John 6 is a glorious, glorious
chapter of Scripture, and I do love verse 45. It's one of the
most comforting verses in all the Word of God for someone who
dares to stand before people in God's name. It says, It is
written in the prophets, and therefore fulfilled in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. So as we come to these
passages in Scripture, we pray that God will be our teacher.
And what's the result? Every man, therefore, that hath
heard, if you've been taught of God, you will hear from God,
and hath learned of the Father, comes to me, says the Lord Jesus
Christ. They come to me. They come to
me. John chapter six. It's a glorious
picture at the beginning of this chapter of three miracles, and
you might say there are even more if you go searching, but
there are at least three remarkable miracles here, aren't there?
There's the feeding of this crowd of 5,000 people, and it's only
men that are recorded to be fed, and so the crowd may well have
been 10,000. That's a lot of people. That's
a big crowd of people. The other remarkable miracle,
of course, is that the Lord Jesus Christ sends his disciples, as
Tom read to us, across the sea into a storm, and then he comes
walking in the middle of this lake above the waves. It's a glorious picture of his
absolute sovereignty over all things, including the waves.
And he sent the disciples into that storm. And the other one
that's often missed is quite remarkable, is that as he got
into the boat, they immediately reached the other shore. It took
them no time to go those last several kilometres across the
city of Galilee. It's a reflection, of course,
of the miraculous fact that God is omnipresent. You cannot get
away from the presence of God, and so we long for Him to reveal
Himself here as He really is. So let's come to this remarkable
picture in John's Gospel and it says in verse 1, after these
things. Now, in the context of John's
Gospel, the things are what we've recorded in John chapter 5, and
that's the healing at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. But very evidently from the fact
that this is now a Passover time of the Jews, then at least six
months and possibly 12 months have taken place in that time. And you can read some of that
Galilean ministry in the other Gospel accounts and it's a reminder
that John is extraordinarily selective of his miracles. And
this is a remarkable miracle, this one that we are about to
see, witness, hear. and look at this morning because
this is the one miracle that's recorded in all four gospel accounts. And John is not normally in the
business of repeating things that are in the other gospel
accounts. He assumes that you've read them. But nevertheless it
brings to mind something of the extraordinary significance of
it and I think one of the reasons John has selected these particular
miracles is that the Lord Jesus Christ then takes the opportunity
following the miracle to have a long discourse with people.
That's one of the features of John's Gospel when you look at
John 6 and the majority of it is the Lord Jesus Christ declaring
himself. And this multitude, verse two,
and a great multitude followed him because they saw the miracles
that he did on them that were deceased. And as I said, John
doesn't record all of those miracles. The miracles of the Lord Jesus
Christ were extraordinary in number, in scope. He healed all
that had need. And the other Gospel account
said that even when these people came, he continued to heal them. But they followed him because
they saw the miracles which he did on them that was diseased. What a lovely picture of the
Lord taking his disciples away and sitting down with them of the pasture. It's said in
the other Gospel accounts that he said to them to come and rest
for a while. In Matthew's account this place
of reclusion for the Lord and his disciples was after the death
of John the Baptist. And so these miracles are designed
by the Lord to reveal His glory and to reveal what is His interaction
with those that He loves and He cares for. The purpose in
this particular part of this miracle is to show us in the
picture of these disciples to show us the weakness and the
paucity and the unbelief that just lives within every child
of Adam. Our flesh never rises above being
flesh and the spirit that's in people never ceases to be spirit. We are the children of God. We are the possessors of two
natures. and I want us to see the glory
of the Lord in this activity. So the great multitude followed
him because they saw the miracles. So many people followed the Lord
Jesus Christ for what he might give. And we know from reading
at the end of this account in John 6 that they all went away
and he was left with 12 and one of them, he says, is a devil.
