdom” and what that means is complete reliance on God. It means giving everything up and trusting in the one who has it all and in His grace towards us.

We have a God that has compassion for us and desire to impact our lives for the Kingdom of God. He comes to us in our need, He welcomes us into His kingdom.

Today we are going to see two different ways that Jesus calls us to faith.

Jesus provides to remind us that we are His

As it gets close to the time for dinner the disciples come to Jesus and they tell Jesus they should let people go into town to get something to eat. Since it was around the time of dinner and they may not be able to get food soon.

The disciples may also be attempting to give Jesus what He desired to begin with, isolation from the crowds.

But Jesus responds by showing compassion towards those who are still in need, saying “They don’t need to go away, I will continue to meet their needs.”

Jesus tells them to bring them the fish and the loaves, and from this He will feed all these people

Jesus tells (commands really) the crowds to sit in the grass, like those reclining at a celebratory meal while He is the head of the house. The word for "sit" is more like "lie" like one would do on a special occasion.

Jesus "broke" the bread

-Even though Jesus “Breaking” the bread may be a small detail it is revealing a lot. Jesus shows with this breaking up bread that He is the Savior, the Christ they are waiting for. Because Jesus would soon “break” the bread at the Lord’s supper in the upper room.

-Similarly, that is how the disciples know that Jesus is the Savior in Luke 24:35 “Then they began to describe what had happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

In the OT they had manna in the wilderness, a reminder that they were His people and He would care for them. Soon Jesus would institute the Lord’s Supper, a meal we do in remembrance of our Lord, who died so that we may be His.

Because bread in the Old and New Testament was not just a source food, it was their staple food. It was 80% of their diet. And because of this often giving bread was synonymous with God caring for His people. That He would be the bread of salvation, or the end of famine was described with God “giving them bread”.

So when Jesus says this in John 6, there is deep significance to it.

John 6:30–37 CSB

“What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe. Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

Jesus is creating a new Israel, a new kingdom of those who will follow Him into a heavenly banquet. It is pointing forward "to that great feast at which Jesus would be host to all His people of every race" where all their needs would be satisfied. But before that day Jesus does not want us to forget that He is the one who we should rely on.

One of the reasons that restaurants give out coupons with discounts that almost seem like a loss in money. Like buy one get one free, or 50%, is that they are hoping that if you come into their restaurant once and enjoy the food that you will continue to come into their restaurant and enjoy their food.

Jesus provides for our needs, and sometimes works miraculously, so that we might, like the Israelites with the manna, remember that we should continue to come back to Him. But even more than us coming to Him, it is to remind us that we are His. To remember that we are children of God and that He came to save us.

Then as He broke the bread there was enough for all to be "satisfied". That's an important word "satisfied". That is what He is trying to teach them, to be satisfied in Him. But not by physical bread but spiritual bread. To know that He is enough for their needs if they will trust in Him.

-In Jesus we can be satisfied. We cannot, on our own, be satisfied. We will fall short.

But in order to be satisfied in Jesus we have to trust in His power, and specifically, His power that works in us

Jesus calls us to trust that His power is in us

Notice Jesus response to the disciples in the feeding of the five thousand. “You give them something to eat”. It has a connection to a story in the OT.

There are many similarities to 2 Kings 4:42-44

2 Kings 4:42–44 CSB

A man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with his sack full of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first bread of the harvest. Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.” But Elisha’s attendant asked, “What? Am I to set this before a hundred men?” “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said, “for this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat, and they will have some left over.’ ” So he set it before them, and as the Lord had promised, they ate and had some left over.

In the same way as Elisha, Jesus is inviting them to participate in a miraculous work, to use the authority He has given them to perform miracles in this instance, but they don’t get it.

-But in that story there was more bread and less people, and more of an abundance is left here than in that story.

After Jesus and the disciples had sailed to move away from the crowds, not Jesus tells the disciples to go ahead back and that He would catch up after some time praying. Jesus wants to be close to His Father, to keep His eyes on His purpose.

After all the crowds have been fed and healed and go on their way, Jesus sets off alone.

Then we see a storm that is causing issues for the disciples. And they see this figure that looks like a ghost in the distance, and this figure is Jesus to help them. But they are terrified because they don't know who it is.

