6/17/07 Two Amazing Days Pt. 1

Our study of the Gospel of John brings us this morning to the 6^th chapter.

And it brings us, also,

to 36 hours in the life of Christ

that are probably better known than any other 36 hours prior to the crucifixion.

These two days begin with Jesus’ futile attempt to briefly get Himself and His disciples away from the crowds,

then moves on to a wilderness meeting between Jesus and a crowd of probably 15 or 20 thousand people,

then moves on to His miraculous feeding of the entire group who, in response, attempt to crown Him King,

followed by a late night adventure in which He walks several miles out to His disciples’ boat on the Sea of Galilee,

and then concludes the following day with an intense exchange between Jesus and those He’d fed,

an exchange that results in a large number of His followers turning away from Him.

Parts of these two days are recorded for us in all four Gospels.

And there is so much happening in these two days

that we’re going to take at least two weeks looking at what’s here.

Now, as we’ve seen so far in our study,

John is very selective in the material he has chosen to include in his account.

For the most part up to this point

he has selected events and conversations that were not included in the first three Gospels.

But with this 6^th chapter

we see him sharing with us events that appear in all four Gospel accounts,

in Matthew chapter 14, Mark chapter 6, Luke chapter 9, and then here in John 6.

But as we might expect,

John introduces some new material that the others did not include

and he excludes some parts of the events that took place,

knowing that it was information that was already in wide circulation.

You see, here again there was some information he possessed

about the events that took place

that he very much wanted preserved for those of us who were to come after him.

It will be obvious with some of this information why he wanted it included.

But there’s also one addition that we may not have expected.

It’s found early in the chapter,

tucked into John’s brief account of the events that took place the first day.

And that’s where we’re going to begin our study of the chapter.

Let me read the passage for us

and then I’ll see if I can help us better appreciate what’s happening.

JOH 6:1-15 After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias).

OK, before we read on,

let me just fill in the account here

by telling you that we know from the other Gospel accounts of this event

that this trip took place immediately following an intense time of public ministry,

a time when Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs

and then brought them all home when news of John the Baptist’s execution reached them.

They were exhausted,

and Jesus got them all into a boat

and tried to get them away from the crowds for a brief time.

But by this time He was so well known,

and so sought-after that escape was simply not an option.

And so, as they sailed away,

the crowd kept watch from the shore

and then circled around the lake on foot.

And John says,

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 His disciples.

And here again

John does not mention Jesus’ extended time of teaching

because he knows this information is included in the earlier Gospel accounts.

Then John continues,

Now 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, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little."

And just so we keep the magnitude of this thing in mind,

it will help you to know that a denarius was the established wage for one man for one day’s work.

In our current economy that would be what? ...at least 15 or 20 thousand dollars...

a person’s total wages for more than half a year...

And then we come to the part of the account

that does not appear in either of the other gospels.

It involves Andrew and an interesting friendship that he formed that day.

One of His disciples, Andrew, 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?" 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.

And here again,

just so that we keep our numbers accurate,

it will help you to know that in the Jewish culture of the day

when crowds were counted they were counted by families, not by individuals,

so just the men were counted.

But what that means

is that there were five thousand men,

but there were very likely at least 10 and possibly as much as 20 thousand people or more.

Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also 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 twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were 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 is to come into the world."

So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

OK, the first thing we need to do with this passage

is to pry it out of our “Bible Story” mentality

and allow ourselves to relate to this event as the true history that it is.

And to help us do that

I’m going to turn once again

to what I came up with when sharing this event in The Fisherman.

I used John’s account as my basis for that section of the book

and this is the way my imagined Peter explains what happened.

