John 6:1-15

over in the book of John once again in chapter

6 if you'll open your bibles and

If you remember jump chapter 5 was one long

discourse where Jesus is dealing with the

religious leaders and

fantastic

words of

Proclamation of his deity but now we come to

chapter 6 and

It starts off with one of the most familiar

stories in all of scripture

The feeding of the five thousand people in and

out of the church know this story

And there's a reason for that of all of the

miracles that Jesus ever did

This is the most massive

miracle

because of the numbers

5,000 men

plus women and children

puts the number at somewhere between 20 and 25

thousand people and

Jesus

creates a

meal for every single one of them and

They are not just

spectators of the miracle

They are

Participants in the miracle

Because they eat the meal

That he creates so this is a very

Intimate

experience

That there's no miracle that Jesus did

in the whole time he was here in his ministry

that

Involved so many people that the closest one

would be later when he feeds

4,000 in

Decapolis we don't talk about that one as much

as we talk about this one

This is so incredible

this account

that all four gospels

Include this event

The only other miracle recorded by all four

gospels is the resurrection of Christ from the

dead and it's unique

Because of again, it's sheer volume

Because of the participation of the witnesses

in the miracle and again, it is unique

because it is a

creative

miracle there there are

Restorative miracles where as you know, we've

read Jesus gives slight sight to the blind and

in hearing to deaf people and he's healing

diseases

and paraplegics and those are

Restorative miracles, I mean they they do have

a creative element to them in the situations

where there were new organs or new limbs

That were were given and then then there are

some

transformative miracles like changing water

into wine

but this is

just

creation

Exonelio out of nothing

This is creating food out of nothing to feed

25,000 people it is a

staggering testimony to the identity of Jesus

as God in human flesh

only God

Could do something like this and that's why it

's in all four gospels

It's hard to deny this miracle

because of the huge number of

eyewitness

Participants this thing will stand up in court

right here

It really really never has been denied

Until more modern times when the brilliant

genius critics have decided

That it really wasn't a miracle at all

What really happened they say was a little boy

gave up his lunch and everybody said wow

Let's all share and so everybody reached into

their own knapsack and pulled out whatever

they had and there was this great

Spiritual experience of sharing. That's the

liberal view of what happened here

I'm going to show you that that liberal

nonsense is an absolute

impossibility and would only come up in the

minds of unbelievers and skeptics who are

trying to discredit the Bible and

Deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. This

is the fourth miracle recorded by John

after the wedding at Cana

the healing of the nobleman's son and

The man at the pool that we studied not long

ago

This one comes right after that lengthy dex

declaration as I told you in chapter 5 about

who Jesus is and as we've learned

One of the major themes of the Gospel of John

is getting us to understand

the profundity of

who

Jesus is

That's what somebody needs to sit down with

Joe Rogan and tell him

About who Jesus is that's the biggest thing

you must understand about Jesus

That's John's emphasis in this gospel so that

so that as he says in his mission statement

So that believing we can inherit eternal life

and I need to

Continue to remind you about this fact

Nobody ever doubted in Jesus's day that his

miracles were real

Not even the religious leaders

And nobody doubted the integrity of these

miracles

Nobody not even in the in the hierarchy of the

Sanhedrin

Ever said or claim that the miracles that

Jesus was doing was fake

Frauds are some kind of sleight of hand

You never find one word in history or in the

scripture where they claim that because it was

impossible to do

Because they were just too many of them. They

were just too

Amazing they were just too

demonstrably divine and they were just done in

front of too many people too many eyewitnesses

They were and there were just no human

explanation a

Magician, I mean we see magicians do things

when he's like wow, how do we do that? How did

he do that?

Well, we know he's got a trick. It's a sleight

of hand or whatever it is

you couldn't look at this and

Say, oh, you know, Jesus had some bread in an

underground tunnel or something and he was

pulling it out of the ground

No, this was just

demonstrably

Divine God and so in spite of the obvious

evidence which was so overwhelming. It's

amazing

How many people including all the Jewish

leaders with you know

We know the exception of Nicodemus and some

others that came to Christ, but the majority

Even in the face of something like this

How they rejected Jesus as their Messiah they

determined that he was the most extreme

blasphemer

Because he claimed to be God and he attacked

their religious system

So what did they want they wanted to kill him?

