[0:00] Good morning. Welcome to SBC. If you do not know me, I have the pleasure of serving as one of the pastors here. My name is BK. But I have the absolute delight of introducing you to Stephen Jans.
[0:15] I know, I know there's a bad rumor started by me that Stephen messed up the calendar last week, but I take full responsibility for that.
[0:25] But Stephen and I have gotten to know each other over the last five, six, seven years type of thing. In fact, I remember meeting him at a, it was an initial group of men who, pastors who met at Cloverdale Baptist back in 2017, I think it was.
[0:47] And really respected some of the words that he said. He spoke with a man who had knowledge, authority. And just over these last couple of years, I've just started to forge a friendship with him.
[1:00] So in case you don't know, Steve serves as the executive director. And he just tells me today, he's been promoted to the vice president of Miller Bible College, which is up in Salmon Arm.
[1:13] That's one of the branches. And there's also a branch out in Saskatchewan, I think it is. Is there somewhere else where it is? Winnipeg. Winnipeg. So the blessings is to go to Salmon Arm.
[1:24] If you're cursed by the Lord, you go to Winnipeg and Saskatchewan in the winter. Anyway, but we first, we kind of gotten to know each other as we both serve on the Provincial Gospel Coalition board together.
[1:39] Steve loves Jesus. We've kind of been in sync since we first met. And I've actually been trying to get him up here to preach for some time. And finally, our schedules worked out as the way God intended them to do.
[1:50] So please come up. Give Steve a warm welcome, please. Thank you. Good morning, Squamish Baptist.
[2:03] You're awake. That's so good. And thank you, Pastor BK, for your kind and warm words. He takes ownership. He said he takes ownership, I'm guessing, for the rumor. That's what I took away from this.
[2:16] There was a rumor, and he takes ownership for that rumor. It is good to be here. And isn't God, doesn't he work in such providential ways? I've already heard about Pastor BK's sermon last week and how God used it in your lives.
[2:31] And so God knows. He knows. And so I delight to be here with you this morning. And I want to thank you, BK, and the pastoral team here and elders of Squamish Baptist for giving me the privilege to come and open up the word for us today.
[2:50] I'm going to break this into two pieces. BK asked if I would maybe share a little bit about Miller College of the Bible. I'd be curious to know if there are any people in this room who have heard of Miller College of the Bible.
[3:04] Okay, there's a handful of you. Wonderful. That's so great. Well, why don't you turn in your Bibles to John chapter 6, and that's where we're going to be looking at God's word.
[3:14] But I'm going to set it up a little bit with a little bit of this Miller propaganda piece. And I brought some catalogs along from the college and also some view books, and I think Pastor BK put those on an information table out there somewhere, so please feel free to grab those and take a look.
[3:31] I'll be around after the service. If you've got more questions, I would love to be able to just answer those. Years ago, there was a radio host. His name was Paul Harvey. Anybody remember Paul Harvey?
[3:43] Just a few of you, not very many. I think you have to be of a certain vintage, which I am, you know. But he had a daily radio broadcast, and he used to do this one broadcast called The Rest of the Story.
[3:58] And basically, it consisted of stories presented in little-known facts with some key elements of that story, usually the name of a well-known individual or person, which Paul Harvey, at the end of the story, would reveal.
[4:13] And he would say, And now you know the rest of the story. It was short, probably three or four minutes long, not very long at all. Well, I'd like to maybe take that theme into our morning this morning, the rest of the story, because there are a few pieces both in the story that I want to talk about, Miller College of the Bible, and then also our text here in John chapter 6.
[4:38] Back in 1855, there was a Sunday school teacher in Boston at the Congregational Church there by the name of Mr. Kimball. And Mr. Kimball taught a group of young men in the church, and the Spirit of God convicted him that he needed a chat with one particular young man in that Sunday school class.
[4:59] And after praying about it, Mr. Kimball arranged to meet this young man, and this young man worked at a boot store in Boston. And these are the words that Mr. Kimball wrote in his journal.
[5:11] I was determined to speak to him of Christ and about his soul and started down to Holton's shoe store. When I was nearly there, I began to wonder whether I ought to go in just then during business hours.
[5:27] I thought my call might embarrass the boy and that when I went away, the other clerks would ask who I was and taunt him with my efforts in trying to make him a good boy.
[5:37] Isn't that the way it is so often in our lives? We're convicted about something. We know this is what God wants us to do. And then all of a sudden we start second-guessing ourselves. When we know we should be doing it, but then our flesh just sort of rises up and we question it.