Jesus tells them to "have courage". Something you say to someone who might have reason to have fear. Jesus says "it is I" which may be drawing back to God saying "I am". It is a way of Jesus revealing His deity to His disciples. As they will clearly come to believe themselves in a moment. But only Peter really listens, He is the only one who has faith Jesus can do it. But Peter goes even further. He believes that if Jesus can do it than so can He. This gets to an important point. Peter knows the same power that allows Jesus to walk on water can bring Him to walk on water too. Jesus has been bringing them to this point, He has called them to do miracles, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and we just saw Him encourage the disciples to multiply the bread as they did but they didn't exactly get it. But here Peter says, "let me walk out in faith".

So Peter walks out of the boat, He starts walking to Jesus. But then the wind causes him to be afraid, even though the one who controls the wind and the waves is in front of Him. He took His eyes of Jesus, His began to lose faith, He doubted. Even though He knew that Jesus could do it! He was literally doing it!

Jesus asks Him "why did you doubt". Fear and doubt often are often self-fulfilling prophecies. Once we decide we are unable to do something we often falter.

The word for doubt is literally to be "divided in two", of attempting to go into two different directions. As Jesus has said, we can't have two masters, our faith has to be solely in Him. To keep our eyes on Jesus.

Sometimes we doubt the things we know God can do. We have these seeds of doubt in our minds, these slivers of fear that creep into us and cause us to back away.

-And we can say “how could Peter doubt when he was doing it!” But many of us are too doubtful to even walk out on the water!

We have to remember how big our God is.

We dealt with a hurricane this week. We as humans have learned to overcome a lot of things. We have created AC to cool us down, we have created medicine to keep us from getting sick, we've made airplanes to defy gravity. But the wind and the waves, not matter how strong we think we are we are unable to control them. We all our power and technology, they are unstoppable. But without even speaking He stops the storm...

The first thing that comes to our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about you. This is because that first thought is what is going to drive your actions. If you believe in a small God who can do very little for you than that will drive your actions. If you believe in a God who loves you but doesn't materially change your life than that will drive your desire to do more and more to succeed. If you believe in a big God who can do great things but that you don't believe will pick you up when you fall than you are going to be filled with fear and desire for security in your life.

He is bigger than our fears, our failures, our worries, our doubts.

-To be a believer is to trust that God can do greater things in your life than you can on your own. To believe in His power.

Think about the question Jesus ask Peter..."Why do you doubt?" What is your answer to that question? Where is God insufficient in your mind?

Jesus continues to heal, even those who just touch His robe are healed. Why is this significant?

-It is because the people who are touching Him have faith that if they touch His robe they will be healed. They believe that even such a minor interaction with God as touching His robe is enough to solve their problems.

-Sometimes we think that the reason God isn't working in our lives is because we don't spend enough time with Him, I think there is truth to that. But I think we also ignore that spending ANY time with Him is enough to impact our lives. We have to believe both that consistent, dedicated time with God will change our hearts while also believing that quick requests to God in faith can change our circumstances.

-In order for us to walk in faith we have to practice using our spiritual muscles.

The work of Jesus leads us to worship

It says the disciples worshipped Jesus, because His power over nature has shown them He is the Son of God.

-Sometimes we have to just stop and worship God because of who He is and what He has done.

-I think we don't stop enough in our lives and just consider the majesty of God.

Mt. 1:23 “See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.””

Jesus, in the feeding of the five thousand, has shown that He was a prophet like those in the OT, but here Jesus shows mastery over creation in a way only God can do. It also shows us the faith we should have, like the disciples, in this God over all creation.

When we recognize who Jesus is, the Son of God, we want to worship Him and we desire to have faith in Him.

But here is a part of faith that we often forget. Faith means letting go of our disobedience to sin. Faith means trusting that we don’t need that sin to live in our lives any longer and that God is greater than that thing that is ruling over us. Worship to Jesus means putting sin behind us and following Him. Faith means removing the mastery the world has over us and giving mastery to Christ. Because sin will burden us, will break us, will leave us with a lot of empty promises. But if we have faith in Jesus we will say “surely this is the Son of God.”

If you are an unbeliever today I want to encourage you, take the step of faith. Because I believe that if you do you will come away saying what the disciples said. If you are a believer today, take that first step because you know that it will lead you to Jesus and you trust in Him.