John: A Continual Sight of Him

Pastor Fletcher preaches from John 6:1-21 about two of Jesus’s miracles. Discussion points: Jesus’s compassion for the people resulted in him preaching the word of God to them, Jesus loves to take our inadequate offerings and multiply and bless them, ask Jesus what you can offer him and what he wants you to give over to him.

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  Scripture Reader: [John 6:1-21] After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of, of Tiberius. And crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him. Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread that so that these people may eat? He said this to test him for, he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him. 200 dinari worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little one of his disciples. Andrew Sigh. And Peter's brother said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they for so many Jesus said, have the people sit down now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down about 5000 in number Jesus then took the loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said this is indeed the prophet who was coming to the world perceiving then that they were about to come to and take him by force and make him King Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat and they were frightened. But he said to them, it is, I do not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: All right, first sermon of 2024. Here we go. I love doing it on the 14th of January though here's why, who, who made a resolution? And we got any resolutions. Come on. Come on, come on. Uh, who's kept their resolution so far? Uh, it's like the most realistic New Year's sermon of all time. Two weeks in you already. We've already dropped it dry January. Anybody. Um, yeah. Yeah. Try, uh, you know, my family always, you know, we, we, we do dry January and then we get it like a couple of weeks in. It's like, uh, how about dry January? Except the weekends or like special occasion. I don't know. that's, that's New Year's sermon on January 14th. It's like still hopeful, but realistic. OK, we're gonna be realistic at this point. We're jumping back into our series on the book of John Today. And it's been a few weeks since we've been in John, but we're back in it. And today we're looking at this really famous passage where Jesus is feeding the 5000. And this is one that many of you are familiar with. But I think it's a really powerful passage for us this morning.

  What we're going to be looking at today is the priority. The what are the priorities of Jesus? What are the things that are most important to Jesus? If we are people that want to follow Jesus, we are also people who want to make the priorities of Jesus, the priorities of our life, right? That's what it means to follow him is that his priorities are my priorities one of the things that I pray when I don't have any idea what to pray. I, have you ever been in that situation where it's just like I'm supposed to pray. I just don't know what I'm supposed to pray is I pray, Jesus. Would you make us love the things that you love? That's what I most want. I want to love the things that Jesus loves because as my heart is drawn to Jesus, I am drawn to love the things that he loves. And so today, we're going to be looking at some of the things that Jesus loves. We're going to be looking at the priorities that Jesus has in this story.

  So let's dive right into it. There's no more delay. Verse one after, after this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberius. All right. So this miracle of Jesus feeding the 5000. This is the only miracle of jesus' entire ministry up until like the resurrection and everything. But it's the only one that is recorded in all four gospels. It is the only one. All the different gospel writers have a different take on the life of Jesus. And this is the only one that makes it across all four. And why is that? You might ask? Well, it's probably because this is the most public miracle that Jesus does in his entire ministry. Thousands of people saw Jesus do this miracle, you know, after Jesus was resurrected, the scripture says that he appeared to over 500 people. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of eyewitnesses and primarily what the gospels are, are eyewitness, testimonies of the life of Jesus. And so this one being the most public eye eyewitness testimony of the life of Jesus made it into all five, all four or five. And did I just add one, all four gospel accounts? And because of that, we have a lot of extra details. I have a lot of material to work with here. OK. So I've got the director's cut that I'm going to be pulling from as we walk through this passage.

  In the Mark version of the story, it doesn't talk about this in John. But in the Mark version of the story, this happens right after Jesus sends his disciples out to heal preach and cast out demons. And so the disciples go out to do the ministry of Jesus and then they come back and they come back to Jesus and they are full of stories. They're like, hey Jesus, you're never gonna believe what happened. He's like, oh no, I'll believe it. I know exactly what happened. But there amazing things happen, Jesus and we are tired, we've been doing all this work and we're wiped. It is time. I don't know what you want us to do Jesus. And what Jesus says is, he's like, hey guys, you you seem tired. Why don't we go on a leadership retreat? That's basically what he says. Like, let's go take a break. I know this place. It's out in the middle of nowhere. The airbnb listing looks awesome. It's really rustic. There's no wi fi. Let's just go. Let's go. It's on the other side of the lake, the side of the lake that no one goes to. So let's go over there and check it out. It's, it's abandoned. And so here they are, that's what's happening here is this is leadership retreat with Jesus. I have a feeling that a leadership retreat with Jesus is gonna be a little bit different than a leadership retreat that we might go on though. Like I'm not sure if they're gonna have any marker board sessions while on their leadership retreat with Jesus.