[5:52] And that was his story. And so he's marching on his way down to Holton's boot store. And it's like, oh man, is this the time? Should I really be doing this? In the meantime, he writes, I had passed the store as he was pondering this and discovering this, I determined to make a dash for it and have it over at once.
[6:13] And I found the young lad in the back part of the building wrapping up shoes. I felt afterwards that my plea for Christ was very weak.
[6:25] I put my hand on his shoulder and I told him about Jesus. I don't know just what words I used, nor could he remember after the fact when he was asked.
[6:38] That was all there was. It seemed the young man was just ready for the light that then broke upon him. And there in the back of the store in Boston, he gave himself and his life to Christ.
[6:51] In the middle of the workday, young man, Spirit of God convicts Mr. Kimball, go. And he gives his heart to Jesus in the back of that boot store, that shoe store.
[7:02] The following year, this young man at the age of 19 then moved to Chicago and became quite involved in serving in local churches in Chicago. And very quickly committed himself to becoming a full-time vocational minister of the gospel.
[7:18] And he became a prolific preacher in the late 1800s, in the 1800s actually. And about 12 or 13 years after this, after he'd moved to Chicago, now in his early 30s, this young man crossed the ocean, began to minister in England and in Scotland and in Ireland.
[7:39] And in one of those meetings in Scotland, as he was presenting the gospel, the gospel truths penetrated the heart of a young lad by the name of William Miller.
[7:50] And young William threw himself on God's mercy and was saved. And this Mr. Miller began to serve Jesus and became a missionary in Africa and served Jesus in Scotland as well.
[8:07] And in 1910, Mr. Miller came to Canada to do some ministry here in Canada. In 1932, Miller Memorial Bible Institute was started in a little town called Pamboran, Saskatchewan, south of Swift Current.
[8:22] Anybody been to Swift Current before? Yeah, there's a handful of you. It's kind of desolate and about 40 miles south and a little bit east is the town of Pamboran.
[8:33] And the reason it was called Miller Memorial Bible Institute is because Mr. Miller started a Bible school in Moose Jaw. And after the first graduating class had graduated, he passed away.
[8:44] And land was donated in Pamboran, Saskatchewan, to continue the Bible school. And one of the first graduates of that first graduating class came, Mr. Peeler came, and started Miller Memorial Bible Institute in Saskatchewan.
[8:59] And wonderful. So we have, as BK was saying, we have three campuses. That campus has been around since 1932. And in 2012, we launched our BC campus in the Shoe Swap.
[9:12] And six years ago, seven years ago, we launched our campus in Winnipeg. And you need to know, I'm going to ask that you would pray that we would continue to be faithful to this, that we would be faithful in teaching the Word of God and that young men and women would be trained up with the knowledge that God's Word is their final authority and that they would move into our nation and around the world as God would lead them to proclaim the good news of what the Bible clearly teaches and the convictions that God has laid out in that text.
[9:43] We are full for the fall in Saskatchewan. We are full in our Sunny Break campus for the fall already. And it looks like we're going to be full for our fall startup in Winnipeg as well.
[9:57] So the Lord, for whatever reason, this is a kind season that God has laid His hand on Miller College of the Bible. We're not the church. Jesus didn't say, I'm going to build colleges and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
[10:10] He says, I'm going to build a church. But we see ourselves as part of the church and want everything that we do to flow into the church and come from the church, from the universal church, but then the local church as well.
[10:23] And so we would appreciate prayers. I'll talk a little bit more about our vision. But back to the Sunday school teacher, Mr. Kimball. That Sunday school teacher went to see a young man in the back of Holton's Boot Store, and his name was D.L. Moody.
[10:37] For some of you who have a little bit of church history, you're going to know the connection that it was D.L. Moody, this young man that gave his heart to the Lord in the back of that boot store in Boston and then was used to lead William Miller to Jesus Christ.
[10:53] And Miller calls it the Bible. And now you know the rest of the story, at least that part. Our business statement at Miller is that we exist to develop passionate, relevant servants of Jesus Christ that are shaped by the entire scriptures.
[11:10] Our deepest desire is that our students' lives would be changed and transformed from the inside out. But we don't want to just simply be a depository of information. Like that's a lot of secular, you know, secondary educational institutions.
[11:25] That's their desires. Like here's the information. I want to give that to you, get it into your brain, and now move on. And though we must know God's Word, though we must understand the things that God has revealed in His Word cognitively, we don't want it just to stay in our brain.
[11:42] We must ask God that it would move into the hearts of our students. We don't want it just be a download depot. And in Matthew chapter 15, we read the story of Jesus feeding 4,000 people.