they left. So many people come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, or come as they think to him, because of what
he might give, because of his wonders. But true faith delights
in Him because of who He is, and true faith, as we see here,
is going to be tested. His relationship with these people,
these disciples, is going to be exposed, and His grace is
going to be exposed, and their frailty is going to be exposed,
both in the one and same event. The great disease that we have
is sin and the great cure for sin is not in man's religion,
not in man's activities, not in man's doctrine. The great
cure for sin is in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So many people
ate the loaves and fishes and benefited nothing from them at
all. Judas sat with the disciples at the Last Supper and was given
the bread and the wine by the Lord Jesus Christ and just afterwards
Satan entered him and he went to his own place. What a disease
sin is. How much in need of a Saviour
we have. Verse 4, And the Passover, a
feast of the Jews, was nigh. In the Exodus accounts in the
Old Testament it's called the Lord's Passover. It's called
the Lord's Passover. John particularly says this is
a feast of the Jews. It was the Lord's Passover, now
it's a feast of the Jews. See, religion without Christ
can have all the forms and the words and many people, but it's
empty. It's empty and deadly. God only accepts that which comes
through Christ and by Christ and honours Christ. We come to
God by Him. How many religious activities
might be designated an Anglican feast or a Presbyterian work
or a Pentecostal pilgrimage? You name them, don't you? It's
just all over the world. We are religious and man is religious. But what do the true people feast
on? What were they feasting on at that first Passover in Exodus?
You can read about it in Exodus chapter 12. It's a remarkable
story. It's a remarkable picture, isn't
it? We feast. They feasted on what
represented the Lord Jesus Christ. They were protected by the blood. He is their life. This was all
about Him. It's all a picture of Him and
His shedding of that blood. Everything spoke of that and
the father's acceptance of his sacrifice. It was a picture of
substitution, wasn't it? They were safe. A lamb died and
the eldest child in all those houses of the Israelites survived
that night. And the most beautiful thing
about the Passover is the words of God. He says, you paint the
outside of that door, the lintel and the post, you paint them
with this blood. And what does God say? He says, when I see
the blood, when I see the blood, they shed. truckloads of blood in Jerusalem
and it was empty because none of it represented, all of it
was meant to picture the Lord Jesus Christ. God says, when
I see the blood, don't you love that? It's one of the most glorious
pictures of the Passover. When I see the blood, he doesn't
say when I see your obedience, he doesn't say when I see your
faithfulness, when I see your love and when I see your righteousness,
When I see your witnessing, when I see all of your activities,
he says, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. So here was the true Passover.
Christ is our Passover. Here was the true Passover, gathering
his people to himself, showing them how he ministers and how
he cares for his own, showing his people the glory they were busily preparing their
own Passover. Verse five of John chapter six,
when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company
come unto him, he saith unto Philip, whence shall we buy bread
that these may eat? Matthew says in Matthew 14, 14,
he was moved with compassion when he saw, what a glorious
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was moved with compassion
when he saw them. He lifts up his eyes, he told
the disciples at the end of John chapter four, he says, you lift
up your eyes, the fields are white under harvest when the
Lord Jesus Christ lifts up his eyes, he's moved with compassion. And then he says to Philip, Philip
who'd been with him from the very beginning, he says to Philip, whence shall we buy bread that
these may eat? Whence shall we buy bread that
these may eat? Verse six tells us why he said
it. And he said this to prove him,
to test him, to try him. for he himself knew what he would
do. Philip answered him and said,
200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, but every
one of them may take a little. One of the commentators, Hendrickson,
calls this calculating without Christ, and so many people have
read his commentary and called their sermon Calculating Without
Christ, and that's exactly what Philip does here. It's exactly
what we do all the time. If we don't see ourselves in
Philip and Andrew and their response here, we've missed a big part
of the point of this particular story that's laid out here before
us. One of the things that's so comforting about reading the
story of the disciples is how they are so, so, so dumb so often,
aren't they? Philip had been with the Lord
Jesus Christ for two years possibly at this time, a long time. He'd
been called by him, he'd witnessed the water being turned into wine,
he'd witnessed the cleansing of the temple, he'd witnessed
the meeting with Nicodemus. You go through the gospel accounts,
He'd seen the most remarkable things. And here he is, in the
very presence of God, saying, we don't have the ability, we
don't have this ability to do this. 200 penny worth of bread
is not sufficient for these people. Philip was being tested. You might think, why is the Lord
deliberately bringing the disciples into a test where he knew they
would fail? Why? Brothers and sisters in
Christ, you're going to be tested. You are going to be tested and
you're going to be tried and you're going to be tested and
tried by things that will come seemingly out of left field for
you altogether, just as this did to these fellows. You'll
be tested and tried by all of the things of this world. You'll
be tested and tried by afflictions. You'll be tested and tried by
disease. You'll be tested and tried by
wealth. You'll be tested and tried by
the applause of this world. You'll be tested and tried by
the things that this world offers you. Why is the Lord testing
Philip and testing Andrew? When he says he knew what he
would do, he knew what he would do. Why is he bringing them? If he works all things for the
good of those he loves, why the test? Why the trial in this world? And in these incidents, not only
does he have this test for them and they fail, he sends them
out onto the Sea of Galilee into a storm of his making and his
controlling. And if you read the Gospel accounts,
they were fearful and said, what's going to happen to us? What's the answer? Well, there
are many answers, aren't there? Generally, they always involve
the glory of God and the humility and the humbling of our people
that He might reveal Himself. See, He does. What's best for
us in this world where there are tests and trials all the
time and we fail all the time? His holy name as He reveals Himself
in these events. And that's the best for us, is
God getting all the glory. The more glory God gets, the
more comforted the people of God are. The children of God
find their great comfort in the fact that He is absolutely sovereign
over all. And also, Does this situation cause me
to be made to see my weakness and my utter dependence upon
Him? To bring me to a place where
I see His faithfulness, His mercy, His grace, His provision? Well,
if that's what the trial's about, then it's good. We don't wish
them upon anyone. We do everything we possibly
can to relieve and to comfort our brothers and sisters in trials.