And it's so incredible

At the same time that they wanted to kill him

because he attacked their system and their way

of life

They never denied that what he was doing was a

miracle. Isn't that something they they just

rejected him

This this is the stubbornness the absolute

stubbornness of the natural man in his natural

Condition and the deceptiveness of false

religion as well. So let's start by reading

the text

I got mom's reading glasses. You ever even

when you're not in a hurry

You get all your stuff together to go out the

house and you're you know without a shot of it

out

There's something I'm forgetting there's

something I'm forgetting, but you can't think

of that thing in that moment

Well, that was the reading glasses this

morning. So I got mom's on

All right, let's read our text verses 1 to 15

after these things

Jesus went away to the other side of the sea

of Galilee or Tiberius

A large crowd followed him because they saw

the signs which he was performing on those who

were sick

Then Jesus went up on the mountain and there

he sat down with the disciples

The Passover the feast of the Jews was near

therefore Jesus lifting up his eyes and seeing

that a large crowd was coming to him said to

Philip

Where are we to buy bread so that these may

eat?

This he was saying to test him for he himself

knew what he was intending to do

Philip answered him

200 dinerai where the bread is not sufficient

for them for everyone to receive a little

One of his disciples Andrew Simon Peters

brother said to him there is a lad here who

has five barley loaves and two fish

But what are these for so many people?