[11:55] In our text, we're going to see that Jesus fed 5,000 people. So two different contexts, two different stories. But in Matthew chapter 15, we read that Jesus takes seven loaves and some small fish.
[12:07] And in verse 37, it says, and they all ate and were satisfied. They all ate and were satisfied. Shouldn't that be your desire today and my desire?
[12:18] I love Sunday mornings because in my mind, I believe the Lord's Day, as we gather together, it acts as a bit of a recalibration for our hearts.
[12:29] I don't know about your week, but there have been a lot of things that have been vying for my affections all week long. And we gather together, and as we sing, and as we pray, and as we worship the Lord through our giving, all these things, and we sit under the sound of the teaching of God's word, all those things act as a recalibration that we would once again say, I want to be satisfied with Jesus.
[12:54] I've been looking for, Pastor David, you prayed about getting distracted by the trifles, or what's the word you used? The trinkets, the trinkets of this world. Oh, it's so easy.
[13:05] It happened so easy in my life. So this acts as a recalibration. And so I feel like it should be said of us, and we ate and we're satisfied. And to pursue Jesus is to eat and to be satisfied.
[13:20] So as our students at Miller learn and memorize and study and engage with God's word, and they learn good theology and effective ministry techniques, our prayer is that it would lead them to be satisfied in Jesus, and that they would then invite others to experience the same satisfaction that they found, right?
[13:42] I mean, isn't that your role, brother, sister, this morning, to drink deeply of Jesus and then go share that water that so desperately is needed in this region here in B.C.?
[13:54] A lot of people out in this, you know this. I mean, I'm sure you talk about this all the time. Like, this is destination British Columbia, right here. Squamish, Whistler. A lot of people come here to look for satisfaction, don't they?
[14:06] And yet the answer is not in a powder day. That's not where the answer of satisfaction is. Might be a good day, great to be satisfied with that, but it's not the ultimate satisfaction.
[14:20] And so we don't ever want to be an academic institution that has academic competency and great Bible teaching and good theology and that being an end in itself.
[14:33] No, that is just a means to an end. And the end is more of Jesus, that our students would eat and be satisfied seeing more of Jesus, understanding more of him, loving him more, being more satisfied with him, and then sharing that great treasure with a dying world.
[14:51] So that's my Miller propaganda. I've used way too much time for that, so we're gonna set that aside. Now, John chapter six. The feeding of the 4,000 that I referenced in Matthew, in the Gospel of Matthew, is a segue to what I wanna talk to you about.
[15:05] And I've already said that this story is about the feeding of the 5,000. And there is a bit of a rest of the story theme in this as well. So we're gonna read the first 15 verses.
[15:16] I wanna make two sort of observations. This is where I'm gonna go. Two observations on the first 15 verses, kind of a main point, and then we're gonna get into the section that Pastor David read for us.
[15:27] This is, we're gonna walk through the text, but we could probably spend three or four weeks just in the verses that Pastor David read for us this morning. We don't have time to do that. This is a flyover, and hopefully some takeaways for us this morning as we leave here.
[15:42] John chapter six, and starting in verse one, let's follow along in your Bibles as I read. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
[15:55] And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. And Jesus went up the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
[16:07] Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand. Oh, and we could say so much. I mean, even timing right now, there's so much to be said about that, and the manna that Jesus talks about later on.
[16:18] There's so many intertwined pieces. We don't have time, but you should do some more study on this. That would be my encouragement. Verse five, lifting up his eyes, Jesus, then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, were we to buy bread so that these people may eat?
[16:39] And he said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do, verse seven, and Philip answered 200 denarii. Denarii was basically a day's wage.
[16:50] So if we had 200 days wages here, that would not be enough to feed all these people. And Jesus said in verse 10, have people sit down.
[17:03] And there was much grass in the place, and so the men sat down, about 5,000 in number, so probably more than that, but it says that there were 5,000 men that day that sat down.
[17:15] And Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he, oh, sorry, I skipped over. Please, go back to verse eight. Somehow I completely jumped over this. Verse eight, one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?
[17:36] And Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in that place, and so the men sat down, about 5,000 in number, and Jesus took the loaves, these five barley loaves.
[17:50] He took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to those who were seated, so also the fish, as much as they wanted, and when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.
[18:07] And so they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. Let me just pause here. I don't know how big the fish were.
[18:19] The Bible doesn't tell us how big the loaves were, but just common math, five barley loaves and two fish adds up to how many items?
[18:33] Seven? Good. We've got some mathematicians in the crowd. And when it was all said and done, they filled 12 baskets full, which means that Jesus made bread that day, and he multiplied fish.
