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
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