Limitless Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
Claim: Humanity understimates Jesus: the feeding of 5000 forshadows his abumndant blessing to humanity in salavtion.
Focus: Don’t limit Jesus to human expectations, he’s the king of abundant and compassionate salavtion.
Function: To marvel at the abundant comapassion of Jesus.
PRAY
I find that my children do what they are told more readily
when they understand and can see my logic and reasoning for asking them something.
That said, let’s be honest, kids aren’t that bright - they have a lot of growing up, and maturing to do!
and so they just need to obey and trust their parents whether they understand or not!
In fact - it’s ridiculous that they sometimes think they know better than someone with 30 years more life experinces, education than them!
And that’s a hard lesson that sometimes we forget when dealing with God Almighty.
I Like it when people do what I tell them to do. Of course the most obvious place I get to enjoy that power is as a Father.
I expect my chidlren to do what I tell them. On the whole they are pretty good at it - mainly becasue the alternative for them is more painful than the command!
What is interesting though are the reasons for when they don’t follow my instructions.
Restricted by Expectation
Sometimes it’s becasue they think they’ll be missing
Limiting Jesus to the Miraculous
And it’s a hard lesson the disciples and the crowds in todays passage needed to learn about Jesus.
That whatever they thought they knew,
or wanted,
JEsus has more to offer than answering prayers - as great as that is! He has come as ‘The Sign’ salavtion itself - whatever happens in this life.
or expected from Jesus.
The place of the disicples
They need to not limit Jesus to their own understanding - but to believe in who he said he was.
Things are about to get exciting in John’s Gospel!
This week, 5000 men, and therefore probbaly about 15,000 people in total are about to be fed by Jesus!
That’s a lot of people! And he’s goign to do it with just 5 loafs and 2 fish!
I have abig family, but this is a new level!
And next week, Jesus is going to roll out his real party trick, walking on water!
WHo is this guy!
And that’s the real question isn’t it!
Who is this guy?
Well I bet
Who is Jesus!
It’s the question that we’ve been asking all the way through the book of John so far,
as we’ve seen Jesus meet all sorts of people and do all sorts of things.
CHpater 1 - Jesus is introduced as God himself - become man.
He’s the promised messiah of ther OT,
fulfilling all those promises of salavtion that the jews were supposed to be expecting.
He’s the one worth follwoing, as JOhn the Baptisst disciples leave John and follow Jesus.
He’s the man of social compassion and miraculaous power as he turned water into wine,
avoiding embarrassment for the wedding host,
and pointing us forward to a idea that Jesus himsefl is the new wine of God’s covennat!
He will make a way back to God for all of humanity - whatever our lives have been or are like!
Nicidemus the Jewish leader in chpater 3 wasn’t yet ready to accept all that Jesus climed to be.
His life remained in the dark.
But hope is introduced for all humanity to this very day,
as Jesus crosses every barrier we can think of
to bring salavtion to the ‘Woman at the well’ in chpater 4.
An adultress, a social outcast amoung her own people,
belonging to a people who were themseleves alienated from the ‘proper people!’
He’s the Man who wants all of us to find his love,
the Lord of the harvest of salavtion.
He’s the man who heals the sick,
to show us his power even over death!
You can trust him,
You must trust me!
You need him, for he loves you and will show his compassion even when you reject him,
As we saw with the paralyzed man in chapter 5.
And then last week,
He’s the one who is equal to God the Father himself.
Jesus will be both saviour to those that belive,
but also judge to those who refuse him.
He does not seek our glory,
he only lives to obey his Fatehr in Heaven in Love,
He’s the man who will die in our place, the lamb of god,
He will rise again to new life.
He will defeat death itself for all who believe!
He will return again,
and for him we still wait in great anticipation even today here in WP.
Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
john 5 25
The depth and richness of the person of Jesus is being broadcast for us in 5K detail - not just 4K.
And better than that, John is showing us a brilliant 3D film of Jesus!