Jesus said have the people sit down

Now there was much grass in the place

So the men sat down in number about five

thousand

Jesus then took the loaves and having given

thanks. He distributed to those who were

seated

likewise all of the fish as much as they

Wanted when they were filled

He said to his disciples gather up the

leftover fragments so that nothing will be

lost

So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets

with fragments from the five barley loaves

Which are left over by those who had eaten

Therefore when the people saw the sign which

he had performed they said this is truly the

prophet who has come into

the world

now

If Jesus were just a man

alone who was trying to gain power of

All moments in scripture

This would have been him his time to grasp

earthly power

25,000 people

Would be a sizable group of people to have

behind you if you wanted to start a revolution

and

for sure

There were other people many others who had

experienced the miracles of Jesus or saw them

or witnessed them

So if he had wanted power these people plus

those people

He would let them make him a king on that day

I

Heard Ben Shapiro

Who is Jewish and his fact an orthodox Jews

say this quote Jesus was just a religious

Revolutionary who got himself killed on a

Roman cross

That's the Jewish view. He's Jewish. You

should expect no other view. I don't care how

conservative he is in his politics

That's his view of Jesus

And again, if Jesus was that

If he was just some revolutionary who tried to

bring about this noble revolution, I'm telling

you this would have been his moment

but at this very moment at the

High point of his popularity when this goes

down what happens

He disappears

Goes off by himself

To make sure that that doesn't happen

Look at verse 15

So Jesus

Perceiving that they were intended to come int

ending to come and take him by force to make

him king

with drew again to the mountain by himself

alone and

when

King Jesus decides to go somewhere by himself

alone and he's decided to do that nobody goes

after him

Now again, this is the most

extensive miracle that Jesus ever did highest

participation level

Again, I wouldn't emphasize to you. These

people are not just watching this happen

They are eating the food

They're in the middle of the miracle like it

Now let's get down into this text and start

with what we will call this

fickle crowd

first of all

It's very important for us to understand the

popularity of Jesus in his ministry

at this particular time in Israel his

popularity is

Overwhelming at this point

He has right now a literal tsunami of

popularity

Sweeping across the nation sweeping across

Galilee that there's no again. There's no

question in anyone's mind that this

Man there they're seeing him just like we're

looking at one another as a man

There's no question that he's performing

Miracles fake miracle workers in those days

they they could draw a crowd

But none of them could draw these kind of

crowds

Jesus had the power to draw literally tens of

thousands of people

In an age when there was no social media in an

age where there was no television

You would you would expect that if God became

a man and came to this earth in human flesh

And he would have the ability in the first

century to draw tens of thousands of people

you would expect that

But of course the people's interest

Was superficial in Jesus the majority

Their interest was self-serving that that's

what sets up the picture here. Let's look at

verse one

Starts out after these things now. That's just

a

Generic statement to let us know that we're

now leaving the subject of chapter five

And we're we're moving now to a completely

different scenario if you remember when we

started chapter five

Jesus had gone down to Jerusalem for an un

named

Feast of the Jews they don't name the feast it

just says a feast of the Jews and that is

where the whole of chapter five

Is played out with the Jewish religious

leaders in Jerusalem. So depending on what

feast it was

Passover or the feast of tabernacles the fact

that verse four is fixing to tell us

Passover was near means that's phrase after

these things here in verse one was somewhere

between six months to a year

After the events of chapter five, that's how

we can kind of figure that out

So verse one after these things Jesus went

away to the other side of the sea of

Galilee or Tiberias now

Jesus had come back to Galilee for a number of

reasons. He's definitely there for the Galilee

in ministry, but also

He's gone there

because he's extremely aware of

the religious leaders in

Jerusalem wanting to kill him

he knows their plot and

He wants to stay on God's clock

Now I want you to think about this. This is

the sovereignty and responsibility issue

playing out

Even in the life of Jesus think about it. He

he doesn't want to get to kill too soon

So he takes practical measures

Down here in responsibility land to make sure

that that doesn't happen now. Is it that

fascinating?

think about it the

Godman

Who ordained all things whatsoever that come

to pass our 1689 London Baptist Confession of

Faith says?

played by the rules of

Sovereignty and responsibility

He he played by the rules while he was here.

What does that say about us?

Understanding God is sovereign and decree God

think that we're still responsible down here

to act. It's just tremendous

So he leaves for the isolation of Gallip. Gall

ip leaves the country like we say he's gone to

the country

He's out of the city. He's he's also at this

moment very much aware of the fact that John

the Baptist has now been executed

So the heat is on

And he's now up in this northern very rural

area

away from the heat that's happening in Judea

of the South and

Jesus here is on the east side of

The Sea of Galilee which was a route that

people would take when they came from the

north of Israel

To go down to Jerusalem for the Feast of

Passover

There would be just thousands of people coming

down this trail on this side of the Galilee

So you got this flow of humanity coming down

on the the trails on the east side to go to

Passover and

And then you've got this massive crowd

That is following Jesus

So so that's the scene as we come to this

event and John puts a footnote look there to

let us know

It's also called the sea of Piberius, which is

named after the Caesar during that time period

quick check in your history books

We'll let you know that's exactly who was in

charge in room at that time notice in verse

one

Jesus went away to

The other side now this is where you put all

the Gospels together in understanding this

event

Matthew Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus and

the disciples take a boat to the other side

After the 12th have returned from a preaching

and teaching mission

Remember Jesus sent them out to preach and to

teach and now they've come back and Jesus

wants to know

Pull aside

Let's regroup and have a little meeting. I

want to hear how did it go when you went out

preaching and teaching when I sent

You out and also in Matthew 11 it talks about

Jesus having been

Exhausted in the weariness of his own ministry

during this time period. So they're all they

're worn out

But they also need some time together. They

need some time to be away from everybody else

John the Baptist has done had his head cut off

The Jewish leaders are after them

So these are very important times

So they go to the east side the popular side

was on the west side more cities and bigger

towns were on the west side

Much more rural on the east side

So it was a great place for them to be able to

get away and to sit together and talk together

verse three

then Jesus went up on the mountain and

There he sat down

With his disciples that was always his custom.

He liked to go up on the slopes of Israel

He liked to be up high and he again. He's

wanting to discuss

Everything that had happened with his

disciples, but verse two says a

large

crowd

followed him

They were walking

along the shoreline as

Jesus and his men are in the boat

we know this from the Gospel of Matthew this

this massive crowd of

Thousands of people picture it in your mind

Jesus and his disciples are in the on the

north shore of the Sea of Galilee going across

and they can see on

The shoreline

Thousands of people looking at them and

walking along the way as they're going across

in the boat

Picture that scene

By the time they get to the other side

The crowd already starting to gather according

to Matthew 14

What is it?

That drew so many thousands of people

To walk along that shoreline

To meet Jesus when he got out of that boat

Well, look what it says next in verse two

because they saw the signs

Which he was performing on those who were sick

It was the healing I

Mean everybody wants healing

That's the most remarkable marketable

religious commodity

That's where all the liars and the deceivers

go to promise that because that is where

people are most desperate

The hucksters there is just nothing much worse

in my mind then somebody

Promising people healings miracles that they

know they can't do and then

Extracting money

for the promises that they're giving

That that right there is praying on

the hope of the hopeless

When in reality

You know good and well you can't deliver and

then worst of all worst of all

You're doing that in Jesus's name

Think about this

How many times have you ever heard faith heal

ers anywhere in the world and these types of

things being done in the name of Muhammad?