But this is a trial that God brought upon them. He knew what
he would do. See, we calculate without Christ
unless we're brought to the end of our resources and our abilities. Christ tried Philip's faith and
he tried his obedience. Listen to what he says. Listen
to what Philip says. There's not sufficient here for
them that everyone may take a little. Is there ever a little in the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ? When he is the one who sets the
table and he's the one that brings the people to the feast, is there
ever just a little? Just a little. How much manna
did they have in the desert in all those 40 years? Did they
ever run out of manna one little tiny bit? Even in their whinging
and complaining, they still, all the manna was there until
they crossed the Jordan into the promised land. I love what he says in verse six,
it says, and he did this, he said this to prove him, to try
him, for he himself knew what he did. in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're in the presence of the Creator. He can speak
a word and a universe will come into existence. He can speak
a word and sin is dealt with. It means to make or to produce. To create, he knew what he would
do. Isn't that comforting, brothers and sisters? He knows what he'll
do. What's he doing right now? exactly
what he's determined to do all the time, all the time, exactly. Are the circumstances of this
world out of control? Never! Never. He does all things
according to the purpose of his own will. So it's not just Philip,
it's Andrew now. One of the disciples, Andrew
Simon, Peter's brother, saith unto him, there's a lad here.
So Andrew's finally found some bread. There's a lad here which
has five barley loaves and two full small fishes, but what are
they among so many? Buts without Christ. There are
plenty of them, aren't there? They're all through the Scriptures,
aren't they? It's a glorious word of grace, and it's a glorious
word of unbelief. But, but what are they among
so many? Oh, we need to beware of the
buts that we express so often that dethrone the Lord Jesus
Christ. Buts. Let our buts be the buts
of the Scriptures. But God, but God, but God. See, one of the things that's
interesting here is it expressed unbelief. in the Lord's ability
is contagious, isn't it? See, when one disciple calculates
without Christ, the next one follows suit. And that's the
case, isn't it? You think of the situations in
your own life where we have been taken down a place by the things
that we have said. We've taken others down a place
by the things that we have said. All of a sudden, the Lord Jesus
Christ is not there. All of a sudden, he's not absolutely
sovereign. All of a sudden, his provision is not adequate. We
are in constant need of this sort of trying by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Worldly thinking is contagious
and natural eyes never see clearly. Natural eyes never see clearly. We see through the eyes of faith,
the eyes of your heart. The eyes of our understanding,
our enlightening, those eyes that are enlightened by God are
the ones that see clearly. Oh, how we limit our God. Can God furnish a table in the
wilderness? Can God provide water in the
wilderness? When he provides water in the wilderness he goes
to the one thing that is the most least likely that you'd
ever find water from, and it's a rock. And for 40 years, 1 Corinthians
10 says, that rock followed them around the desert and watered
them, watered 2 million people plus their cattle and others
out of a rock. Out of a rock. He's able to furnish a table.
