The Wonder of Jesus' Works

If you have your Bible with you, please open it up to the Gospel of John, chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

We're continuing to work our way through the story of Jesus.

We're going kind of slow, but we're milking it for all it's worth.

And this morning we're in chapter 6.

Last Sunday we finished up the conversation that Jesus was having with the religious leaders

after he was challenged for healing a man on the Sabbath.

And if you remember back to last Sunday, the big question under the surface that Jesus

seemed to be responding to was, why should we believe you?

Jesus had been making some pretty big claims.

He claimed to have power and authority to raise people from the dead, to give them eternal life,

and to do the work of final judgment on his Father's behalf.

Why should we believe you?

And Jesus told us that his Father has himself been testifying that what Jesus says is true.

And we talked about some of the ways that the Father has testified about Jesus, his Son.

One of the clearest and most significant statements that Jesus made was in chapter 5, verse 36.

He said,

So Jesus made it clear that the evidence that all he is saying is true is the works that he is doing.

He is doing things which no one but God could do.

He is doing things that fulfill the prophecies made long ago.

This should be taken as confirmation that he is the Son of God.

If Jesus is in a courtroom right now and on trial and the world is seated in the rows watching,

then according to Jesus, God the Father himself is a witness who brings a testimony.

And a big part of the testimony of the Father is that he has given Jesus these special works to do,

and some of them are miraculous.

Well, this morning, John wants to tell us about one of those truly spectacular works

that Jesus did sometime after this conversation.

And even though this particular miracle that we're going to look at today is well known,

and it had been included in all the other gospel accounts written before John,

John could not leave this out because it was truly amazing.

Let's read what John writes in chapter 6, starting in verse 1.

Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee.

That is the Sea of Tiberias.

So Jesus is not in Jerusalem anymore.

He's gone back into Galilee, and sometime later he's crossed over to the other side

or to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Verse 2,

And a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.

So there's this vast multitude of people that is now following Jesus as he journeys about.

They're following him.

They're following him even out into the open country, across lakes.

And John tells us why.

Because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.

Literally, they were following him because they were seeing the signs that he was doing upon the sick people.

Notice a couple things here.

First, Jesus has drawn the attention of this vast multitude, not just because they've heard some good things about him,

but because they were seeing.

Like with their eyes, they were seeing repeatedly again and again the signs.

The signs plural, not just one sign, but many signs that he was doing upon the sick people.

And again, in the original language, not just one sick person, but sick people plural.

Jesus wasn't just fooling a few gullible people here and there until it all swelled up into some hype and excitement,

like some of the phony faith healers of our day.

No.

The sense we get here is that people who were sick or ill with all kinds of conditions, sicknesses, diseases, disabilities,

they were going out to Jesus from all over the place, either on their own or with the help of family or friends.

They were going out to Jesus and people were seeing repeatedly again and again these illnesses being healed right in front of their eyes by Jesus.

And if you carry a hint of skepticism here, I understand that.

There have been many so-called faith healers over the years who have not helped.

If you wrestle with that, I want to encourage you to look closely at many of these modern-day faith healers and their healings

and then look closely again at the healings of Jesus, the ones that are recorded in the scriptures.

There's a massive difference.

I was watching a short BBC documentary on YouTube just yesterday and they followed this woman named Emily Yates.

She was born with cerebral palsy and was unable to use her legs for her whole life.

She was in a wheelchair.

And Emily went to one of these modern-day faith healers, a man by the name of John Meller in Australia.

And I watched in this documentary as he prayed and declared the power of cerebral palsy broken in Jesus' name.

At the same time, John had his strong helpers trying to lift this woman up out of her chair onto her feet.

But she wasn't able to stand.

She wasn't able even just to support her own weight on her legs, let alone walk.

Even though she hadn't had any pain in her feet prior to going up to the front, Mr. Meller made a big deal of how God had done something because she doesn't have any pain in her feet after standing with the help of two big, strong men for a couple minutes.

Eventually, they had to let Emily sit back down in her wheelchair.

And she wheeled herself out of the service, disillusioned and disappointed.

At the end of it all, this is what she said in tears.

She says, I keep hearing of all these amazing miracles that are happening.