Jesus finally finished his discourse and sat down. It was obvious that he was finished teaching for the day, but no one moved. Rather than gathering their families together and heading home, they all just sat there—an endless sea of humanity spread out before us. Apparently they had no intention of leaving unless they saw Jesus himself depart. The whole situation became rather awkward, and we disciples grouped around the Master, not knowing exactly what to do. I finally took it upon myself to speak to Jesus. I pointed out the obvious: we were miles from the nearest village, it was getting late, these people were hungry, and they all needed to either go home or find temporary lodging for the night. I encouraged Jesus to send the people away.

Jesus looked up at us hovering around him and said, “They don’t have to go away. You give them something to eat.”

We looked at the crowd. Then we looked back at Jesus. Then we looked at the crowd again. This time I kept my mouth shut. I’d been here before. I was hearing Jesus speaking words, but the words made no sense.

Finally Jesus broke the silence. “Philip, where can we buy bread to feed these people?”

I was thrilled it was Philip he singled out for the test. I didn’t know the answer to this one. Philip did some quick mental calculations and stated what we already knew. It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy bread for this mob.

Silence reigned once again in our little group.

Then my brother spoke up. “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”

I looked over at him and saw Andrew standing with his hand resting on the shoulder of a boy perhaps ten or eleven years old. The boy was holding a small lunch basket, neatly covered with a white cloth. I remembered seeing Andrew sitting with the boy throughout much of the afternoon. Apparently the little fellow had been playing outside when the crowd passed through his village in pursuit of Jesus that morning. He begged his mom for permission to join the group. She learned their neighbors were going, so she quickly packed him a little lunch and sent him off in their care. In the confused transition from the beach to the hillside, the young fellow had been separated from his neighbors and found himself all alone in that multitude. He was safe enough but a little scared. Andrew had a way of picking up on those things. He saw the boy standing by himself, struck up a conversation with him, and offered to keep him company until they located the boy’s neighbors.

Andrew told me later how that lunch basket ended up in the Master’s hands. Throughout the afternoon the little fellow kept glancing at the basket sitting next to him. He felt uncomfortable eating his lunch when he knew those around him had none. When Jesus finished his teaching and sat down, for a few minutes neither Andrew nor the boy spoke. It was apparent to Andrew that the lad was deep in thought about something. Then he turned to Andrew and asked, “Do you know if Jesus brought a lunch with him today?”

Andrew said he knew Jesus had not brought a lunch and, in fact, had not eaten anything since early morning.

The boy was silent again for a few minutes. Then he turned again to Andrew and said, “Do you think Jesus would like to have my lunch?”

Andrew suggested they go up and ask him.

The events that followed are no doubt well known to you. Jesus sent Andrew and Matthew back to the fishing boat to get the large baskets we kept on board for sorting and storing our catch. He told the rest of us to divide the crowd into groups of somewhere between fifty and a hundred people in each group. As I headed out into the crowd I glanced back and saw the boy sitting on the grass next to the Master. He was laughing at something Jesus was saying. The lunch basket sat unopened on the grass between them.

As soon as Andrew and Matthew returned, Jesus stood, offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the little basket of food, then pulled back the cloth cover, removed the contents, and began breaking pieces of fish and bread into one of the baskets. In just a few seconds the basket was filled, and he told us to bring it over to the first group of hungry listeners. The next basket he filled was the boy’s little basket. He filled it until it overflowed, then handed it back to the lad. The boy sat next to Jesus with the basket on his lap and ate his lunch. But his eyes were glued to the miracle taking place in Jesus’ hands.

For the next several hours we toted and dumped and toted and dumped basket after basket of food. As fast as we brought them back Jesus refilled them.

Everyone ate until they could eat no more. When they finally finished, we gathered up the uneaten food and found we had twelve baskets full of leftovers . . . one for each of us.