He's able to set a table for us according to Psalm 23 in the
presence of our enemies. in the presence of the enemies,
when the enemy is attacking most, the enemies of unbelief, the
enemies of sin, the enemies of dethroning God, and he sets a
table for us. See, they saw the difficulty
and they saw the problem and they didn't see the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They'd forgotten, hadn't they?
They'd forgotten what he'd just done and been doing for all of
those years with them. Oh dear, no wonder we have to
have a remembrance meal. Do this in remembrance of me.
Do this in remembrance of me. Because we forget. And maybe
you don't, but I do, all the time. And I need to be continually
reminded that my God is here, and my God is sovereign, and
my God has created these circumstances, and my God says, I'll create
a way out of this. I will do it. Andrew says, but what are they
among so many? Next to nothing, next to nothing,
just a few crumbs, but a few crumbs in the hand of Christ. See, when the Son of God is present,
do numbers matter at all? Does circumstances matter at
all? If he's here, as he's promised
to be, then all the angels of heaven are here. I can't see
the angels in this room, but God says they're here. I can't
see the Lord Jesus Christ, but he says he's here. He says he's
walking amongst the candlesticks. He, the blessed Holy Spirit,
provides that blessed oil that lights that lamp. He knew what
he himself would do. Andrew didn't know, Philip didn't
know, we don't know what he's going to do next. But he does,
and that's where our comfort is. He doesn't need any advice,
he doesn't need any encouragement, he always knows what he will
do. He didn't just make an effort to do something, he does it.
And in verse 10, Jesus said, ignored all of their noise, didn't
he? Ignored all of their butts. He said, make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the
place, so the men sat down in number about 5,000. The Lord
hears our words and he hears their words of human wisdom and
human calculation and then he acts. And it's remarkable, isn't
it, how he honors his disciples. He honours His disciples before
this multitude. He honours these disciples before
this multitude up to their failings of unbelief. Don't you love that? Don't you love that the Lord
deals with us on the basis of grace, again and again and again,
and not on the basis of work? He doesn't deal with us as we
deserve, and He knows that we are but dust. He says, you disciples,
make the men sit down. Why do you want to make the men
sit down when you have absolutely nothing to feed them on? Christ has spoken and that is
sufficient. Christ has spoken and that is
enough. Why make them sit down? You'll notice now that Phil and
Andrew are silent. Mark says that he had them sit
down in companies of fifties and hundreds. God is a God of
order. Why make them sit down? They
had been seated and now they've got up. The reality is that we
must be made to sit down if we are to be fed. Our biggest problem
is our doings. The most difficult thing in all
of this It's so much easier to do and
do and do, and then look at our doings, and then when we're looking
at our doings, we're always looking at someone else's doings. You
sit down. If you're going to be fed, you
sit down. You stop the activities of our
flesh. We can't worship and be doing. Worship is to gaze upon Him and
His glory. Simon reminded me of Isaiah 30
verse 15 yesterday when we were talking about this. For thus
saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and
rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your
strength. There was much grass in the place.
He made his people to lie down in green pastures. And what's
the essence of the pastures? What's in the pastures? You give
that pasture to a cow and what comes out? The milk, the milk
of the word, isn't it? He makes the people sit still. He makes his people to be still.
So the man sat down. in number a crowd of possibly
10,000, and this verse 11 is remarkable, isn't it? And Jesus
took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he gave thanks
to God his Father, and he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples
to them that were set down, and likewise to the fishers as much
as they would. The Lord Jesus Christ honors
the Father. He honors the disciples, and
he honors the Father. Everything that we have comes
down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variables,
neither shadow of turning. See what made the bread and the
fish valuable and sustaining? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
in His hands, isn't it? You give it to Him. You give
a morsel into His hands and all of a sudden there's enough there
to feed a crowd of 10,000. He makes the difference. There's an illustration that
I heard the other day, and I've heard it before, but if you have
a zero, and another zero, and another zero, and you add another
zero, and another zero, and another zero, you end up with nine zeros. What do you have? Absolutely
nothing. You put a one in front of it,
what do you have? You have a billion, don't you? What makes the difference? The Lord Jesus Christ makes the
difference. And between him receiving these
five loaves, and we mustn't think of big loaves of bread, they
were probably just little round sort of flat cakes, and they
were made out of barley, which was the food of the poor people. And so, and two little fish,
they're probably something the size of a sardine. It wasn't
very much. But the Lord Jesus Christ in
his hands, and look at the means he uses, he uses these faithful
men. He who commands the hosts of
heaven uses these men to distribute his bread to these people. These
men who just proved their faithlessness and their unbelief. That's all
he has in this world, isn't it? He uses the means of weak men,
frail men, men that are no different from the men and women that they're
speaking to. He uses them to feed his multitude,
ordinary men, sinful men, weak men, frail men, fickle men, and
none of that changed after the resurrection. They were still
as weak and as frail and as fickle. They did remarkable things by
the power of God, but they weren't any different to us, brothers
and sisters. It is God, it's in the hands
of God that all the miracle happens. Which is why we preach not ourselves,
but Jesus Christ the Lord. He took the loaves, and when
he'd given thanks, he distributed to the disciples and to them
that were set down. So in the midst of all of this,
in the midst of these disciples taking these baskets around,
there was just this miraculous multiplication of bread. God
creates. Don't you love it? I love the
fact that God creates. He creates the circumstances.