  So they get in the boat, they go to the other side of the story or the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And they get to this desolate place when it says desolate. The word for desolate. Here is the same word that we see translated in other parts of the Bible as wilderness. So when we say desolate, we mean like no one's around. This is the wilderness. This is where the people of Israel were wandering for 40 years during that time. This is where Jesus was, went into the wilderness. Maybe not the exact same wilderness, but he went into a desolate place to be tempted for 40 not to be to fast for 40 days and then to be tempted by Satan at the end of that. And so we have this place where that's really out in the middle of nowhere. But when they get there, what happens they get there and there is a huge crowd waiting on them. Wow. What a wonderful retreat. Jesus. We're tired, we're done with the people. Everywhere we go, there's people here. You're like Princess Diana or something. Like they're just following you, the paparazzi, you can't get them away and Jesus, he makes time for them. Now, if I'm a disciple, I'm a little annoyed. OK? This is supposed to be my rest time. I'm so supposed to be taking a break, but I can't get a break. There's people everywhere I go.

  It's like parenting. OK? There you just can't get, when you're a parent you don't go on vacation, you take a trip because it's not really a vacation. Wherever you go, there's hungry people to feed. Wherever you go, there's work to do. OK. It's, you're, you're actually just doing your normal stuff, maybe even harder than your job in a different location. That's OK. All right. That's OK. It is what it is. That's what we signed up for. But that is what the disciples are experiencing here and much like parenting, they get over there and everyone is already hungry. That's just how it goes. So what does Jesus do? Does he look out at the crowd and say, hey guys, look, I'm flattered, glad you're here. Go on home. We need a little personal time. All right. Little little leadership retreat. No, he doesn't. He has compassion on the crowd and he preaches to them. He starts teaching them the word. I, I love that. It says that he had compassion. So he taught them the word of God, meaning that that is what they most needed. I want to give them what they need, what they want, which is to hear the word of the Lord being presented to them. It's a very practical point.

  Sometimes we're ready for a little me time, little personal time and then life happens, right? You're, you're finally have chiseled out that time to read your Bible. You finally chiseled out that time to pray and then an emergency at work happens or you have a friend call you and say, hey, life emergency. I need some advice or someone throws a lego in the toilet and you had to figure out what happens with that again. Parenting not that that would have happened this morning or anything like that. We're in a desolate area. We have thousands of people who have followed us and Jesus looks up at the disciples and he says, now, where are we going to buy enough bread for all of these people? We're in the middle of nowhere. There's no bakers out here. What are we gonna do now? Of course, Jesus, he knew what was gonna happen. They even, you know, John puts it in there. Like of course, he knew what was gonna happen. He wanted to see how his disciples would respond though. All right.

  So two of his disciples respond, one of them gives a reasonable answer and the other one gives a completely idiotic answer. All right, let's see if you can pick which one is reasonable and which one is idiotic. OK. First Philip answers Jesus and says 200 denari wouldn't be enough bread for each of these people to just have a single bite. Now, a denari is about a one day's wage. So he's saying over half a year salary would not be enough to even give everyone a simple appetizer to give him a taste. There's no way we're getting this much bread, Jesus. That's what he's saying. Is this not happening? We don't have that kind of money even if we did, it wouldn't be enough. We would need a lot more than that to fill all of these people up. But then Andrew Peter's brother speaks up next and I'm gonna, I'm just gonna tell you this is the dumb one. OK? You know that after he says this Peter who's obviously the big brother, I mean, it doesn't actually say that, but we know it because he sticks his foot in his mouth all the time. He's just like, so aggressive. That's like obvious Big Brother energy going on right there. Um, Peter, you know, he's just like, Andrew. Would you shut up? Would you not say these things to Jesus? Uh, you're embarrassing me.

  But Andrew looks at Jesus and he says, hey, there's a little boy here. He's got five loaves of bread and two fish, do anything with that. Now, to us, one of these is completely reasonable and the other one is completely irrelevant. But to Jesus, it's completely flipped. The irrelevant one is the one that's reasonable and the one that is reasonable is irrelevant to Jesus and Jesus. He just says, have people sit down, I love that. He, he doesn't tell him what he's doing. He's just like have him sit down. I've got work to do. I got work to do. Now there was a lot of grass in this place. So the men sat down about 5000 in number. We call this the feeding of the 5000. And many of you have heard this before that there may have been actually more people at the feeding of the 5000. And I think that that's true. because we know ancient civilization would often times only count the men when they were giving a, a number for things. And that's something that we know. But also the text kind of leads us to believe that when he says, have the people sit down, it uses a more generic term that could be translated into men. Anthros, it's like where we get the word anthropology. So he says, have the people sit down and then it says when, when it's counting the number of people, it says it uses the more specific term for men, which is Andros. And so, when it says how the people sit down, that's a generic term. And then when it says, so the men sat down about 5000 in number. That's the more specific term. So we can gather from that, that maybe there's just as many women there and they're bringing their Children. So 10 to 15,000 people at this feeding, it's a lot of people just think TD garden completely maxed out. That might be what it feels like to be seeing this.