The question is, as we get to this extraordinary account today,
is, have you put on your 3D glasses - or are we still limiting Jesus to a 2D blurry experience!
Slide - 3D glasses
So, We have 2 points, but the first has some sub-points,
They are on your service sheets, or on the screen as we go through.
Firstly then,
1. Limiting Jesus
1. Limiting Jesus
a. to Experience v1-2
a. to Experience v1-2
Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.
It’s not suprising really,
that people who have seen these incredible and miraculous healings being performed by Jesus,
want to follow him around and see what he’ll do next!
I would be amoung them!
The near dead healthy again,
paralized men, walking instantly.
We read in the other gospel accounts of this same event,
that there were so many people follwoing Jesus and his disciples that they were actually going to the other side of the lake to get a break, have a rest!
But so incredible was Jesus’ signs and wonders,
that people followed them, miles away from their home towns!
But as we’ll see later on, these people actually have alimited view of just how amazing Jesus is!
The feeding of the 5000 that is about to happen is not
For them, the miraculous, the experince, the buzz, is what it’s all about!
And as we saw in , they according to Jesus - are missing out on something better!
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
What a tragedy, if any of us here are also limiting Jesus to experince.
We love the chudch family.
People are nice, we have friends here,
singing makes you feel good inside,
having the option to pray gives us a sense of spirituality, that reassures us.
It’s the wrold view of our time isn’t it.
Religious practices, being part of fellowship, singing even are all important well-being startergies.
Society even suggests that the positive mental effects of being religious shows why Christainity is still popular!
Surely though its the other way around!
Becasue God encourages us to be part of a church familiy, to sing and to pray - then doing that is to be living as we were designed by him to live, so of course we feel better when we do!
Many churches have even adopted such a view that.
Church is just for imporving lives, sharing community love, being inclusive of everyone and every view.
What a shame to limit Jesus just to experince!
Jesus is so much more than mental health, experience, community and love for each other!
He is about eternal life, beyond this life,
freedom from judment and condemnation.
eternity with God the Father in joy and celebration.
And that comes from belief in the death and resurection of Jesus as our saviour and Lord, the Son of God.
Are you here today to make yourself feel better,
have an experience of Jesus’ people and cumminty,
Then great - but don’t limit Jesus to that.
That is to miss the LImitless Jesus of eternal love.
1. Limiting Jesus
1. Limiting Jesus
b. to the Ordinary v3-9
b. to the Ordinary v3-9
It’s not just the crowds who are limitting Jesus - the disciples themselves still haven’t grasped the limitless Jesus.
Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
I did a few sums based on my own families food expenditure.
john 6 3
It costs about £4.23 per mouth per day to live in our house,
so that’s an average of £1.41per meal.
There are 5000 men here with Jesus,
so conservative estimates including women and children are around 15000 people!
£1.41 x 15000 = £21150
For 1 meal in todays money!
That’s silly money for a bunch of travelling preachers and fishermen!
And the gap between salaries and food bills
would have been much closer in thsoe days,
with most of a household salary all going on food!
Philip without the aid of his smart phone calculator is probably pretty close with his estimate
of 6months salary just to give each person a bite, let alone a meal!
But it’s a test from Jesus - did you see that?
Havent’ you seen enough from me yet thinks Jesus,
that you surely know that no problem is too great fro me to overcome!
I’m limitless in my power over sickness and material things!
W
I turned water into wine,
surely you know I could turn grass into chicken curry if I wanted!
But Philip, like us perhaps today - limits Jesus to the ordinary!
In our practical and scientific world,
we even as Christians often limit the spiritual work and person of Jesus to the same ‘ordianary’ expectations.
I want to be clear here,
all through the gospels,
Jesus has performed miraculous physical signs and wonders
in order to proove to us that he is truely the son of God,
the one who lovingly offers eternal life.
He is not performing miralces so that we can seek physical miracles today - infact,
he’s regulalriy rebuking the people of this time for looking for signs,
rather than seeing the spiritual signifcance of what they are pointing to!
