John #6

Northside Church

The Gospel of John

Oct 17, 2021

John #5

Jamey Mills

Good morning… My name is Jamey Mills, I am one of the pastors here at Northside. Always so good to be able to share with you guys.

Have you ever been blamed for something you didn't do? It’s the worst…

I have mentioned that when I showed up for Bible college… I wasn’t a Christian… and I ended up getting into some trouble… but ended up getting blamed for just about everything…

Which was a little harsh, but in all honesty it was a reputation I earned.

I did throw dummies in front of cars on the street outside of our school…

I did throw water balloons at cars

I did fill a breezeway full of snow

I may have shot a couple of people with a homemade blow gun

But clint… If you’re watching… I promise I didn’t touch your brakes…

Mr Harvison… I didn't do that to your briefcase… but… I think I know who did.

It was Mr. Harvison that had the job of dealing with me…

I was raised in CO… the hype is real… I love it there… grew up playing basketball and football in the neighborhood… riding dirt bikes and shooting guns…

And I am incredibly proud of the blue collar family I come from. My dad was a dairyman for longer than I’ve been alive… and my mom worked just as hard. They are to this day two of the hardest working people I’ve ever met… I do think some of it rubbed off on me.

My parents worked hard for everything they’ve ever had as kids and as adults…

As soon as I could, I started working at this pizza place down the street. I worked a lot… let’s hear it for $3.50 an hour. I ended up buying a truck I couldn't afford…

In 1993 I graduated HS… and on August 24th I was invited to go to college with some friends… and on September 7th I was there… in Seattle. A non christian kid getting ready for bible college… It was a rough adjustment.

I worked as much as I could at the school… but still on a few occasions… I got called into the finance office where I had this wonderful conversation with Mr. Harvison… Jamey… despite some of the things you do, we like you here. But if you can’t pay your bill, we are gonna have to send ya home.

It was hard… I worked hard… my parents did all they could… but at the end of the day, you cannot give what you don’t have…

And it reminds me of the passage we arel looking at today...

John 6:1–7 NLT

After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”

(NLT)

After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. 4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) 5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him.

Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.

7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” (over 200 days)

This is one of the few things that is in all four of the bibliographies on Jesus' life in the Bible… the gospels.

Matthew 4:13-21

Mark 6:30-44

Luke 9:10-17

John 6:1-15

Looking at each one shows us a different perspective… and when we look at all of them, we get a clearer picture of what's really going on.

In Luke it tells us that Jesus had just sent out the 12 disciples… to teach people about who He is…

While they were out doing that, Matthew and Mark tell us Jesus got word that Herod had just beheaded John the Baptist… which is a crazy story all in itself. It’s Matthew that says the news that drove Jesus to head out and spend some time alone and Mark tells us that that’s when the disciples returned… Jesus was mourning and they were exhausted… So they went out to rest and talk about their experience…

As they set out… It says people recognized them and followed them. They were becoming famous… so much so that they didn’t even have time to eat.

They were followed way out to this remote hillside… and as Jesus sat down with them, He looked up and saw a massive crowd that followed… I think a conservative estimate would be 15-20k…

They weren't coming to Jesus for the right reasons… It was very superficial. They’d heard about these signs… these miracles that Jesus did. It was less about who He is and their need Him… and more about their desire to see Him do something crazy.

It would have been easy to be annoyed I think… but Mark tells us exactly where the heart of Jesus was…

Jesus saw the crowd and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Sheep without a shepherd… thats a bad thing. It was more than dangerous it was deadly.

Sheep are prone to wander… they’re aimless and will even follow each other to their own deaths.

Shepherds lead them to food, water, and safety.

They are almost completely defenseless without a shepherd.

And without the ongoing care of a shepherd… they will die.

PICTURE of unsheared sheep.

They can suffocate, fall and not get up, bacteria can grow in that and actually eat them alive from the outside in.

When Jesus saw the crowds, that's what He saw in them. Aimless and wandering… lost and in danger… following each other around without anyone to show them where to go… and to lead them to where they belong. They were lost… unless something changes… this won't end well for them.

AND that… is the stuff that breaks the heart of God… and it’s important for you to know it… leaning on your own understanding… leading yourself… buying into secular culture… aimlessness… misguided… without truth… God knows where it leads people just like you and I… and it breaks His heart.

And so Mark tells us that Jesus took the time to teach them…

But as evening fell a new issue rose.

They were way out there… and these people would need to eat.

3 potential suggestions hit the table… John is the only one that lets us in on this conversation, his account is far more personal…

The disciples sort of universally said… look party’s over send them home, but Jesus wasn’t about to do that.

Jesus asked (tested) Philip… about buying bread… which would have been over 200 days wages according to Mark. over 8 months… Philip just told you the magnitude of what's just about to happen. This option was impossible.

Not a test for sin… but a test to see where he really was in his faith.