  So Jesus takes the loaves and the fish and he gives thanks and they start passing it out. Now, I'm not sure exactly what this look like. It's not a picture Bible, obviously. But it says that everyone had as much as they want. In fact, there's leftovers, they fill up 12 baskets full of the leftovers. The story is very reminiscent of God providing for the Israelites manna while in the wilderness. You know, there's this story where the people of God are drawn into a desolate place and God provides for them when they're hungry. He provides bread from heaven. But the bread that Jesus provides from heaven is different than the bread from the Old Testament. The bread that Jesus gives is not just enough for the day, but it's super abounding. It goes far beyond what they need or what they expect, far beyond it. It's a feast. Jesus isn't just handing out a ration ticket for that day, but he's handing out a feast which tells us what type of God He is. He is that kind of God. He is generous. We rarely have this mindset.

  When we come to Jesus, we often think of God as being stingy withholding like he's not gonna give us the best like he's only gonna give us our basic necessities and He wouldn't give us anything more than that. But the scriptures over and over again, describe God as generous as kind as someone who cares. It is a priority for Jesus. Not only to provide these things for those who don't adequately plan for themselves because I don't know about you. But if I'm going out to hear a long sermon in a desolate place, I'm packing a lunch. Ok. These people, they, they weren't providing thinking well for themselves, but Jesus, he makes it a priority to abundantly and generously provide for them. Jesus took five loaves and two fish from a little boy and he did amazing things.

  We oftentimes feel inadequate to do the things of God. We often times feel inadequate to serve the Lord, to be faithful to him, to serve in the church. We feel like we don't have much to offer Jesus. But Jesus loves to take what might feel inadequate and to use it for his glory. Jesus loves to take what we have to offer and to bless it and to use it and to multiply it, whatever it is, he loves to do that. He loves to take what little we have to offer and to make it count for his kingdom. I'll tell you a little story when I went to seminary. I was 22 years old. I was just a young buck. All right. Uh, seminary is grad school. So I just graduated from college. Went, moved to Louisville, Kentucky where I was pursuing my master's degree, in Divinity, masters of Divinity. And, um, I joined this large church. Uh, it was a church that was really well well suited. They had everything already taken care of, you know, they, they weren't getting up in front of everybody asking for volunteers for the greeting team. OK. We'll put it like that. They, they had, they had a lot of stuff going on there and I, you know, as most seminary students, you were a big fish previously respected by your, your old church and then you move here and it's like we've got four dozen seminary students get in line. Ok? They, they're not looking for me to preach or anything like that as I joined this church. And so I'm just like, what do I have to offer here? They've kind of got everything taken care of.

  So I look around and the only place that I can find to serve that kind of fits me is with the children's ministry. There's a lot of kids around the church. I genuinely do like Children. At that point in my life, I had more energy to like Children and I am kind of capable of teaching. So I signed up to serve in the kids ministry and I served in the kids ministry for many years there. But it just felt like such a small thing. Like I was just in this class, there were like seven or eight other. At, at first I taught a 1st and 2nd grade class and then I taught a four and five year old class and in the four and five year old class, I actually met my wife. Well, we got to know each other better because she get was assigned to the same class as me. So if you've heard our story, that's how we got to know each other was hanging out at the playground at during church with the kids. So, but so the Lord used it in that way, but he used it in other ways too.

  I remember many years after that I got hired at the church many years later to kind of run the kids ministry as things went on. And I was talking with the youth pastor. Now, this youth pastor, he's a larger than life personality. I mean, the dude is like the most barrel chested dude. He's just like, uh, he looks like a, like a 60 year old bodybuilder. You know, like he's an older guy. He's got wisdom, but at the same time he's jacked and he is just a very influential, big personality. He's had a big impact on the church. He's impacted dozens and dozens of lives, maybe hundreds of lives. He's preaching regularly and he's just pouring his life into these students. So he's someone that has a lot to offer. And we're having this conversation one day and I asked him how they decided to come to our church and he starts to tell me the story. He has, I think five or six girls, like, um, he, he had a lot of Children, a lot of daughters and when they, they were visiting different churches and they visited our church and he told me that his girls, you know, a couple of them went to the children's ministry and they just loved it.