And later in chapter 6, he will tell us.
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
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So, the application here, has to be to ask -
Oh, I’m limiting Jesus if I don’t think he can
where am I at risk of limiting the spritual work and person of Jesus to our ordinary understanding of practical life?
And I think the most obvious conclusion would be in our attitude towards the power of the gospel for salvation.
Who have you written off to become a CHristian -
because - well, they are the sort of people who would never believe!
How many excuses have you made,
or perhaps not even thought about,
to not to join in with the door knocking next week,
or other evangelistic oppertunities -
becasue - well it never really will work will it.
How many people have you not prayed for to be saved,
not talked too about your faith,
not persevered a second time after a converstaion that ended about Jesus!
Dont imit Jesus to the ordinary!
Jesus and his work of the gospel, the good news of salavtion - who he is, is limitless!
And to show us with practical proof,
he demonstrtaes to Philip, and the Andrew who also limits his expectations of Jesus,
by feeding 15000 people with a little boys packed lunch!
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
8-
You limited me to the ordinary - we’d need £21150 to feed these guys.
You limited me to 5 loafs and a couple of fish!
Look how abundant is my love and compassion for humanity!
You’ve gathered 12 baskets full of leftovers!
A basket for each disciple perhaps as a reminder of his limitless love.
But more likely a basket for the 12 tribes of Israel -
another picture that Jesus is here to save the whole people of God
- all the tribes of Israel
- representing all those who believe in Jesus today as well.
an extension of the promise made to Abraham in the OT.
A basket for you and me sitting here today.
A basket for you and me sitting here today.
A basket that can include your loved ones who don’t yet beleieve.
A son a daughter,
A parent,
a spouse,
and friend,
a neighbour,
a colleuge!
Don’t limit Jesus to the ordinary -
for he can do the miraculous with his gospel, so share it, pray for it, and know that he can save.
The 3rd way in which Jesus is limited in this account is with people limiting Jesus:
c. to this Life v14-15
c. to this Life v14-15
After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
Finnaly, it sounds as if the crowd have worked out that Jesus really is the promised one of the OT!
They want to make him King!
But Jesus knows they still have missed the point - so he makes a quick exit!
This has to be some of the most wonderful proof that Jesus is who he said he was!
Any mere human, or human plan would have accepted the call to be the king!
He’s got a 5000 storng army of men here with him already!
He could have, as they wanted him to,
marched on the Roman occupation of the time
and fought to deliver them from rule.
He could have restored the laws and freedoms of Jewish society to the people!
It wouldn’t have been a bad thing!
God had given the Jews a brillinat structure and laws for a great society!
And they were expecting a King to come and restore all of that!
It would have been incredible, dramatic,
a huge event in history!
But - for Jesus - not huge enough!
They were limiting Jesus as King to this life!
Where as Jesus sought a LIMITLESS Reign.
For all time, for all who believe, for eternity!
His life resulted in not another coronation and battle story in the history books,
But his life resulted in the the most talked about, most siggnificant event in all of time.
The man who came to earth,
A Man who demonstrated himself to be God,
yet, accepted death
rose again,
all so his limitless rule as king,
his limitless love for humanity,
his limitless adundance in provision,
Could be just that.
Limitless.
Don’t be disalusioned like the crowd
if Jesus doesn’t do for you what you expected.
That’s to limit Jesus!
He has far greater plans for all who believe,
than you can every comprehend of imagine!
He is our
2. Limitless Jesus the King v10-13, 15
2. Limitless Jesus the King v10-13, 15
I turst this point has been made clear already.