[18:49] We know that. I mean, this is the story, the story of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. Let that not somehow, let us not miss that, that God is able to do way more than what we might even offer him.
[19:05] It's a small portion, that he would multiply those things, right? There's a lesson to be learned there. Verse 14. And when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, surely this indeed, the prophet, is the prophet who has come into the world.
[19:25] And perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountainside by himself. So, a couple of thoughts.
[19:37] The first thought, just right under the gates, can I remind you this morning, brothers and sisters, Jesus cares. I mean, it's simple here, it's a simple thought, but it's a profound thought.
[19:49] This morning, I don't know what has happened in your life this week, where you've come from, but can I remind you that Jesus cares? He cared for the sick, that's why the people followed him. It's like, he's healing sick and he's teaching.
[20:02] And now he comes onto, he goes up on the mountainside and it says, lifting up his eyes, he sees this large crowd coming in and Jesus is moved again. It's like, we need to feed these people.
[20:12] Why? Because he cares. He cares about simple things like the food that we eat. We don't want to miss these small things in life that the God of creation would care for you this morning.
[20:25] Can I remind you, just that's all I'm going to say, Jesus cares for you. That's a wonderful thought. The second thought is, and we're going to spend a bit more time on this, that Jesus will give good gifts so that you would glorify God with them.
[20:37] God gives us good gifts, small gifts like fish and barley loaves that we might glorify him. These gifts need to act as it were as a springboard for us to think about who God is, to think about his goodness and his kindness.
[20:54] It says in verse 14, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. They saw that Jesus was not just an ordinary human being.
[21:07] Whether they knew it or not, whether their intention was there or not, they glorified God in that moment. They said, this is the prophet who's come from heaven, come to this world.
[21:18] Now my guess is, the text doesn't tell us this, but I'm guessing that that night when they went home, maybe to see more family that weren't there to be fed that day, they didn't talk much about how good the loaves of bread were or what kind of fish they ate.
[21:35] They maybe did, but if I'm going to immerse myself in this text, I think I'm going to be talking about the man who fed 5,000 plus people. That's going to be the topic of conversation.
[21:48] This Jesus man who took five loaves of barley loaves and fish and multiplied it. Oh, I'm sure they liked the bread and the fish. No doubt about it.
[22:00] But their focus, I'm guessing, was on Jesus, the guy who took these small portions and fed everybody to glorify God, to make much of God.
[22:14] That's what they're doing here in maybe not even completely realizing it. Oh, this is the prophet. He's the one. This is the Messiah.
[22:24] We need to make him king. It doesn't say that, but it says that Jesus perceived that they were going to come and make him king, and so he says, I'm going to withdraw. This is not the time for that.
[22:35] There is coming a day when that will happen, but not right now. So to glorify God is to make much of him. The reformers back in the 1500s, 1600s, got this right.
[22:47] They set the stage for us, and in the 1600s, the shorter Westminster Catechism, this teaching mechanism that the church would use to train up young people and new believers in truth and in doctrine and theology.
[23:02] The first question in the shorter Catechism is this. What is the chief end of man? Anybody know the answer? I'm guessing you do. Okay.
[23:13] Yes, I heard it. The answer, so you'd be sitting around the dinner table after dinner, and you'd be doing the catechism with your kids, and kids would know the answer. Just, they'd pop it off.
[23:24] What's the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's why you've been created, brother, sister, is that you would, today, here in Squamish, make much of Jesus.
[23:41] That when people look at you, they would be so puzzled by your life, the way you live, the things you say, how you react, that they might actually press in and say, what's going on in your life?
[23:52] And then you would be able to just say, let me tell you about Jesus. Let me tell you about my God, my faithful God. We make much of him to shine the spotlight on his glory and his splendor.
[24:05] God is glorious. He does not need us to prop up his glory for him. But we've been invited to make much of his glory, his splendor, his majesty, his supremacy, and to shine the spotlight on that and to portray his greatness and his majesty and to display his renown.
[24:26] And so, our brother this morning, as you were leading worship, he started off by introducing that first song about, by saying, you know, whatever we do, we should glorify God, even in our eating and drinking.
[24:38] And it's like, oh, there's another little segue from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 where Paul says, so then, Squamish Baptist Church, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
[24:56] Have you ever thought about this? This idea that that God would have us drink, drink, and eat food so that we would make much of his glory, of his splendor, of his majesty.
[25:12] It seems like, like, I mean, there are not more basic things than eating and drinking, right? Sleeping, that's about it. If you have a baby, then you know there's another little activity that sort of goes along with all that.
