Miracles and parables of Jesus part 4

Good morning it is nice to be back here with you all, don’t get me wrong I enjoyed spending some time up at Tobin lake speaking at a bible camp and doing some fishing, but there is no place quiete like home, so im am happy to be back even though i had an extermaly fun weekened. Let’s tale a moment to bow to our father, (1 min) amen.

We are going to be continuing our seres on the Miracles and parables of Jesus this morning, and just a quick reminder of what a miracle is, “It is an event that may seem contrary to nature, and singifies and act which reavelas God to man” it’s not just a fancy thing that happenes. and a parable is “a short and simple story that is used to teach either or moral or spitirtual lesson” and we interpet parables by looking at the context, cast, plot, conflict, resolution, and call to change. We have looked at a three maricles and three parables up to this point and today we continu in the Gospel of John going into chapter six looking at what is one of my favorite miarcles, Jesus feeding the five thousand.

I hope you have your bibles with you this morning, we are going to be going to John 6:1-15

John 6:1–15 CSB

After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand. Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

At the start here we see John identitfy a few things, one that Jesus has crossed the Sea of Galilee, two a huge crowed was following him because they have seen him preforming signs and wonderis, and thirdly John says that Jesus went up to a moutain to sit with his diciples. Now none of this is new, we are used to seeing a big crowed with Jesus and we are used to hearing about how he is going up to moutains, and I think we talked about this back when Dude study was going on but when the Bible talks about these mouitains in regards to the Sea if Galilee, they well really aren’t moutains. As you can see on the screen here this is where Jesus would have been, and here is a picture of what it looks like, now the landscape itself hasn’t really changed, it’s not like broken down building it’s land, and you can see from the picture it’s really not a mountain it’s more of a hill. Now theologically this doesn’t matter, but I think having a proper undertsanid of the area Jesus was teaching is is an important thing. I know personally before really studying this stuff everytime I heard the sermon on the moutn I imagined like a jungleish desserty oisis kind of mountain with trails, and it turns out that it just mostly wrong. However we can understand then that when Jesus is followed by a large crowed it’s very visable, there is no real privaacy it’s wide open and you could have a large crowed because of all the room and you could probebly see tmost of them, not because your on a mountain but because of how it’s kinda slowly in a decline. so when Jesus goes up a mountain he is probebly just at the top of one of the small hills there.

Then John add’s another important detail, and that ius that the passover, a jewish festival was near. Now if you remeber from two weeks ago John also said that there was a special feast that I argued was the passover and that would mean that this is the second passover during Jesus’s ministry, and in Total John’s Gospel has three Passovers which is why we say Jesus ministry was around three and a half years. So even these small details are important sometimes. And then Jesus Then does something a little interesting verse 5 “he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. This is one of those times where I think we ask ourselfs like serioulsy Jesus why are you doing this when you know what they are going to do? but I guess it is a test and it’s not like they do anyhting wrong, but it does infact show us a mystery in some way doesn’t it? Jesus knew what Philip was going to say, yet he asks anyway in a form of a test. Philip knows that Jesus can preform miracles, yet his answer is almost not an answer to the actually question. Philip simply respond’s with “Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.” It’s almost like Philip knows Jesus want’s to feed them and instead of answering the question of where, philip just stats that it’s impossible there is no way they can feed all these people becauase it would cost more then 200 danari, and a danari was likely arond a days wage, meaning a half years wage basically would not be enough to feed these people. that’s just simpoly how many there where. We also know that in the Gospel of Mark during this account we see that one of the diciples ask “should we go buy two houndred danari worth of bread?” and then in John we get the following statement after that question is posed that two houndred danri wouldn’t be enough. Is’nt it so cool to see how the gospel account’s support one another? I mean we literally have another part of the conversatoin, I just think that is so cool. Anyways the point is the money it would cost to try and feed these people is a large large amount, and that it wouldn’t even be enough, maybe evereyone could have a crumb, becuase remeber there is over 5000 peoplle here, some schoolers say that there was 8-10 thousand people, we don’t know the exact number but we know there was more then 5000 people. And they are hungry and they have no food and there is not enough money to feed them so what do you do? Well as we continue to read one of Jesus diciples “One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand. Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.