Limiting Jesus to our Expectations
The place of the nation
Jesus himself knew that the way his kingdom would triumph would not be by beating the enemy in siege warfare, but by dying and rising from the dead; ‘he would go to Jerusalem not to wield the spear and bring the judgment, but to receive the spear thrust and bear the judgment’
Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 273). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 3. The Feeding of the Five Thousand (6:1–15)
The connections become complex: the sacrifice of the lamb anticipates Jesus’ death, the Old Testament manna is superseded by the real bread of life, the exodus typologically sets forth the eternal life that delivers us from sin and destruction, the Passover feast is taken over by the eucharist (both of which point to Jesus and his redemptive cross-work). ‘The movement from the miracle to the discourse, from Moses to Jesus (vv. 32–5, cf. 1:17), and, above all, from bread to flesh, is almost unintelligible unless the reference in v. 4 to the Passover picks up 1:29, 36, anticipates 19:36 (Exod. 12:46; Num. 9:12), and governs the whole narrative’ (Hoskyns, p. 281). At the same time, the Passover Feast was to Palestinian Jews what the fourth of July is to Americans, or, better, what the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne is to loyalist Protestants in Northern Ireland. It was a rallying point for intense, nationalistic zeal. This goes some way to explaining the fervour that tried to force Jesus to become king (cf. notes on v. 15).
2 kings 4 42-
A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
“How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.
But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ ” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 3. The Feeding of the Five Thousand (6:1–15)
If Jesus used the common form of Jewish thanksgiving, he said something like this: ‘Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth.’ Jesus ‘blesses’ God, i.e. he thanks God; he does not ‘bless’ the food.
Let us not LImit Jesus by our earthly eperience of him,
So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
and my people will be filled with my bounty,”
declares the Lord.
12 baskets - 12 tribes - enough for everyone else - not just those there.
Let us not limit Jesus to our ordinary expectations of life.
Let us not limit Jesus to ‘this life’ we presently live in.
14 -
Let us trust, with all our hearts,
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.
our
Limitless Jesus the King.
Put on your 3D glasses!
Just as he fed the hungry 15000, so he will return to feast with all who believe forever more!
Just as he avoided being crowned by the crowd - to instead wear the crown of thorns in our place -
We know how much he loves us eternally.
Rejoice today,
repent today
Believe in Jesus the Son of God today.
He is our king, and eveything about him, is,
well simply:
Limitless.
Pray
Significance of Jesus the Bread -
Their attention was focused on food (v. 26) and victory (v. 15)—not on the divine self-disclosure mediated through the incarnate Son, not on the Son as the bread of life, not on a realistic assessment of their own need.
Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 271). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
15 - Moses led out of Egytpe, so Jesus ought to lead them out of Roman occupation
They want him to be the king who acts as they desire!
Not the king he must be.
If need be they will force Jesus into being the ‘king’ they want - much like the request for King Saul!
15 - They want a general, not a shepherd.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 3. The Feeding of the Five Thousand (6:1–15)
Mark and John are mutually supportive: each makes clear certain features of the other’s account. Mark points out that just before the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus sent the Twelve on a trainee mission throughout Galilee. The results were so spectacular that Herod Antipas was terribly upset, and wondered if John the Baptist, whom he had beheaded, had come back to life (Mk. 6:7–30). In the light of his popularity with the crowds, Jesus had crossed over to the east bank of the lake, along with his disciples, in order to gain some respite from their pressing attentions, and perhaps also to escape Herod’s jurisdiction. But the surging crowd ran around the north end of the lake and met Jesus on the east bank: escaping from Herod was easier than escaping from the crowd. Jesus taught them and fed them, for ‘he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd’ (Mk. 6:34). This does not so much mean that Jesus viewed them as a congregation without a pastor, as that he saw them as an army without a general (1 Ki. 22:17). He well knew that the wrong sort of ‘king’ would not only divert them from the things that really mattered, but could lead them into a conflict with Rome from which they could not escape without a disastrous beating. All of this background, made clear in Mark, explains John 6:15. John does not bother to provide more details, most likely because they were largely irrelevant when he wrote: Jerusalem had already fallen, and the political setting was vastly different from when Jesus ministered and Mark wrote. Yet ironically, it is John, not Mark, that preserves the conclusion that Jesus knew the people were going to try to make him king by force—a fitting capstone for, and corroboration of, Mark’s account, and a compelling explanation of Mark 6:45.