And all these people with these horrendous illnesses that are getting healed.

And she had attended a number of meetings before she went up to the front.

And all we saw was people with sprained ankles and headaches and frozen shoulders feeling better.

I went on John Meller's website and ironically, meetings have been suspended due to the coronavirus.

I couldn't help but think, well, if he is able to heal people, why not just go to the hospital and do it for those who are in the hospital right now with coronavirus?

Instead, he's put a 90-second video clip on YouTube where he prays and declares the power of coronavirus broken over whoever is watching.

This is not how Jesus healed people.

He didn't do it with a, well, sometimes it works when I pray and ask the Father to do it and sometimes it doesn't.

No, the people flocked out to him because they were actually seeing people that they knew and loved healed of conditions and illnesses, many which had been permanent and devastating.

They were seeing it happen again and again and again.

The lame walking without the help of others after 38 years of being unable to walk.

The man at the pool of Siloam, the blind seeing after decades of not being able to see.

These are not the kinds of things that the modern day faith healers do today.

Even the religious leaders saw some of the signs that he'd been performing and they could not refute them.

Just as Nicodemus said, we heard this last week,

We know that you are a teacher who has come from God.

For no one could perform the signs you are doing unless God were with him.

If even Jesus' opponents, many of whom were bent on discrediting him and killing him, getting him killed,

if even they had to admit that there were real healings happening and could not disprove his miracles,

it tells you something.

The miracles of healing actually happened.

In fact, the other gospel writers tell us that since they couldn't disprove his many miracles of healing,

they instead decided to acknowledge that he was doing them,

that people were getting healed, but tried to make him look bad by saying it was by the power of the devil

that he was doing them.

His miracles of healing were undeniable.

And it's one of the big reasons this morning why thousands and thousands of people

were following him around the Judean countryside.

So here Jesus is with a huge crowd following him around on the far side of the Sea of Galilee.

And John tells us that one particular day, let's read it in verse 3,

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 should 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.

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up,

Here's a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish.

But how far will they go among so many?

So here Jesus is with a huge crowd coming out to them.

And I love this story.

I want you to imagine for a moment that you're Philip.

And Jesus turns to you as this crowd is coming out and says this to you,

Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?

How are you feeling at that moment?

How would you like to be put in charge of hospitality for thousands of people out in the middle of nowhere?

So what does Philip do?

He decides to do a bit of mental math.

And you can almost just imagine his eyes just go wide all of a sudden as he's thinking about this.

And then he responds after a minute,

It would take more than half a year's wages.

Like half of what I make in a year.

More than that.

Just to get each person a bite.

Most of us have probably been to a wedding or a banquet.

These things aren't cheap.

Even a few hundred people can easily be thousands of dollars.

Philip is doing the math here.

This is not going to happen.

We can imagine how his mind must have been racing.

Do we want to spend that kind of money just to give this huge crowd a little snack?

Do we even have that much money in the purse?

Judas.

What's the balance?

Even if we could afford it, how are we going to get all that bread from the nearest town out here?

I know they ate a different kind of bread back then, but just to get a sense of this in my head,

I was just imagining a loaf of wonder bread with 15 slices.

Chop each slice up into four pieces.

That's enough for a mouthful for everyone.

We're talking like 250 loaves of bread.

How are we going to carry all that here?

Do we rent a cart?

Philip is doing the math.

Then there's Andrew.

We don't know exactly what he's thinking,

but at least he has the good sense to figure out what they already have and take a bit of inventory.

Here's a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish.

But how far will they go among so many?

And what's funny about this is that John tells us even before Philip and Andrew respond

that Jesus was only saying this to test Philip.

So what kind of test is this?

What would it mean for Philip to pass the test or fail the test?

We don't know.

John doesn't even tell us.

We're kind of left to guess.

But if there's one thing that Jesus seems to want them to realize,

even before the crowd gets here,

it's that feeding this large crowd a lunch or a supper or even a light snack is impossible.

At least by ordinary means.

That's the conclusion that Philip really comes to.

Half a year's wages wouldn't be enough to buy each one a single bite.

We can't do this, Jesus.

It's impossible.

Then there's Andrew.

Let's take inventory.