Jesus takes the five loaves of bread and the two fish and somehow through his divine power by being truly God and truly man, turns this into a mass amount of food. It is absolulty amazing, and we read that they had as much as they wanted, or your translation may say they had there fill. Can you imagine seeing this? I mean honestly this is one of those Miracles that I wish I could see because man that is just insane! and as we continue Jeuss actually tells the diciples in John 6:12–13 “When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.” See that leftovers are biblical! Jesus made so much that there was twelve baskets filled with bread and fish. I mean honestly I can not even imagine how much food was there. Yet we se Jesus do something so well honeslty easy for him to do, he give’s thanks and all of a sudden bread is being past out and so is fish. The other gospel account’s actually let us in on the fact that Jesus himself was not handing out the bread and fish individually, but that he was braking it and handing it to the diciples who would then go and lay it before the crowds. We cleary here see once again that Jesus is creator, he someone make these few loaves of bread and two fish last for over five thousand people,only someone who can create things out of a limitted amoutn of food can do this and the only person who can do that is God. But we do not only see how Jesus is creator, but we also see how Jesus is loving, God cares for those who are needy, those who need to be satisfied physically. And for the diciples I woudl say that it serves as a test spiritual, do you believe that your master, your God can actuallyy do something that is impossible? It is important for us to look at this miracle and understand that it’s not just about Jesus as creator but that it aslo shows how God cares for us physically aswell. Matthew 6:31–32 “So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” We are promised that we will be taken care of physically, now do not take this out of context and assume that you are going to be blessed with extreame wealth and a whole bunch of food and water, no just that you will be taken care of, sometimes your physical need of hunger is simply meet with just a loave of bread, enough to sustain you physically and nothing more, but that is a promise from God, that you will be provided for when you are faithful. it might not look amazing or even taste good, but It will happen. And as we continue with our main passage the last few verses show us what happens next, John 6:14–15 “When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” Like any normal people we find a guy who can give us food eternally we want him to be our king, I honeslty don’t think this is actually that hard to relate with, I mean If someone came to me and all of a sudden could make an unlitmited amount of Kraft dinner out of one box, I would propebly lock them up in my house. Like im just being honest! the crowed sees that this Jesus guy can not only heal the sick, but also feed a mass number of poople forever, that sound’s like the perfect king for war, because he can heal the wonded and you will never run out of rations and therefore you can not be defeated. and we actually see there minset right of the bat when they say that “This is a prophet” Now we might read this and think well what’s the problem with sayinig this, well you see those who call Jesus a prohpet are typically those who don’t actually know anything about him. He is so much more than a prophet, The women at the well called him a prohpet unitl she realized he was actually much more than that, Or in the gospel of matthew we see Jesus ask his diciples about who the people say the Son of man is? and they say John the baptist, eligha others say jeremigh or one of the other prohpets, and this is how these people say Jesus a prohpet who could do amaizing things, but not one who would spitirtually save them. So Jesus seeing realzing that this large crowed is going to gather and force him to be king starting a mini reveliution agains the Roman empire leaves and goes to the moutain by himself. Jesus always has a way of getting out of things until it’s his time huh, it shows that divine timeline again, things do not oparate to our understanding but to God’s. As we take a look at this miracle it’s not simply about Jesus being creator, but about his love and care for those in this world, he want’s to provide physically for us, and he want’s us to share in the spiritual renoiing that comes with being his, but we must understsand that he is our savior and our master. The people had a wrong view about Jesus, thinking he would be a king or a prophet who would help them get back from under Romes rule, and yes Jesus does do that in a sesnse of deafting death physically, he was not there to overthrow the govermant. And As diciples of Jesus I think we often times can fall into viewing Jesus as something he is not, we view him as a friend and only a friedn, someone who will just affirm whatever we want him to affirm, someone who not matter how we live our lives will be out ticket into heaven. And that simply isn’t the truth about Jesus. The large crowed wanted him to be a King, and we often just want him as a friend. But Jesus is so much more than that, he is our master our Lord and we strive to give him the glory every single day. trusting that he will provide for us as we contiune to preach the gospel and help those who are in need. We need to know who Jesus is and not miss out on it, these people could have spent more time with Jesus and learned much more but they decided to not listen and make him king cauisng him to leave. It is important that we understand who Jesus is and not have a wrong view of him.

And since we are talking about a Miracle regarding food I figured the parbale we will go through should aslo talk about food, so if you would, turn with me to Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1–14 CSB

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ “But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city. “Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests. When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This is a fairly popular parable and I am sure most of us have read this at some point, it’s one of those parables that can actually be slightly confusing to understand for our culture because we do not typically have a king say to us join me for dinner. But here Jesus tells us of a king who had a wedding banquet for his son. and there are those who attend and those who don’t so let’s go through the step’s of interpeting this parable.

Context: if we go back we see that this is just one parable in a list of three, ours being the third in the list, the one before is the parable of the vineyard owner, and the first one is the parable of the two sons. But we need to go even further back unless we want to try to interpet each parable, so going all the way back to Matthew 21:23 “When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority?” And yes I know that this is a different chapter so how can it be connected, but remeber there where not verse and chapters in the original text, this would have been read in one big sitting and not broken up but all connected in some way. So Jesus is confronting the cheif prest and elders, because they are asking him by what athority is he teaching? And the reasson they ask this is because Jesus has been teaching by his own authority, also just before this in Matthew 21:12 Jesus is cleansing the temple and talking about how those who claim Christ but produce no fruit like a fig tree will now inherit the kingdome, and the cheif preast are getting upset with this kind of teaching. So what’s the context, Jesus is confronting the questions being ask of him by the cheif preist and elders of Jerusalem. This is important to note because this truly does impact the overall call to change and resolution of the parable, because we must realte it back to them and how Jesus is talking to them, yes there will be applicaytion for us, but the appilication has to be fairly simmiler to that of it’s own day it can’t be compelety different.