Never heard faith healers

Proclaim miracles in the name of Buddha. I

Haven't

It's always done in the name of Jesus because

he is the King

Because he is the God man

And because the devil always wants to disc

redit discredit him and

These people here in this text were definitely

desperate. I mean, I want you to just think

about it for a minute

This was a primitive world

It would be many centuries before

Any disease was correctly diagnosed by doctors

I mean, they they really didn't know what was

wrong with them when they got sick seriously

ill. I

Mean, there was no real medicine at this time.

I mean it was hopeless

I mean if you had a serious medical issue

happening, you didn't know what was going on

with you

And down in verse 26 Jesus is gonna tell them

You seek me not because you saw the signs but

because you ate of the loaves and were filled

So this is all

Temporal

physical food it's for their personal well-

being their personal fulfillment their personal

ease and

Satisfaction the feeling of their bellies that

I want you to think about this

the battle for bread was a life-long

Every day battle in those days. They didn't

have any grocery stores. No Walmart

They didn't have any processed foods. That's

probably a good thing as we're learning more

and more about this day

They didn't have any refrigerators. They didn

't have any microwaves. They didn't have any

electricity. They didn't have any running

water

Every meal for people was a struggle every

single day

somebody

Had to work really hard for every meal every

day for the rich the servants had to do it and

for everybody else

They had to do it

and everything had to be prepared from scratch

every single day I

Try to get you I try to keep you aware of this

as much as I can daily reality was far harder

than we can even

Imagine from our perspective now living in the

most comfortable

Century in world history and in the most

prosperous

Country in the world history, oh how good God

has been to us just to have us alive at this

day

In this nation how blessed we are and how

little we should complain

Compared to other time periods back then

If somebody came along

Who could heal them and could give them free

food?

What do you think he's number one man? I mean

this guy is Nirvana

This this crowd hasn't even had a feeding

miracle yet at this point

I mean they're just coming

Because they're attracted by the healings at

this point. They they came for temporal

miracles. They didn't come for eternal words

Now as we go on through John

When he starts to speak some really hard

eternal words at the time we get to the end of

this sixth chapter

Most of them are bailing out on Jesus. They

don't care about his food at all

Even many of his disciples look at verse 66 in

this sixth chapter of John with Drew and we're

not walking with him anymore

That's how hard some of the things he's gonna

say in this sixth chapter are

We're drawn by his miracles, but when he got

real

They were sent away by his words

They really only want what all

Unregenerate people who do not believe in

Christ want physical satisfaction physical

fulfillment. They wanted what their flesh

demanded and

That's what the crowd still wants today the

people who go to the faith healers

They really just want to be healed. They're

not really interested in hearing the gospel.

They want their fleshly the Jesus name, of

course

one time I saw a lady on

government Street in a very expensive

Buick SUV

She had on her front license plate. Jesus did

this for me

Really

Now Jesus does promise

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these

things will be added unto you

But that's talking about your needs not your

wants

Jesus doesn't promise ever

To fulfill all your material needs

But many people think that is what Jesus is in

the business of doing providing SUVs for

people and

Getting you out of debt

When you sow your seed to the man of God,

right?

Now those guys can always get a crowd

Especially the ones that are good at it and

they got many of them that are

but

The preacher gets up at one of these deals and

he starts talking about self-denial and

self-hatred and

Leaving father and mother and all that you

possess if necessary

if you start calling on people to repent of

their sins and to be broken and

To realize their spiritual bankruptcy to

humble themselves to take up their cross to be

obedient to Christ from the word of God to

suffer to be

Persecuted and maybe even to die as a martyr.

Well, that's not going to draw too much of a

crowd, right?