[25:26] Got to change a diaper from now and then. But that is, that is the very basics in life and Paul reminds us that whatever we do, even in our eating and drinking, we should make much of God.
[25:38] And so, we think about the senses that, can I just, there's a little diversion, the senses that God's given you. We have five senses, right? We can see this morning, at least, I'm thinking, maybe somebody can't see so well here.
[25:52] We hear this morning, we can smell, we taste, and we feel. Those are all senses that God's given us. The big question that as we contemplate life and our own being is, did God have to create us with these senses?
[26:08] And the answer is, well, no, he didn't have to create us that way, but he did. He created us so that you would be able to look this morning and smell things and taste things and hear things and feel things.
[26:22] And when Paul says, therefore, whether you eat or drink, that invokes some of our senses, right? Like tasting things and smelling things and we see things. The heavens declare what?
[26:36] The glory of God. How do they do that? How do the heavens declare the glory of God? This is how, on a cold winter night when it's not cloudy here in Squamish and you're away from all the ambient light here of the city of Squamish and you go out in the back woods somewhere or back 40 somewhere and you look into the sky and you see the Milky Way.
[26:54] Like, have you seen that? The prairies are just unbelievable sometimes. The moon's not shining and you look at the vastness of the universe that is just, I mean, our Milky Way, we could say so much about that.
[27:07] Just a small, tiny little dot compared to the two plus trillion galaxies around this universe. Then we should just look at that and say, my goodness, how big must our God be that he would be able to give names to every one of the stars?
[27:23] That's what the Bible says. Do you believe it? That he can, he names all of the stars, not just of the Milky Way with its hundred billion stars, but the two trillion galaxies beside the Milky Way, the heavens.
[27:37] So we see that and we glorify God when we see that. The sunset or the Grand Canyon and we marvel and as Christians, we should see those things differently than an atheist or an agnostic and our heart should just automatically go God, we should go Godward and say, God, you are amazing, you're majestic, you're omnipotent.
[27:59] By the word of your power, you put it all together and you hold everything together by the word of your power. Whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God and these people did.
[28:10] Indeed, this is the prophet who has come into the world. This must be the Messiah. Whether you eat or drink, you taste buds. I mean, think about it. Can I just talk about the microbialy on your tongue?
[28:23] Did you know that you have approximately 10,000 hairs on your tongue? I know. Have you ever bitten into a sandwich and there's like a big long hair and it starts going down your throat?
[28:35] It's like, you know, you just kind of hold it back. Well, you have about 10,000 hair on your tongue. They're called microbialy. They're called taste buds. The amazing thing that God would create us with these things, these microbialy, microbialy, they replace themselves every two weeks or so so that your taste stays somewhat fresh, right?
[28:56] The older we get, maybe we lose a bit of that, but I mean, these little tiny hairs send messages to your brain to tell you if something is sweet or sour or bitter or salty.
[29:08] Isn't that amazing? The question is, again, could God have created you and your tongue not to have microbialy?
[29:19] Answer, yes, but he didn't. Why? So that, whether you eat or drink, you should do it for God's glory. So when you taste something, lunch here and a little bit from now or a good cup of coffee or whatever it might be, that you, Christian, would eat and drink differently than someone who doesn't know Jesus.
[29:42] These people glorify God. Smelling, we could talk about that, right? I was driving, when I was pastoring out in Winnipeg, we were driving to a coffee shop for a staff meeting. I was pondering these ideas of our senses, how God's created these for us to glorify Him and driving along Pandora Avenue and it's June and there's a guy mowing the lawn and unless you have like allergies, there are very few smells that are as good as freshly cut grass or hay that's been mowed.
[30:13] Maybe freshly baked bread ranks up there too. So we're driving along, windows are down, I got, there are four or five of us in the car and I'm thinking about this and I ask this question which again, I said, hey guys, could God have treated us without smell?
[30:32] Answer, yeah, He could have but He didn't. Why? Well, so that when we smell things we glorify God. So, so, so just imagine this now. This all comes together as I'm driving down Pandora Avenue and this is the way we should live our lives.
[30:47] Brother, sister, please understand that these little gifts that God's given us are springboards for us to contemplate and think about God's goodness and kindness and His bigness. That a blade of grass when it's cut in half would emit an odor so that it would reach your nose and as it reaches your nose there would be something inside that says, this is awesome!
[31:12] God, thank you. You're so kind. So good. So, we should drink orange juice and drink coffee and eat a steak differently than somebody who doesn't know Jesus and we should smell freshly cut hay different than somebody who doesn't know Jesus.