The crowd’s response to that feast exceeded my wildest expectations. Someone began chanting, “KING JESUS! KING JESUS! KING JESUS!” and it wasn’t long before thousands of voices joined in. At last we had the power of the people behind us. Surely nothing could stop us now. Nothing, that is, except Jesus himself. Rather than seizing the moment and acknowledging their nomination, he told us the meeting was over and ordered us to return to the boat immediately and head back to Capernaum. Once again I felt he was making a tragic tactical error, turning his back on this tremendous momentum, but he made it clear his instructions were not open for discussion. As we shoved off from the shore, I could hear the Master telling the multitude to return to their homes. When I looked again, he was nowhere to be seen.

Now, I’ll let you know right now

that the major additional contribution that John makes to this account

comes in the form of an exchange that takes place between Jesus and this crowd the following day.

It is an exchange that we have recorded for us in the last half of this 6^th chapter,

an exchange in which Jesus once again reveals Himself

in a way that frustrates and infuriates many who hear Him,

yet an exchange that is filled with crucial knowledge about what Jesus is offering the world.

We’ll get to that next week,

but this morning I want to focus on the other addition John makes to this account,

one that at first may seem insignificant,

yet one that I believe has as much importance to our lives

as anything else contained in this entire 6^th chapter.

You see, John is the only one of the four Gospel writers

who tells us where those five loaves and two small fish came from.

In the first three Gospels

we simply have Jesus being told by His disciples

that they had located five loaves and two fish,

but there is no mention made of where they came from.

But John wanted us to know the rest of the story.

He wanted us to know where the food came from.

And I think he wanted us to have that knowledge for several reasons.

I think one of them was because John wanted us to get to know Andrew a little better.

He wanted to give us a little glimpse

into the life of a man who understood what God had equipped him to do

and who did it with a purity and faithfulness that is wonderful to see.

You know who Andrew was, don’t you?

He was Simon Peter’s younger brother.

Before Jesus’ entrance into their lives

Peter and Andrew were in business with two other brothers,

James and John.

They fished together

and very likely were friends with one another their entire lives.

We know that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist right up until John pointed Andrew to Jesus.

He doesn’t appear often in the Gospel records,

but every time he does

he’s bringing someone to Jesus.

The first time we see this is with His own brother, Simon Peter.

When we were studying the first chapter of John’s Gospel

we saw Andrew’s first encounter with Jesus.

We saw Jesus reach out to him,

and build a friendship with him,

and then the next thing John tells us is this:

JOH 1:41-42 (Andrew) found first his own brother Simon ...He brought him to Jesus...

Funny how it is -

everybody knows about Peter,

the great leader of men,

the clear head of first the 12 disciples and then the early church.

In our flesh-driven minds

we even hold him up as the model to be followed.

We tell ourselves that we should be like Peter,

to be blasting forth,

conquering kingdoms,

leading great numbers of people,

and we may even look at our own lives with a sense of failure

because we have done no great things like he did.

Do you know what those thoughts are?

They are either attacks from Satan

or simply flesh-based stupidity.

There would never have been a Simon Peter

if there had not first been an Andrew who loved his brother enough to bring him to Jesus.

And don’t you think Andrew knew what would happen when he did?

Andrew had lived his entire life up to that point

under the massive shadow of his big brother.

Peter was always the one who was noticed,

always the one who impressed people,

always the one who got the glory.

And when Andrew chose to bring Peter to Jesus

he had no illusions about what would happen.

He knew that, once again,

it would be Peter in the spotlight

and no one would notice Andrew,

probably no one would ever even know about his role in the whole thing.

But, you see, that’s the difference between our perspective and God’s perspective.

We look at the external results,

and God looks at our faithfulness

in simply doing whatever He has equipped and called us to do.

And what Andrew was equipped to do

was to connect with people in a way that allowed them to trust him,

and then he brought them to Jesus.

He brought Peter,

he brought this boy with his lunch,

and the next time we’ll see him later in John’s Gospel

he’s bringing some Greeks to the Master.

But here’s the crucial thing I want us to realize this morning.

In God’s economy faithfulness and success are never measured on the basis of external results.

