July 28, 2024
Morning Service

We last left Jesus presenting an enormous amount of evidence to the Jewish religious leaders that He was indeed the One they had been looking for; their Messiah.  He did not come out and proclaim the fact, but He explained clearly how John the Baptist’s ministry, His miraculous works, His Heavenly Father, and the scriptures all testify and prove His true identity.  It is upon that basis, faith that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God, that the church is built upon (Matt. 16:18).  It is in our believing of this fact that grants us to receive the free gift of salvation.  It was these leaders’ rejection of that fact that leads to their condemnation.  Today we begin John 6, a powerful chapter, that begins as Jesus has moved away from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee.  His ministry and His popularity grows by the day.

  John 6:1-4 After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius.  (2)  Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.  (3)  And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.  (4)  Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.

            With His popularity growing it was becoming impossible to avoid those seeking after Him.  Notice the reasoning John gives us; “because they saw His signs which He performed.”  It appears he is suggesting that they were coming to see the miracles, not truly seeking to follow the teachings of the One performing them.  They were not diligently seeking Him, but were hoping to be entertained.  This comes into play later in this chapter as Jesus knows their hearts.  Jesus sees the crowd and has compassion upon them and also sees an opportunity to teach His disciples.

 

John 6:5-7 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?"  (6)  But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.  (7)  Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little."

            Jesus, already knowing the outcome of this situation (as He does in all situations), asks Philip this question to test him.  This would be like me coming to Rhonda and saying “We want to feed the entire city of Mitchell today, how are we going to do that?”  Philip answered, as many of us would, of a practical solution that they may have made it possible to feed a few hundred, but not thousands.  Jesus was proposing to him an impossible task that he tried to solve with his own ability.

 Has the Lord ever tested your faith in this manner by placing you in what seems like an impossible situation; in essence asking you “what you are going to do with this?” (Fully knowing what He plans to do with it) Was it through the diagnosis of cancer?  Losing a job?  Losing a loved one?  Having a loved one caught up in addiction?  Rebellious children?  Sick child?  Being persecuted by peers?  Marital troubles?  Financial issues?  The list can go on and on including what you are personally going through this morning.  In other words, have you ever been in a situation in which you are powerless to fix on your own?  If we are following Jesus, He has led us to this point in our life on purpose.  He knows what He is going to do for you, but He is testing your faith as He tested Philip here.  I wish I could say I always look first to God when these situations arise, but I usually react just like Philip and ask “how can I fix this?”  The purpose of these tests are not to tear us down, but to build our faith to know that when I can’t, God can!  I am not saying He will fix the issue every time like we want it, but He will walk with us through it and by His presence in the Holy Spirit He will empower us move forward.  “If He leads us to it, He will lead us through it!”  Our true faith is revealed in difficult times like these.  Do we really trust Him to do what is best?  Let’s see how this test works out.

 

Joh 6:8-13 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, (9)” There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"  (10)  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.  (11)  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.  (12)  So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost."  (13)  Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

 

            Jesus takes what we have and multiplies it to be more than enough.  Andrew brought the five loaves and two fish knowing it was not enough, but offered it to Jesus anyway.  That is all He is asking of us as well; “bring to Me all that you have and I will make it enough.”  It was Jesus’ blessing upon the food that multiplied it.  Had Andrew started passing it out before the blessing, maybe two or three people would have gotten fed, not thousands.  The key for us is to ask for Jesus to bless our efforts in dealing with seemingly hopeless situation and He will make a way.  Here is what energy I have use it.  Here is my knowledge of this use it.  Here is the money I have use it.  Here are the abilities I have use them.  He takes what we have and makes it enough. He did not call us because we were qualified, He qualifies us because He called us.  He loves us just as we are, but He refuses to leave us that way as He desires us to be like Him. The lesson here is for us to have enough faith and trust in Him in every circumstance to simply follow obediently believing fully in Him.  He is leading and we are called to follow, it is that simple.

 

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

            That verse stretches us to believe when the “all things” are very difficult ones like the ones we mentioned earlier.  That is when the rubber meets the road and our true faith is given a chance to grow.  Just as a muscle must be to stretched to its limits to be made stronger, so is our faith.  No pain, no gain.  James tells us to rejoice when these trials come upon us because they have a purpose.

 

James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, (3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  (4)  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

          Our challenge this morning is to be so in tune with our faith and following Jesus, that we rejoice when trials (big and small) come our way.  God is testing our faith through them.  This testing will build our patience and our endurance to hold on to Jesus when we have nothing else.  He sees you.  He hears you.  He is with you.  He will never leave you or forsake you. This test will do its work, if we allow it, to move us to “be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  The road to perfection is not the wide easy path, but the steep difficult one.

            A relevant example would be the Olympic athletes now in Paris competing to be the best they can be, perfect in their execution of their sport.  The road to Pairs for them came with an excruciating amount of training and sacrifice.  Years, if not a lifetime, of commitment to have the opportunity to compete on this world wide stage.  They seek perfection in that moment and a medal of gold with such a passion that they give everything they have to attain it.

 That is exactly what Jesus asks of us; everything.  Is the prize worth the price?  A gold medal certainly places you in the history books and gives you the admiration of the entire world for that moment, but that moment fades away just as quickly as it came.  Heaven as our eternal home however is a different story.  The joy that we feel on the first day we arrive will last forever!  No more tears, heartaches, backaches, or tests of our faith.  Our faith is worthless at that point because what we will be seeing is reality for us!  The ultimate joy of following Jesus will be seeing Him face to face and spending eternity with Him and our fellow believers.  There is joy however in the journey as well.  We have been given a lifetime to walk with Jesus and enjoy this life more abundantly as He promised.  These tests are challenging, but how awesome is it to see God complete a task in our lives when we give Him our all and trust Him for the rest.  You are cancer free, the prodigal son has come home, a couple is reunited, or the new job is better than the old one.  “You do what you can, I’ll do what I can and the Lord will do what we cannot do.”

Look at this example.  From a beginning of 5 loaves and 2 fish, 12 baskets full were taken up at the end.  One basket for each disciple.  God seldom does just enough, He blesses beyond what we deserve or think He will do.  Look back at your life.  When has God done this for you?  I know you have a time that was terribly difficult and ugly, but God transformed it into something beautiful!  He did it then, He can and will do it today and tomorrow as well.  Rejoice that God is testing you and embrace the opportunity to watch Him work.  In doing so, yielding our will to His, you are being perfected, completed, and lacking nothing.  When we give our all to Jesus, He completes us.

 

Col 2:10 You are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

 Follow Jesus faithfully trusting Him to carry you through each test and trial.  One day you will receive your gold medal as He declares to you; “Enter in My good and faithful servant into the joys of the Lord.  We have endured many trials together along this journey of life, now enjoy all I have prepared for you.”