[31:26] therefore whether you eat or drink and these people glorify God. You might not know this name, Carl Gustav Boberg, but he totally understood and I'm assuming that you sing this song in your church often.
[31:40] Oh Lord my God, he understood the idea of senses. Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds the hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.
[31:58] When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, when I look down, this is applicable to you here in Squamish, when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and see the brook and feel the gentle breeze, what do I do?
[32:17] Then sings my soul. Right? You don't just say, wow, that's amazing, you say, oh no, it goes way deeper than that and way higher than that and I say, my Savior, God to thee, how great thou art.
[32:34] So every day, the good gifts that God's given us should act as a springboard for our hearts and our minds to go Godward to glorify him. That's what happened with these people that day.
[32:47] Even though they might not have known him, didn't know what they were doing, this is the prophet and they were attributing praise and glory and honor to Jesus. Now, two little phrases here that I want to point out critical to the rest of the story.
[33:04] Look at verse 6. This is important. This is the first phrase I want you to see. Verse 6. He said this, so he says to Philip, where are we going to buy bread so that these people may eat?
[33:15] And Jesus said this to Philip, for he himself, what does it say? He knew what he would do. He knew what he would do.
[33:26] This day in the life and ministry of Jesus did not come as a surprise to Jesus. He knew exactly what he was going to do. Jesus never made any mistakes.
[33:40] Jesus never did anything randomly. Jesus never did anything without being led by the Spirit, walking in step with the Spirit. He never did anything without thought.
[33:52] And he didn't just know what he was going to do about the feeding of the 5,000. I actually believe that he knew exactly how this was going to unfold the next day.
[34:06] I think, this is Steve Jantz's thoughts as I've been pondering this, I think that Jesus fed the 5,000 people specifically for what he was going to say the next day.
[34:18] It acted as a illustration, as it were. The second phrase I want you to see is in verse 11 and verse 12. Look at it in your Bibles.
[34:30] It says this in verse 11, Jesus then took the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated. And so also the fish.
[34:41] What are the next five words? As much as they wanted. Verse 12, and when they had eaten their fill.
[34:54] He told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. These small phrases were put in this text on purpose. Don't skip over small words and small phrases.
[35:07] They matter. These words matter in this story, in this text. God intends us to think about these small words, these very important intentional words that they ate as much as they wanted and they ate to their fill.
[35:21] Growing up, I grew up as a missionary kid in Germany and, you know, my mom and dad were very frugal with their finances and good stewards.
[35:33] There were a lot of times growing up where we just didn't have very much and my mom has the gift of hospitality and so we would have a lot of company over to our place and especially in my, you know, 12, 13, 14 year old young Steve, before company would come over, mom would pull me into the kitchen as she was preparing and she'd say, now Stephen, I need you to go easy on the meat.
[35:55] You've got lots of potatoes but just kind of go easy on the meat. We want our company to have meat. Anybody else? You ever experience that? Yeah, some of you is like, just kind of go easy because, I mean, I just take the whole platter of meat and you guys can have the rest of the food.
[36:10] That's not this story. Jesus did not pull his disciples aside. Now guys, you've got 5,000 people here so go easy on the barley loaves and the fish.
[36:21] That's not this story. The very opposite is actually true. It says here that they ate as much as they wanted and that they ate their fill.
[36:34] as much as they wanted in the writing here has this idea of as much as they desired. They ate until they were full. They were totally satisfied.
[36:48] Jesus wanted them to feel that way, I think. I think Jesus wanted these people to feel absolutely, totally satisfied. Kind of like when you push away from the Thanksgiving dinner table.
[37:01] Right? You've kind of forced in that last piece of pumpkin pie and it's like, oh man. And you might not have ever said this but you feel this way. You push away and it's like, I don't think I'm going to ever eat again for like four hours.
[37:20] It's like, I've got a hankering for a turkey sandwich. Where's that turkey? You need to put something together, right? Why? Because these things are temporary. They're temporary things that do satisfy in the moment but they don't satisfy forever.
[37:38] They don't satisfy forever. And so, Jesus, I think, wanted these people to eat till they were full, to eat as much as they wanted so that there would be no excuse for anybody to leave hungry.
[37:58] And nobody did. it's clear in this text, zero doubt that everybody had eaten their fill. And here's the main point and we're going to get to the last part of this text that Pastor David read to us and just as a sort of final really critical piece.
[38:18] This is what I'd like you to consider this morning. That God, that Jesus gives us good gifts, that Jesus gives us temporary gifts, gifts that bring temporary satisfaction.
[38:32] And we know all about those, right? Temporary delights, temporary joys, so that we might get a small taste of what it is to be satisfied.