We've got five little loaves,

which are kind of more like buns in this boy's lunch kit,

and two little sardines here.

How far will that go among so many?

Even if we slice it like this,

it's not going to last long.

It's not possible.

And perhaps that's what Jesus' testing question was meant to reveal.

John tells us that Jesus knew what he was about to do.

Verse 10.

Jesus said,

Have the people sit down.

There was plenty of grass in that place,

and they sat down.

About 5,000 men were there.

Now that's a lot of people.

Then we flip over to Matthew's gospel,

his record of this very same event,

and we read this.

The number of those who ate was about 5,000 men,

besides women and children.

That's a whole lot more people.

I don't know why they just counted the men.

Maybe that was just easier to do in such a large crowd.

Some scholars will guess 15,000 to 20,000 people.

Who knows?

Not everybody had probably a wife or a child or husband who was there,

and some probably brought the whole family.

So let's just be conservative and imagine that it was 10,000 people,

with all the women and children included.

And let's try and visualize this.

Here's a picture of 3,000 people in a theater.

Don't miss the people in the balcony.

There's probably tons of them up there that we can hardly see.

Times that by three-ish.

10,000 people.

Here's a picture of 10,000 people at a sporting event.

Again, don't miss the people that are way up here in the back there.

And then there's all the people out of the shot,

out of the picture,

on this side of the stadium that are watching.

10,000 people.

If you've been to Mosaic Stadium in Regina,

what does it hold?

I think 30,000 or something like that.

Imagine a third of Mosaic Stadium packed.

That's a lot of people.

Have the people sit down, says Jesus.

Okay.

Verse 11.

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 12 baskets

with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over

by those who had eaten.

You read that and it's like,

hold on a second here.

Like, what just happened?

Jesus takes the five loaves and the two fish.

He gives thanks.

He prays and thanks God for the provision of them.

And then they begin to distribute them in the baskets

to 10,000 or possibly more people.

And it says that each of those people

had as much as they wanted to eat.

And then after all that,

there were 12 baskets filled with the pieces left over.

What just happened here?

Out in the middle of nowhere,

Jesus miraculously multiplies a boy's lunch

to feed 10,000 or more people

as much as they wanted to eat.

And at the end,

there was even more left over than they started with.

This is impossible.

I was thinking about this.

I would challenge any and all of the world's best magicians

to come together to a location of my choosing.

They wouldn't know what's happening in advance.

And then when they get there,

say, okay, we got 10,000 people coming in 30 minutes

and you have to feed them all.

Here's five loaves and two fish.

They couldn't do it.

Penn and Teller,

David Blaine,

David Copperfield,

Houdini,

they couldn't do it.

This is impossible

by any ordinary ways of doing things.

What Jesus did that day was supernatural.

It was a true miracle.

Something only the power of God could do.

It's one of those miracles,

probably more than any of the others,

that I wish that I could have just been there

to see what happened.

How did it look up close?

Were the loaves just kind of growing back

as they were pulling pieces off of them?

Did they all close their eyes to pray

and then bam,

all the baskets just started bubbling up

with fish and loaves out of thin air?

Where did the bread and the fish come from?

The only thing that the disciples could point to

was the five loaves and two fish

that they had started with.

They couldn't describe it.

Think about the size of that crowd.

They would have needed more fish

than they had caught

when Peter first came to follow Jesus

and the boats were sinking.

As far as miraculous goes,

this is a whole other level.

Back there in the sea,

Jesus made all these fish appear

where they couldn't be seen

down under the water

and then, oh, there they are in the nets.

Fish live in the water.

This is a whole other level.

Jesus causes all of this food

to appear out of nowhere,

right out of thin air,

on land, fish on land.

It's amazing.

It was a phenomenal sign from God,

a work that God gave Jesus to do

that testifies that Jesus has indeed been sent

by his Father, by God,

and is the Son of God.

For those who will only believe

what they can see

and touch and taste and feel,

it doesn't get any more tangible than this.

Each of them there that day

had the evidence that Jesus was sent from God

in their hands,

in their mouths,

in between their teeth,

in their stomachs,

and not just a little bit,

but as much as they wanted,

John tells us.

It's as though the call for seconds

and thirds and fourths went out,

and eventually people just stopped

asking for more.