  And then he waxed on eloquently about how gifted this children's worker is that was pouring into the lives of his daughters. And they really weren't that impressed with the church at first. But this children's worker man, this guy was great. He was just teaching them and they just loved it. They want, they demanded that we came back and I just let him keep going. But I remembered that it was me. I am that children's worker. I never, I don't even think I told him. but I'm telling you guys, ok, it was me, Jesus took the little bit that I had to offer and he multiplied it. I just gave him what I had to offer. I may not have ever heard that story. I was lucky that I got to hear how the Lord had used a, a piece of my ministry which is a good reminder for us to, to tell people if someone makes an impact on your life, tell them because that's encouraging. That's what we're called to do as a church is to encourage to build one another up. Let us be a church that encourages one another. Please. We need the encouragement. Everyone here needs the encouragement. Don't worry about blowing up their head, let the heads balloon. It's ok. Encourage one another. I beg you so that we continue to do the work that God has for us. So we feel motivated to do it.

  Friends take your small offerings to Jesus, let him multiply these things, whatever you have, give it to Christ and let him turn it into something powerful. God is more concerned with your willingness to give to him than He is what it is. You actually have to give verse 14 when the people saw the sign that they had, that they had, had, had done that he had done. They said this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world, right? They're getting it. Look at them good job guys perceiving then that they were about to come and take by force to make him king. Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Couple things here, they're ready to make Jesus king. They're ready to crown him king and to take him straight down to Jerusalem and say, hey, the king is here, move over everyone. We found the king. And what does Jesus do? He does the typical Jesus Irish goodbye, sneaks away and goes straight up the mountain to pray by himself.

  It is a good reminder in 2024 that Jesus is far less interested in politics than his followers. Jesus is far less interested in politics than his followers. Jesus is not interested in becoming their idea of king. He's got bigger things on his mind. There is a kingdom where he is already king, where he is reigning and ruling. He has this different kind of kingdom a a reign that transcends political boundaries and is good news for all people is the kingdom of God on earth, God's will and God's way with God's people on God's planet. This is the kingdom of God and this is jesus' priority and it needs to be our priority as well. Kingdom of God above all things. May we be known even politically for our kindness, our gentleness, our humility and our love as opposed to the dumpster fire that we call political action today? May Christians not be known as people who care more about the politics of today than the Kingdom of God. What does Jesus do? Instead of being crowned as king? He retreats to a mountain by himself. He sends his disciples on without him. Leadership retreat is over. And what's he doing on the mountain? He's praying and he's talking with his fa father. It's a priority. He finds time, even if it means he misses his boat, he finds time even if it means he's staying up late into the night, he finds time.

  The author of Luke mentions that Jesus went to a quiet place to be alone with God nine times. He mentions it nine times. That's a lot of times for a short account on the life of Jesus. He mentions that Jesus goes to spend time alone that many times. It is a huge priority for Jesus who has spent his entire eternity past in deep fellowship with his father. He doesn't run off the fumes of that. He continues to commune with his father throughout his life. He continues to go to him in prayer. It is a huge priority for Jesus. And if it's a priority for Jesus, it has to be a priority for us too. Does it not when Arthur put it like this, the busier and more in demand and famous that Jesus became the more he withdrew to the quiet places.

  Why is it such a priority for Jesus? Well, I think one reason and we can't miss this is that he genuinely enjoyed it. It was just something he enjoyed. He enjoyed spending time with his father. You make time for the things that you enjoy. It's easy for Jesus to make time to be with his father because Jesus obviously delights in his father. And as this is the priority for him, it is for us as well. I'd love this quote from Henri Newham. It says without solitude, it's virtually impossible to have a spiritual life. We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and to listen to him. So with that being said, let me ask you this morning, do you have a spiritual life? I mean, you're here. So it's obviously something that you want to make a priority. There aren't a lot of cultural Christians around, around Boston area, some. But do you have a spiritual life? Do you set aside time to be alone with your father who loves you? Who wants to spend time with you? If Jesus needed that time? We do too.

  What you most need in life is to look at Christ because by looking at him, we become like him. It's not that you simply look at him and look at how he lived and then you go home and you say, you know what I'm gonna try to, to be more like him. I'm gonna do some of the things that I saw him do. No, it's by the very act of looking at him that you behold his glory and it changes who you are from the inside out. You become what you behold. And friends, many of us have beholden to find dreams and we've become greedy people who would never admit it. And many of us have become beholden to dreams of being beautiful and young for the rest of our lives and that has become our priority. But friends when you look to Christ, what you look to becomes your priority.