They are measured on the basis of our understanding what God has equipped us to do,

and then our doing it the best way we know how.

And the second thing I want to point out here

is closely tied to the first.

It has to do with that little basket of food.

And before I say anything more about that

I need to alert you to a basic principle of God’s communication with us.

When I first stumbled upon this many years ago

it radically changed my outlook

on so many of the apparently insignificant events that God brings into my life.

And let me see if I can give this to you in single statement.

One of our Lord’s most common and most effective teaching techniques in our lives

is for Him to lead us through what appears to be a relatively unimportant or insignificant event,

but then to embed within that event a principle

that has a universal application in our lives.

And it isn’t the significance of the event itself

but rather the significance of the principle embedded in it

that determines it’s importance in our lives.

Now I would love to take what I just said and run with it,

but if I do we’ll never get where I want us to go this morning,

so I’ll simply offer you one illustration from this passage.

And that illustration involves this little basket of food.

Just the beautiful interaction that must have taken place between Jesus and this boy

is justification enough for this passage’s existence in John’s Gospel,

but there is something else being revealed to us here as well,

something that, once we get a hold of it,

will bring us both tremendous freedom and deep fulfillment in life.

You see, with this little basket of food

our Lord is telling us

that there are no such things as small lives,

no such thing as small acts of love or grace or faithfulness.

The only variable is what God chooses to do with what we place in His hands.

Sometimes He allows us to see results,

and sometimes He doesn’t.

But what we see or don’t see is never the issue.

Do you remember where we were a few weeks ago

when we spent the morning talking about that passage in Matthew 25

where, upon His return to this earth, Jesus will say,

MAT 25:34 ...'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ ?

Do you remember why He poured out such glory onto those people?

MAT 25:40 ...'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

You see, there are no such things as small lives,

no such thing as small acts of love or grace or faithfulness.

When that boy brought his lunch to the Master

I believe he thought the greatest thing that would happen

is that he would relieve Jesus’ hunger.

He had no idea what the Lord would do with what he brought.

And all he did

was to give the Lord access to the little that he possessed.

And here’s what I want us to see in this.

God has equipped each one of us

with our own unique resources, abilities, talents, personalities, and time.

How we compare with the person next to us in those areas

makes no difference whatsoever to God,

nor should it matter to us.

There are some Peters in the world,

and some Andrews,

and some 11 year old boys with lunch baskets.

And each is equally treasured by God.

What He asks of us,

what He wants from us

is that we will simply do whatever He has equipped us to do

knowing that He will us it in the way that best serves His purposes in our life and the lives of others.

And some of you think maybe He hasn’t equipped you with anything, don’t you.

If so, then you still haven’t heard what our Lord is saying to us through this boy and his basket of food.

You’re still looking at and for the results,

results that you then feel are significant in some way.

What is it that John really wanted us to understand

when he told us about Andrew and this boy?

It wasn’t that he wanted us to know about Jesus feeding all those people.

We already knew that from the three other gospels.

What he wanted us to know

was that this miracle didn’t begin with Jesus breaking that bread and those fish,

it began with an utterly unnoticed friendship between Andrew and a young boy,

a friendship that was simply an extension of who Andrew was,

who he’d been designed to be by his Maker.

Do you think that, because you are not Simon Peter,

therefore God has not equipped you for anything significant in this life?

Well, can you love a child?

Will you love a child?

If so, then you possess the God-given power to change the course of this world

because your willingness to love

will profoundly alter the course of that child’s life,

which will in turn alter the lives of countless others to come.

And perhaps you find it easier to love somewhere else -

if not a child, then a co-worker,

or a neighbor,

or a fellow Christian who is lonely, or hurting, or in need.

But what John wanted us to know

is that there is no such thing as a small act of love,

no such thing as a small act of grace or compassion or faithfulness.

And the question is never how big, or how many, or how much,

the only question is will we do whatever He has equipped us to do,

and then leave the results to Him.