And then there was Andrew… it's almost comical…

John 6:8–13 NLT

Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”

10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

They are discussing this huge issue… and Andrew speaks up… I have one small boy, two fish, and five loaves…

How easy it would have been for the others to laugh… Andrew you idiot… what good is that gonna do?

But it says that Jesus took it… prayed over it… began distributing to the disciples to take the people who had sat in groups of 50 or so (Mark)... and everyone ate until they were full… and when they were done… there was more left over than what they started with.

There was no doubt… to the people who sat there, to the boy… to His disciples what had just happened....

Jesus had made something out of near nothing…

and be sure that Jesus’ purpose is far greater than full stomachs.

Something out of near nothing… teaches us a lot.

It teaches us about the work God does in us and the work he does through us.

God continues to work in people in ways that defy the wisdom of man… and I laugh… because I feel like I am a part of that.

1 Corinthians 1:27 NLT

Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.

reminds us that God uses the foolish to humble the wise… and uses the weak to humble the strong.

It was Gideon… that said… who am I… I'm the smallest guy from the smallest family inside of the smallest tribe… WHO AM I. and God basically said… dude, take a walk… who am I. God used him and a handful of others to deliver his people from one of the most powerful armies of that day.

Jesus made something incredible out of nearly nothing… I believe that;s true about me… and it speaks into the next thing.

God doesn’t expect us to give what we don’t have, but He calls us to be faithful with what it is we do have.

… what He hasn’t provided.

… and what it is He has provided.

He is the one that uses the little that we bring… if we are willing to bring it… and uses it to move mountains. It seems like God often works that way…

Why? God is passionate about us being right with Him… bringing what we have to Him tp matter how little or broken it is.

Reminds me of Luke 21,People were dropping their offerings into the box… and almost embarrassingly, this poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. Jesus was honored by her heart… compared to those who had given more even though it was a tiny part of their surplus.

Northside… is such a powerful example of of those who continue to bring the little they have… time, talent, gifts, resources… that have already impacted and encouraged so many… but think down the line 50 years at the thousands who will meet Jesus and have their lives radically changed by his love and grace and it starts with us… faithfully bridging what we have and putting it in the hands of the one who moves mountains.

All we have is His… from Him.

Js 4:2-3… we don't have because we don’t ask… how quickly we forget… to bring it to Him and place what we have in His hands.

No matter what we face… that is the Jesus point…

The people there knew what happened…

John 6:14–15 NLT

When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.

14 When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” 15 When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.

They knew what had happened and immediately connected the dots. They were ready to force Him to be King, how does that even work. It’s one of the things that caught my attention about Jesus right away… He could have demanded that… He could have ruled that way… He might have been able to have great influence and great impact, and even avoid the cross that he knew was coming. But that is not what he came to do.

John reminds us that this was near Passover… something they celebrated every year that invokes this nationalistic kind of fervor this Pride… remembering when God came through for them… Under cruel oppressive captivity in Egypt, God chose Moses… LONG before this all happened… to lead His people out. Egypt didn't want to get rid of their free labor so they fought it and God sent one punishing and disastrous plague after another… until finally… they couldn't take it anymore.

The last one… the original passover… God told His people the night before they were delivered to take a perfect lamb and sacrifice it to the Lord… they were to eat all of it, and then put the blood on the doorpost… and in doing it, they’d avoid the fate of the Egyptians.

God didn't need a reminder of where His people were… it was a sign of their willingness to listen… to hear Him and to follow Him.

His people were delivered from Captivity and oppression… and moved out into the promise of God but it didn't completely look or feel the way they thought it would. The journey was hard… they whined and complained and even at one point… Longed for the harsh captivity they came from.

Colossians and Hebrews both talk about how so much in the OT are actually shadows; powerful pictures that point to something that was to come.

God Was preparing His people, people in general for what was to come so that when it came they would recognize where it came from. They would realize what God was doing.

It’s why they referred to Jesus as a prophet… quoting the word Moses used in the wilderness to tell them Jesus was coming to deliver them in the fullest sense in Deut. 18.

And Jesus used that to tell them in very OT terms… that they were right… He is the one Moses told about… He is the final passover Lamb… that saves us from the fate of those who do not choose to willingly not to listen and follow.

Jesus used the imagery of the passover… to tell these people (WAY TRUTH LIFE)

This passage wasn’t just about filling the stomachs of a curious crowd, it was about where true fullness comes from. Jesus tells them that He is the bread of life…

And it's only through finding our true fullness and satisfaction in Him that we are spiritually sustained…

And it was too much for some… John tells us that many of his disciples walked away right there… you can read about it… in

John 6:66 NLT

At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.

isn't that strange.

Jesus turned to the 12 He was closed too… and asked if they’d be leaving too and it was Peter that said… Where else would we go… we know who you are and that your words bring life.

Eat from what it is He provides… without ever realizing the reality of who He is… and in doing that… missing the point.