The next step then, who are the cast? Well right of the bat we have a king and his son, we have servants, guests, uninvited guests both evil and good, man not dresseed properly. And just so that we are all clear, the king is God the father and the son is Jesus.

What about the plot then? Well we have a king who is having a wedding banquet for his son, he invites guest but they refuse to come, because of this the king invites anyone off the street to come and join the banquet, and during this time there is a man who is not dressed proparly and is killed because of this.

So what’s the conflict? I would say that it’s the idea of choosing wheather or not to go to the banquet porpoerly dressed or not. and it’s much deeper than that, because I also see a clear picture of respecting and understanding the importance of the one inviting you to the banquet which is the reasson the one man was killed for not dressing properly. But inn order to sum it up on a slide I am going to say this “When invited by the king to go to is banquet do you go or do you stay?”

So what’s the resoulution to this then? Well it’s actually fairly simple, when the king invites you to a banquet, wheather it is last minute or not, you show up and you show up in the proper attire.

What is the call to change then? well before getting super deep into it I do want to take a moment so that we all understand wha’ts going on, the king as we already noted represents God and the son is Jesus. Now the servant’s represent the prohpets of old and the diciples of the time, they go out with Jesus those who are is and tell people about the amazing news of the kingdome of God at hand this is what we read about in the gospel accounts and this is what we see in acts and the rest of the bible. The feast is not an actuale feast but the truth that the kingdome of God is at hand and something absoulutly amazing is here and you should want to take part in it. So who are those that are invited? well this is where the context really matters, because at first glance you might just say I have no idea and move on, but knowing that Jesus is talkiing to the Cheif preaist and elders we know it’s the Jews, those who arre the people of God those who are chosen, and as we read the reast of the gospel and look at the history of what happens we see that they reject Jesus, they don’t want the beatufial feast they don’t truly know Jesus or rtespect him as the son of the king. so what is going to happen to those who do not know him who do not accept the invitation of eternal life? they are going to die and be where theknoashing of teeth are. That is specific to those right now in Jesus time, Jesus is directly talking to those who are jewish he refuse to acccept him, and then he says ok fine, we are going to go out and invitte the entire world to this amazing banquet, because those who refuse are no longer worthy, so the sevents go out and invite everyone to come and not both evil and good. These are the gentiles, sinners, us, we are invited to join Christ wheather or not we are believes we can come to the banquet. Yet finally when the king join’s the banquet and he looks at all the quest, those who actually understand who the king is and respect him are going to be dressed preoperly and those who do not and just want the food are going to be thrown out. Because many are invited but few are chosen. because only those who truly respect the king and put him first, knowing who he is can have the banquet.

So what’s the call to change? specifically to those right know listening to Jesus? If you are invited to the banquet, dress properly, and understand you are in the presence of the king. Jesus is telling the presist that they where invited but how they are living now they will not be worthy anymore because they won’[t even realize it is the king inviteing them and then they will die and suffer because they rejected the invitations. But even more Jesus says to all who and up invited because all are invited, know that you can come but you must be dressed properaly, now this is not actually mneaning dress properely, but to understand that you are going to be in the prescene of the king which itself demands that you dress nicely showing respect at the time, for us it’s a bit differnt, all are invited and when we come to the banquet we eat and fellopwship and but christ first living the life that is honering to him because we respect our king and master, those who call themselfs christians but do not follow what the bible teaces are the ones who are not dressed properaly, and if you are not dressed properly for when the king is here you will not have eternal life with him. This parable is not just about understanding who Jesus really i, it aslo serves as a reminder that the king is commiing back and he will decided if you are staying or leaving.

So what is our call to change? well it’s the same as the preist and elders, are we just saying we are diciples of jesus but not giving him the respectt of a LORD? a king? our master? or are we just here for the food? because yes we as dicisples iof Jesus can not truly know who is saved or not, we can look at the fruit and make educated guessses, but ultiumatly it is the kingt who decideds where they go, so are we going to live a life that is actually honering Christ or are you simply saying you lov eJesus and are a diciples, yet how you act, the life you live is the exact opposite? full of disrespect for you king?

The miracle we looked at emphised the importance of knowing who Jesus actually is and not putting our own interpetation of who we want him to be, and in this parable we see the realtionship bewtween truly undersstanding and respecting our king as a king, or jsut treating him as whoever we want. We must as diciples of Jesus have a correct view of who Jesus is, we can not put our own ideas on who he is and so many christians do that, which is why we have so many woke christians or preogessive christians who don’;t even know who the true Jesus is. Hague community church we must fight these lies, one because we love our god and master, but two, because we want as many people at that wedding banquet as possible.