He creates the provision in the circumstances. He creates the
reason for His glory. He creates the reason for the
humility of His disciples. The Lord Jesus Christ, they had
as much as they would. See, the Lord Jesus Christ alone
can feed the nearly needy soul. He can provide when there's no
physical provision. He can provide by His word of
grace. He satisfies the hungry soul
when there's no other way to be fed. That's what John begins
his gospel with, doesn't he? One of the words that he says,
of His fullness have all we received. Of His fullness have all we received. And what did we receive? Grace. for grace, grace on top of grace,
a fountain of grace. Such is the fullness of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He can fill everyone. He can fill everyone of his own
with his love and still have exactly the same amount of love.
Isn't it remarkable? That's what it is to be infinite,
isn't it? Is that God can love infinitely and lose nothing,
and love all the others infinitely. He can be gracious. His grace
and his mercy are infinite. They are all filled, verse 12,
when they are all filled. He said unto the disciples, gather
up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. In the
hands of the Lord there'll be nothing to be lost. You can read
about that in terms of what the sheep that the Father has given
me. Not one is going to be lost. Not one is going to be lost.
You gather up the fragments. Everything that comes from the
hand of the Lord Jesus Christ is precious. Don't you dare treat
His glorious provision as if it's to be trampled underfoot. You gather them all up. Verse
13, Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets
with the fragments of the barley loaves which remained over, and
above them that were eaten. When we go to a feast to eat,
there's always less and less and less. The more we eat with
the Lord Jesus Christ, the more that's eaten, the more there
is. In twelve basketfuls, each of the disciples had a basket
full of bread. Philip and Andrew had to learn
and the other disciples and us need and had to learn a lesson. The Lord Jesus Christ feeds those
that come to him. He feeds people on the basis He feeds them in such a way that
He gets all the glory. He feeds them in such a way that
His disciples get the rebuke and the chastisement of the sovereign
hand of God against their unbelief and He gets all the glory. Nothing
shall be lost. Every word that comes down from
the Father of life, every word that comes down from heaven does
a work on this earth and returns to Him having achieved exactly
what He has purposed. Have you come to Him for life? Have you come to Him for the
very sustenance of living in this world and living before
Him? Has he fed you with his word? The answer is in the question,
are you filled? Are you filled? We are filled. Colossians 2.10
says that you are right now, child of God, you are complete
in him. You are completing Him, His purpose
in coming and dying for the sins of His people and sustaining
them in this world and bringing them to Himself so that He might
present them perfect before Him, unblameable, unapprovable, without
any reproach, in the very sight of God. If you're filled, if He is all the
fullness that you have, and all the fullness that you'll need,
and you'll come away from his feast, gazing upon him in his
glory. You'll be made to sit down, you'll
be humbled. We often want to say that without
Christ we can do nothing. But when we are in the presence
of a God who can take so little and make so much out of it, maybe
we ought to be asking, Another question, I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. I want that to be my doctrine,
but I also want it to be my experience. I want to see His provision. We have an extraordinary privilege
and we have a great task before us and all of the circumstances
would say it's impossible. And we have so little and the
task is so great. hands of the Savior. Give that
little. What a glorious God we have. We are to thank Him for His trials
that reveal His glory. We are to be thankful for His
mercy and His gracious provision. What a glorious Savior we have.
May the Lord bless His words to our hearts. Let's have a break.