  And as you look to Christ, what happens to your heart. It's not that you become more greedy. It's that you become more kind and you become more humble and you desire to lay your life down for other people. It's not that you look at him and you do and you do those things just because you saw him doing it. But it's because you've seen it and you've beheld it and it changes you. That is what we need. As we look at Christ, the spirit makes us like Jesus. Let's look at someone who looked at Christ. The disciples leave Jesus. I don't know why. It's so funny. Jesus sends him on. He's like, yeah, I'll catch the next boat. Go ahead. Um, he's, they, they get on the boat, they go back over to the non desolate uh, side of the, the sea of Galilee and, uh, the, a storm picks up, it says they're three or four miles into the sea. So this is beyond swimming regions. And who do they see as the storm is, is raging and they're out in the middle of the sea and they're fighting it. But Jesus, he's walking on the water. I love these details. It's not like Jesus is walking on the frozen pond. Jesus is walking on a stormy sea and in the gospel of Matthew, I believe or maybe it's Mark, I think it's Mark. It says that he fully intends on just walking by them. That's what a funny detail just like out there walking. What's up guys? All right, I'm gonna keep going. You just leave you out here and they call to Jesus and they're obviously frightened.

  They're like what is happening and, and he says to them, it is I, which is the same words for I am. Jesus is speaking, do not be a friend. It's not mentioned in John's account again, but in Matthew's account, Jesus actually invites Peter out into the water and Peter has to keep his eyes on Jesus. And as long as he keeps his eyes on Jesus, he can walk on the water. But when he starts to look at the water, he starts to sink. He lacks trust. He's looking at the wind and the waves. He's like, how am I gonna, how is this possible? And he loses his sight on Jesus and he starts to sink friends. If you look to the things of this world, you will always feel like you want to sink. But if you look to Jesus, you will always feel the hope that has been given to you in Him. You will always feel that amazement.

  Let's take a moment right now to look her up. I'm gonna invite you if you would like to close your eyes as we think about this, as we look to Christ, what are you anxious about? What has your heart just in knots? Where are those things? What that, that's one thing I do when I'm talking to Jesus is I just start with my anxieties because those are the cares in my heart and He cares about those. My anxieties are often a window into my priorities. Give those things to God, give your anxieties to Him, say I give you this and instead look to the spiritual realities that you have in Christ friends. If you could ask God to do anything in 2024 and you would know that He would do it no matter what, what would it be? What would you ask Him for? Ask Him? Why not? He invites you to also ask him this, Jesus, what can I offer you? What do you want to multiply in my life? What can I offer? What can I give you've given me so much? What do I have to offer? What do you want me to give over to you?

  Friends? Take those questions and contemplate them this week as we move into 2024 let's evaluate our priorities. Where are your eyes set? Are they still on the things of the world or are they set on Christ? What do you have to offer Jesus this year? What are you beholding? What would you want to behold if we wrap this up? Let's think about this. What was jesus' highest priority? But to do the will of his father, that was his highest priority in all of life. And what is the will of God for Jesus? We know that it was the will of the father to crush him for our iniquities, to pierce him for our transgressions.

  But yet Jesus delights in doing the will of the father is his highest priority and he walks to the hill of GHA carrying his cross as far as he can because it is his priority to do the will of the father and to take on the sin that we commit that, to take the punishment that we deserve. Jesus with joy, took on our sin so that we might take on his righteousness. That's what happens. When we look to Christ, when you look to Christ, your sins are transferred to him on the cross where the punishment is paid no longer, do you bear the punishment? But then it's not just that you are made that you are removed of sin, but it is that his righteousness is extended to you. And so by looking at him, he takes on your sin, you take on his righteousness. Now we progressively become more like him, the more we look to him. And so this year, let me invite you that this be the year that you look to Christ in all of life. When you feel anxious, when you feel guilty, look to Christ, when you feel joy, when you feel sadness, look to Christ, let this be the year that we behold him, my friends where we make his priorities, our priorities.

  On the night that he was betrayed. Jesus took a loaf of bread and he tore it and he said this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me and he took a cup and he said this is the cup of the new covenant, my blood shed for you do take this in remembrance of me. And so each week we participate in a sacred meal and a communion meal. And the way that we do that here is we invite all those who are calling on Christ who are looking to Christ to come and participate in this meal. So as we approach the table church, I would love to, to invite us to stand and pray as we prepare our hearts to sing and respond to jesus' Word this morning. Let's stand.

  Father. We thank you for your word. We pray that you would bless it in our life, that you would multiply it in our lives. May this word become something that helps us throughout the day and throughout the, the year and God may we behold you each and every day and delight in you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.