Day Jesus is demonstrating his power here

To show his deity so that they would listen to

his words

But most of them never got past their stomach

Look at verses 3 and 4 then Jesus went up on

the mountain and there he sat down with his

disciples now

The Passover the feast of the Jews was near so

he goes up with the disciples

But as always Jesus eventually he can't help

himself. He's drawn to the crowd

He is after all an evangelist and a gospel

preacher and they need to hear what he has to

say

So look at verse 5

Therefore Jesus lifting up his eyes and seeing

that a large crowd was coming to them. He sees

them

Here they come

Imagine one of these Trump rallies with all

those people out in that field in Butler or

wherever that you saw on television

All this campaign 20 25,000 people men many

more at some of these rallies

Imagine that kind of crowd all walking towards

Jesus as he's up on this mountain

He can't escape them

They ain't stopping

And what drew him was not the kingdom

Not salvation not sound doctrine

healings only

Now

Give me what I want now

That's what's in their minds

I want it now

Give me my best life now. I think somebody

wrote a book about that

and at this point

We really don't know whether in their minds

they thought Jesus was for sure going to be

the Messiah

But as this thing unfolds looking verse 14

what they say

This is truly the prophet who has come into

the world and that is a messianic reference

from Deuteronomy 18

Where moses promises the messiah would be

another prophet greater than himself

So so things were headed at least in that

direction in their thinking and also it's

Passover time

So all these pilgrims are headed down to

Jerusalem

And moses is on their minds

And they had the excitement and anticipation

that maybe a prophet like moses will come in

our lifetime and

Deliver us from the romans. That's what they

were thinking at Passover time every time they

were going down to Jerusalem

So so that's the setting. That's what's in

people's minds

People with earthly temporal interests were

Getting us out of the yoke of bondage of the

romans

personal national well-being

Jesus is writing this tsunami of popularity

Now this large and very fickle crowd

25,000 is all around him

Next we're going to meet the faithless

Disciples look at verse five

Therefore Jesus lifting up his eyes and seeing

a large crowd was coming to him said Philip

Where are we to buy bread?

So that these may eat

Weird when you say your own name, isn't it?

Mark tells us

He was moved

to compassion

for these people

because they were like sheep

Without a shepherd

His heart goes out to him. It really does

He knows the suffering they're going through

in the physical world

And he knows of their desperate spiritual

condition as well

And right at this point they are in a desolate

place. I mean they're up on the mountain to

get away from the crowds over in Matthew

the disciples say

Jesus

The hour is late

You've got to send these people away because

it's fixing to be dark

You got to send them away so they can get

somewhere to find food

And here in our text he says to Philip, where

are we to buy bread so that these may eat?

And why does he say that?

Well, this is the introduction of Jesus

articulating a very

impossible situation

He wants to verbalize

an impossible situation

He wanted to make it clear for this narrative

that the church would read for all the rest of

human history

That there were no resources here in the area

This is a desolate place

There's nowhere

For anybody to go buy bread

It's not possible

This is 20 000 plus people. What is he doing

verse six?

Tells us what he was doing

This he was saying to test him

For he himself knew what he was intending to

do

He wanted to find out how much faith Philip

had now it might have gone differently

If Philip would have said

What why are you asking me this question? You

are the miracle worker

I mean, I've been watching you do

Miracles for months and months. Why are you

asking this question?

I mean, he would have passed the test

At that point if he had put trust

In the power which he had been seeing

displayed day after day after day after day in

the healings

He would have said something like well, if you

can do all these other things

I'm sure you can make dinner for all these

people, right?

But true to form

The weakness

Of the disciples shows up again. They have

been witnessing daily non-stop breathtaking

miracles

But they can't believe for a miracle in this

situation

Jesus is testing the disciples here and

building

their faith as well

And he knew exactly what he was going to do

and philips answer shows that he failed the

test

I want you to see if you can note

a little sarcasm

in philips answer verse seven

philip answered him

200 denarii worked a bread is not sufficient

for them for everyone to receive a little now

a denarius was one day's wage

For a roman soldier. So we're talking about

200 here. We're talking about eight months

worth of pay

That's a lot of money

And philip says even if we had that much bread

It wouldn't be enough for all these people

to have even a little each one of them

Even if we had the money and we don't

There's nowhere to go to get that much bread

And even if we could even if we could

Everybody was still just to get a little bite

Verses eight and nine one of his disciples and

rew simon peter's brother said to him

There is a lad here who has five barley loaves

and two fish

But what are these for so many people?