They were full.

Got me thinking about

the Olive Garden restaurant.

When you go there,

they give you this

warm, freshly baked bread,

and their thing at Olive Garden

is that you can have

as much of that bread as you want,

and as much salad as you want,

and then your meal comes,

even after you finish the main course,

you can keep asking for more bread.

It's bottomless there.

It's unlimited.

But eventually you have to stop asking

because even though the supply is endless,

you can only eat so much.

Jesus made that kind of a meal moment

happen for 10,000 people

out in the middle of the Judean countryside.

And the people recognized

that this was a miracle.

Verse 14.

After the people saw the sign

Jesus had performed,

they began to say,

surely this is the prophet

who is to come into the world.

Not just any prophet

or a small p prophet,

but the prophet,

the one Moses wrote about.

Back in Deuteronomy 18,

God told Moses

about a coming prophet.

The Lord said to me,

what they say is good.

I will raise up for them

a prophet like you, Moses,

from among their fellow Israelites,

and I will put,

this is the Lord speaking,

I will put my words in his mouth.

He will tell them

everything I command him.

I myself will call to account,

says the Lord,

anyone who does not listen to my words

that the prophet speaks in my name.

The people that day

didn't just see a miracle,

they participated in it.

And they understood

that it was a sign from God.

At least some of them,

if not many,

they began to say,

this is the one

that God told Moses

he was going to send,

the prophet.

Verse 15,

Jesus,

knowing that they intended to come

and make him king by force,

withdrew again

to a mountain by himself.

What a response from the people.

Not just the prophet,

but the Messiah,

the son of David,

the one who would be king

and sit on David's throne.

It seems like that's what many of them

were thinking.

So much so that John tells us

they were literally about to come

and grab him

and so that they could make him king.

The time sense is a little unclear here.

It could be that this was right after the miracle

or it could be that the,

this was after the crowd had gone home

and word began to spread about Jesus

and perhaps they started thinking,

man,

we got to go back there.

We got to get him.

We got to start the coronation right now

and march this guy up to Jerusalem.

I'm not sure which it is,

but it seems at this moment,

one thing is for sure,

they wanted to get Jesus installed

as their new king

as soon as possible.

But again,

we see that Jesus knows

what's going on

in the hearts and minds of people.

He knew that was their intent

and so knowing this,

it says he withdrew

by himself again to,

to a mountain.

We might wonder exactly why

Jesus didn't just go along with it,

but I imagine he probably

would have said something like,

my hour has not yet come

or the son of man came

to give his life

as a ransom for many.

As we'll see in the weeks ahead,

many of the people in the crowd

that day

may have believed something true

about Jesus,

but many of their,

many of those people's faith in him,

there's something not quite right about it.

We'll continue the story next Sunday.

But what's here for us this morning?

Well, again,

if you're here this morning

and you're not sure

if you fully believe in Jesus,

maybe you're kind of sitting on the fence,

maybe you believe in part

or some things,

but not all of it.

Maybe you're skeptical

about some of the miracles.

Maybe you just feel like

you're not ready

to surrender your whole life to him,

to give your whole heart to him.

I want to ask you this morning,

do you see the amazing sign

that Jesus did that day?

The people were right.

He was and is

the prophet

that God told Moses

was coming

long ago.

one who would speak

God's very words

to people.

That's what the miracle

that he did

points to.

That he is that one.

Do you hear the words

that God spoke

long ago

through Moses?

I myself

will call to account

anyone

who does not

listen to my words

that the prophet speaks

in my name.

Whether you believe

Jesus' words

and listen to them,

take them seriously,

respond to them,

obey them,

has serious implications.

So if you're sitting

on the faith fence

and maybe only

kind of believe,

I want to call you today

in the presence of God

to get off the fence

and to put your full trust

in Jesus,

to embrace him

and everything

that he said

is true.

For the rest of us

who do believe

like that,

I don't know about you,

but this is one of the

miracles of Jesus

that we are most

familiar with.

And I'll be honest,

even as I was preparing

to preach

or before I had started

my preparation,

I was kind of thinking

the feeding of the 5,000.

I have heard

so many sermons

on the feeding

of the 5,000.