[38:43] I know what it's like to be satisfied, it just doesn't last. Even for a short time. And in turn, that it would leave us with an understanding and a knowledge that these gifts really are only temporary.
[38:56] The brand new car that you're planning on buying this year will lose the new car smell in about four or five years from now and you're going to need a new one if that's what you're banking your satisfaction on.
[39:07] Nothing wrong with buying a new car every five years, it's great. But it's temporary, right? We know that. And the idea here is that these temporary things will never satisfy completely, that they'll never fully quench the deep thirst of our hearts, that they're always going to keep us longing for more and that our hearts because of this realization, listen carefully, that through the realization that these temporary gifts, as good as they are, are only that, they're temporary, would create in us a longing that the Holy Spirit will do in our hearts, a longing and a desire for full and eternal and lasting satisfaction, namely Jesus himself.
[39:54] And this is where the rest of the story comes in the next day. And Pastor David read it for us and so we're not going to read that whole text but they come again. These people come and they're looking for Jesus and in between the feeding of the 5,000 there's another miracle, Jesus walks on the water which was, I mean we're not even getting to that part.
[40:13] And the next day the people are looking for him and they say, hey, Jesus was here yesterday, where'd he go? And they finally find him and when they find him they say, Rabbi, when do you come here?
[40:25] And there's a bit of this back and forth and you can just see this, how these people are conniving. Like it's like, hey Jesus, you delivered the goods yesterday, you think maybe it's another sign for us because we kind of, that was good.
[40:38] We liked yesterday. Could we just do a replay? We'd like to do the Groundhog Day with this one, this is good. Just play it over and over and over again. Feed us, we'll come every day.
[40:49] We're good with barley loaves and fish. And there's this back and forth and Jesus is saying, listen, you're looking for the wrong thing. And they just don't get it.
[41:00] They just don't get it. As a matter of fact, it's like, hey, you know, our fathers, Jesus, our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. As it was written, he gave them bread from heaven. Wink, wink, hint, hint, Jesus, you know, that happened then, maybe you could give us some more food here now too.
[41:14] And Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. In verse 32, but my father gives the true bread of heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives his life to the world.
[41:29] And they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus says, I am the bread of life.
[41:40] whoever comes to me shall not hunger again. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[41:56] You're going to drink a Snapple or a Gatorade and you're going to need to drink again. You're going to have a nice lunch today and you're going to have to eat again.
[42:07] And Jesus says, that's not my story. You come to me and I will satisfy you completely. And we're not talking physical here that somehow you don't ever have to eat again for the next 30 years in your life.
[42:20] That's not what this is talking about. There's only one way and we know this. If you are a follower of Jesus, you know this this morning and I want to remind you, there's only one way that our hunger will truly be satisfied and it's by coming to Jesus and receiving him as our soul satisfying bread of life.
[42:40] Not receiving Jesus for what he can do for us but receiving Jesus for who he is as our ultimate end. Not just a means to an end.
[42:51] I am the bread of life. Jesus says, eat me and you'll be totally satisfied. Drink me and you'll get life. So the question is as we wrap things up here is what does it mean to eat Jesus and drink Jesus' blood?
[43:05] My goodness. This is, I mean if we kept reading in the text here, there's a bit of a kerfuffle that goes on and it says in, from verses 52 to 58, it says here in those verses, some took this literally when he says, eat me, drink my blood, eat my flesh and he says, how can this man give his flesh to eat?
[43:29] This guy's talking about cannibalism. This is horrible. Verse 66, after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked because they didn't understand. It's like, this is just too hard.
[43:41] We don't understand what you're saying. Eat your flesh and drink your blood, Jesus. Look in your Bibles to verse 61. John 6, verse 61, the last, well, verse 61 to 63, but Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, do you take offense to this?
[44:05] Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? Now watch this. It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all.
[44:18] In other words, bread, fish, don't matter. Now watch this. the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
[44:30] The words that I spoke to you about eating my flesh and drinking my blood are spiritual words. These are spiritual realities and must be discerned spiritually, not physically.
[44:45] This is where the church went wrong back many, many centuries ago. And the language that Jesus uses here is interchangeable language. Think about if anyone eats this bread, you're going to be satisfied, is linked to whoever comes to me shall not hunger.
[45:06] So eat my flesh is connected to the same as whoever comes to me will not hunger. So eating the flesh of Jesus is a coming to Jesus in order to have hunger satisfied.
[45:21] And he says in verse 56, whoever drinks my blood is the same way as saying whoever believes in me shall never thirst. So drinking Quentin's thirst and Jesus says, believe in me and you're not going to be thirsty anymore.