So andrew pops up here because we learned in

mark

That jesus had told the disciples to go out

into the crowd

And to seek what was available

And andrew comes back. Okay. We got a boy who

brought his lunch here

Five barley loaves, which have been like more

like uh large crackers and two pickle fish

And andrew I mean think about it. He's got to

be kind of snickering at this report, right? I

mean

This cannot be a lesson in sharing

Because they couldn't find anything

this is really kind of

Sarcastic to are you kidding?

That's kind of where we are here

One lunch of fish and bread that what is that?

Among so many people

again

Jesus has a point and a motive

The impossibility

Of the situation that's what this is about

verse 10

And here we go from the pickle crowd the faith

less disciples to now the full meal verse 10

Jesus said have the people sit down

Now they just told him remember we know from

the other gospels

Send these people away. It's gonna be dark

soon. No food. We ain't gonna have a bunch of

people that are not happy campers out here in

the middle of nowhere

Jesus said no

Have them sit down

Mark tells us it's so interesting. They had

him sit down in groups

of 50

And a hundred and like blocks with little ais

les

in between them

And then next in verse 10 just a little eyew

itness note now there was much grass

in that place

So pincher the scene

He's got him comfortable

nice place

grassy hillside, maybe it's like an evening

picnic right here

And all four gospels again say there were 5000

men just as we see here in verse 10

But matthew adds the phrase not including

women and children

As we said adding them brings you to about 20

to 25 000 just imagine

On this slope

Just picture 20 to 25

people men women and children

And and there are all in groups of 50 and 100

with little aisles in between them. I mean

Who could get that many people to cooperate

like that?

Hmm

Who could have that kind of people a power to

control people in that way?

A man who?

Spoke with authority like no one ever heard

before is the only one who could do something

like this

Who did things no one had ever seen before

then verse 11?

One of the most understated acts of creation

ever recorded in scripture

Jesus then took the loaves

And haven't given

Thanks think about got the bread in his hand

In front of 25 000 people the little five lo

aves

And he's thanking god for this wonderful meal.

They're fixing to have and then

No fanfare

No voice thunders from heaven

No thunder or lightning

Look what it says next it just says this

This is the bible

He distributed to those who were seated

likewise also of the fish

As much as they wanted

That's it

That's how it's

It just kept happening

It just kept happening

And he's creating this all out of thin air

This bread never came from grain that grew in

the dirt

Think about that

These were fish that never swam in the water

These had to be the best bread loaves anybody

ever ate in history. These were unfallen lo

aves

And these are fish with no mama fish

This is the kind of fish that gobbler create

when he created a perfect fish never touched

by sin or the fallen world

How you think those fish tasted?

Don't you think you would have tended at this

point to overeat just a little bit?

I mean they were probably stuffing loaves and

fishes in their clothes

It says they were able to take as much as they

wanted

So this is obviously not a lesson in sharing

note to the liberals

If some people have

And some people don't

And you share

Everybody gets less than what they want, right

?

That sounds like a plan of the democrats

Right, I mean probably a democrat that came up

with this sharing theory

No, there's no explanation for this

You got way too many eyewitnesses to tamper

with this

They had all they wanted verse 12 says when

they were ill they were stuffed

Food straight from the creator of all things

the best meal you ever ate in your life couldn

't come close to this meal

How many generations do you think?

The story of the greatest meal

Ever eaten got passed down in the lives of the

families that were there that day

I mean, this is a world again with no tv. No

internet. No no electricity

I'm sure they never stopped talking about this

And it just kept getting passed down in the

family remember that day

Papa was up on the hill and they tell the

story again

And not only was it a complete meal. It was a

precise meal look at verses 12 and 13

When they were filled he said to the disciples

gather up the leftover fragments so that

nothing will be lost

So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets

with fragments from the five barley loaves

which are left over by those who

Had eaten and that would be enough for who?

the 12 disciples

12 baskets

They wanted to get to eat on too

They wanted to be filled

So they each get a basket full

a powerful

creative miracle

a precise

creative miracle

Exactly what the people wanted and exactly

what the apostles did as well and it's just

stunning

And you know jesus could do this

And anytime he wanted to he does later as I

said in de capolis for 4 000

And you have to wonder how in the world

The disciples from that point on especially

could have ever possibly

Exhibited any kind of lack of faith

In jesus having seen this

Having experienced this having stacked there

eating this food with 25 000 other people that

were there

This along with all the other incredible

things that they saw on a daily basis. How do

you explain?