I've read this

so many times.

What could I possibly say

to make this fresh

for us this morning?

Sometimes we just

get so familiar

with things

that we lose

the wonder

of what happened

that day.

Maybe not lose

the wonder

of what Jesus

did that day

for that massive

crowd of people.

even as I got

thinking about that,

I started to wonder,

maybe that's part

of the problem

for many of us

at different times

and in different

seasons of life.

Perhaps even

for some of us today.

We've become

so familiar

with the story

of Jesus

that we've

lost the wonder

of much of it.

It doesn't live

in our hearts

like it used to.

It doesn't spark

the wonder

and amazement

and joy

and thanksgiving

to God

like it used to.

And then I got

thinking about

how losing

the wonder

of Jesus

can affect

every area

of our lives.

Joyful service

of Christ

becomes

begrudging duty.

A feeling

of strength

and energy

in our relationship

with Jesus

becomes a feeling

of tiredness

and weariness.

Joy

is replaced

with boredom.

Thanksgiving

is replaced

with a quiet

grumbling

and discontentment.

Being a Christian

easily changes

into being

all about

what we need

to do for God

now

rather than

about what

he has done

and continues

to do

and has yet

promised to do

for us.

Heartfelt prayer

is replaced

with just

repetitious

sayings

that we do

out of habit

before a meal

or before bed.

Going to church

becomes mainly

about just

seeing other people

rather than

to sing

to and hear

from

Christ himself.

And evangelism

sharing the good

news of Jesus

with others

well

let's put it

this way

we like to

share with people

what we are

most excited

about.

we like to

talk to people

about what

does live

in our hearts

what gives us

that feeling

of wonder

and so if it

isn't Jesus

anymore

then what

is it?

Movies?

Television?

Politics?

News?

the latest

purchase?

Our current

project?

If Jesus

had come

in our day

and he did

this miracle

we would have

caught it on

camera probably

we'd have

these phones

just imagine

him doing it

at Mosaic

Stadium

and you were

there

it would have

gone viral

social media

would be on

fire

why should

we believe

Jesus?

Look at the

things that

he did

the signs

that he

performed

all things

that point

to this

wonderful

truth

that God

himself

has sent

him into

the world

because he

desires a

relationship

with you

have you

lost the

wonder of

our Savior

if you

have

do you

want it

back?

There's

lots of

reasons why

we might

lose the

wonder of

Jesus

maybe like

Jesus said

in the

parable of

the sower

it's the

weeds that

are choking

out the

word of

God so

that you're

not really

hearing from

him anymore

like you

used to

things like

the worries

of this

life

the deceitfulness

of wealth

or simply

the desires

for other

things

which Jesus

says can

come in

and choke

out the

word

there could

be lots

of reasons

but I

think whatever

the reason

it is for

you whether

you know

it or

not

Jesus would

simply say

probably the

same kind

of thing

to you

what should

you do to

get back

the wonder

come to

me

come to

me

come to

me all

you who

are weary

and burdened

come to me

all you who

are thirsty

hungry

those of you

who long

for more

in life

and I

will give

you what

you've been

missing

what you've

been lacking

how do we

do that

we do that

very simply

through prayer

it's a

humble prayer

and opening

his word

to read

and reflect

on what

Christ has

said to

us

as we

do that

in faith

in humility

God's

spirit

makes

his word

fresh

and he

puts the

wonder

into our

hearts

again

and he

keeps it

there

so let's

do that

together

now

Lord Jesus

we come

to you

as a

church

Lord

you know

each of

our

unique

situations

and exactly

what's been

going on

in our

hearts

this week

we come

to you

now

you know

what we

long for

you know

what we

desire

we want

a living

and vibrant

relationship

with you

we want

the joy

that we

read about

so often

in the

scriptures

and that

we heard

you talk

about

we want

the deep

needs of

our souls

met

and so

we come

to you

would you

meet us

here

would you

bring back

the wonder

that maybe

some of us

have lost

and would you

sustain that

in us

not just

for a moment

but for

throughout this

whole week

let it

spill out

of our

lives

too

especially

as we

bump into

people

neighbors

friends

co-workers

we ask this

in Jesus

name

amen

and

turn

board

up

in