[45:37] Drink my blood, you're not going to be thirsty anymore. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood is linked to come to me. Believe in me. And eating Jesus, his flesh and drinking his blood is believing and trusting that Jesus alone will satisfy you and the deepest longing of your hearts.
[46:00] Every other satisfaction is temporary. Save Jesus Christ. Coming to him alone, embracing, receiving him alone, looking to him alone, absolutely nothing else.
[46:11] Not my good works, not my religious standing, not my efforts. Not the things that I'm pursuing, nothing. That's all laid aside. I'm coming to Jesus and I need him and I embrace him and I receive him as my soul-satisfying bread.
[46:27] Verse 40, take a look at it. For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life and will raise him up on the last day in the same way in verse 51.
[46:42] Take a look at verse 51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever and the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
[46:55] And Jesus specifically here is talking about the cross and how he is going to go to the cross and offer himself, his body, his flesh, pour out his blood, his physical blood as the spear is pierced into his side so that he might offer to us life.
[47:13] And Jesus confirms this, right? I mean, sure you have your routine of communion here at Squamish Baptist and you read this probably every time and he took the bread and when he'd given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is broken for you.
[47:31] Do this in remembrance of me. What are you talking about? He's talking about the work of the cross, his perfect life, his death on the cross, his burial, his resurrection and it's coming again.
[47:44] The gospel is good news. This is the gospel. Jesus, holy, righteous, just God, creator of all things comes into this world. The world that he created becomes one of us, one like you and me, lives a perfect and a sinless and a pure and holy life and then goes to the cross to take your sin and my sin upon himself.
[48:06] He bears the full wrath and punishment that rightly belongs to us on himself. The father pours out his wrath. Jesus is buried in the tomb and he rises from the dead and conquers sin and defeats death once for all and now he invites you and I'm guessing that most of you have been invited and you've received the call but there are thousands of people right in this region that have not yet.
[48:32] he invites us to turn to him as our soul satisfying bread of life and say, to say, Lord Jesus, I am receiving you as my bread. Satisfy me. I'm going to drink your blood that you poured out for me because I'm really thirsty and I need to be satisfied.
[48:48] His life, his new life, his righteousness is given to us for forgiveness of sin, reconciliation to God and so Squamish Baptist Church, is this not the fight for you this week?
[49:01] Has it not been the fight to find our satisfaction and our joy in Jesus alone? And can I encourage you, brother, sister, this morning to fight that fight?
[49:13] Do not settle for the trinkets of this world. Would the things of this earth become strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace? That you would keep running to Jesus as your soul satisfying source?
[49:27] That you would trust him to bring gladness. It's an amazing reality for us as Christians that we can be in deep sorrow. I see this in my mom. My dad died just over a year ago and I see, I was just out in Winnipeg.
[49:39] She's weeping. She misses my dad so much and he says, but I'm so thankful. I'm so full of joy that he's with Jesus. Sorrow mingled with joy can be ours if he becomes our treasure and if he's the one that we're pursuing.
[49:56] And so would this morning serve as a reminder to live in the shadow of the cross and all of the realities who Jesus is for us and say, he is my bread of life. I don't need to hunger for the things of this world.
[50:07] Oh, they're good gifts. They're temporary gifts that God wants you to have, but they're not an end in themselves. They're simply a springboard so that you would think about him and use these temporary things as a springboard to glorify God.
[50:22] And dare I just say this, I need to say this because I don't know you. Maybe you're here today and you've never come to Jesus. Maybe you've come to church for years. Maybe you're here for the first time.
[50:34] You're here though. There's a spiritual hunger in your life. And I would just want to tell you that Jesus is inviting you to come and taste and see that God is good. He wants to save you today.
[50:46] He wants to forgive your sin. He wants to give you his life so that you also might say, I'm satisfied. My heart is full of joy. He invites you to taste of him today.
[50:59] So Father, I pray that these simple thoughts would somehow remind us today to fight to find our joy and satisfaction in you alone.
[51:09] Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for the temporary blessings for this beautiful building we're in and the vehicles that we drove here with this morning, for the food that we had for breakfast and the lunch we're going to have, for the family that we have, and the beautiful scenery that we have around here.
[51:25] Our eyes see these things. And oh, Lord, I pray that we would that we would fight hard not to settle for those as our ultimate joy, but that we would fight to find our joy and satisfaction in you, Lord Jesus, alone.
[51:36] Because only you can say, whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes me will never thirst. So help us do that and draw anybody here this morning who doesn't know you to yourself.
[51:48] We pray for your glory, for your honor. Amen.