The fact that in the moment of jesus's arrest

They forsook him and flipped

I mean when the roman soldiers come up why

didn't at least one of them say man, you don't

know this guy

We just couldn't stand here, dude. Come on

but

It's an incredible indictment

Of how weak all of us are

Right after this in matthew 16

verse 8

But jesus aware of this said you men of little

faith. Why do you discuss among yourselves

that you have no

Bread now make sure you understand this. This

is just a little while after this amazing

miracle

They had moved on

And they had forgot to bring the bread

And jesus says this in verses 9 and 10

Do you not yet understand or remember the five

loaves of the five thousand and how many

baskets full you picked up

Or the seven loaves of the four thousand and

how many large baskets full you picked up

By this time he had done performed the second

feeding miracle

I mean

How in the world are you gonna say? Oh, no, we

forgot

How are you gonna say that amazing?

well

while the disciples are

Trying to get their faith together

We come to our last point

The false coronation

The crowd the disciples the miracle meal

lastly

The crowd of a false coronation verse 14

therefore

When the people saw the sign which he had

performed they said this is truly the prophet

who has come

Into this world. Maybe maybe this is the one

in Deuteronomy

That moses promise us about but what if this

is the messiah and by the way in acts 3

Peter's gonna say later that Jesus is the

prophet that moses talked about verse 15

So jesus perceiving that they were intending

to come and take him by force to make him king

with drew again

To the mountain by himself

alone

So notice

What did they do?

What what did they say what?

Let's listen to what he has to say. Let's hear

his message and see the prophet of god. No

It says here they intended to take him by

force

to make him a king

because then

They can have the ultimate welfare state

Forget work

We can eat all we want. We can be healed

anytime we get sick. I mean, this is better

care for all that's really free

And jesus responds

By withdrawing to the mountain by himself

well

Listen from that day to this

Jesus is not willing just to be a temporal

provider for your temporal

Needs only again. He was just a revolutionary

with ambition

This would have been his moment to grasp power

But he would not allow them to push him to

become the kind of king that they wanted him

to be

And that's the way it is today

The jesus of the prosperity preachers is a

false jesus the true jesus isn't there. He

never was

Because jesus will not be treated in this way

He withdrew to the mountain alone

He proves his deity and later when he's

teaching truth about himself about the bread

of life with this

Amazing miracle fresh in their minds. He talks

about eternal things

Many of them reject him. They walk away

Jesus does not acquiesce to our fleshly

desires like some kind of genie in the bottle

that pops out

He comes to no man on that man's terms

You come to jesus on his terms or you don't

come at all

You don't manipulate jesus

To get what you want from him

He doesn't promise

Unregenerative people what they want from this

world jesus will never be

A quick fix for anybody's felt needs

And if you market him that way

You are on your own because he's not there and

you better buckle up for judgment day. That's

all I got to say

Jesus again

He calls on all of us

to repent of our sins

To acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy

To place our saving faith in him alone as our

savior substituting king and then to be

obedient to him

In our life in the way that we live according

to his word to live for him to suffer for him

even

Even to die for him if that's necessary and oh

how many have died

Because of believing in jesus how many died

today in other nations because of their faith

in jesus

And when he gives that message at the end of

this chapter of what it really means

to come to him

Many of them are gone they're out of there

jesus always drives the superficial crowd away

with preaching truth

with the hard demands

Of the gospel john mcarthur wrote that book

years ago. It's a great little book if you

hadn't read it call hard to believe

Describing what it means to come to faith in j

esus. So wherever you find a fake preacher

gathering a crowd that stays

It's because they haven't heard the demands of

the true gospel

And we'll see how that unfolds

Next time we're in the gospel

Father, we thank you. It's amazing

Eyewitness testimony

Of the deity of christ

Oh god, I pray we would get it down into our

bloodstreams who jesus is

I pray that you would do that for all of us

even in a more deeper way every day

So that when we go out to tell the world who

he is we will do so with confidence

Knowing the truth that he is who he claimed to

be god and human flesh

And there is no other name under heaven or

earth whereby man must be saved

Save the name of jesus

We pray that everything we've done today has

been done in such a way to bring you maximum

glory

Jesus name we pray amen