All righty.
So back into John 6, verses 1 to 21.
As we do, we're kind of looking at the character of Jesus, who he is,
what kind of leader he is, what kind of king he's going to turn out to be.
And friends, I'm going to suggest to you that he turns out to be
a pretty darn good kind of king, even by the standards that we have,
except that our standards kind of limit him a little bit too much.
You see, we have expectations of our leaders.
We have expectations that they will meet our demands.
Now, it doesn't always appear at the forefront of our minds
when we're electing our politicians.
We're grateful.
We're grateful to be in a country that Donald Trump isn't leading.
We are.
This is the kind of thing we talk about amongst ourselves, isn't it?
Amongst each other.
We dread the fact that Donald Trump will have a Twitter war
with another global, at least nuclear power in the world.
Suddenly, Donald Trump, who's someone who we can have a bit of a laugh about
and a snicker about over a coffee at work,
becomes someone who is affecting and impinging on our lives.
And then we start to get really interested in what he is doing
and our opinions kind of firm up into being somewhat more critical, shall we say.
It's the same with our leaders.
Same with our leaders here.
Our prime minister and his party.
You know, he's out there.
He's kind of in the back of our minds.
We kind of know who he is.
And if it was, you know, who wants to be a millionaire,
it probably wouldn't be the kind of question that we'd actually have to phone a friend on,
who is this, who is our prime minister.
But I can tell you, he comes to the forefront of our minds around budget time
when he starts to say who's going to get tax cuts
and who is going to get tax increases.
When the party starts to lay out what's going to happen
with the healthcare package this year.
What is the government contributing towards education?
What are all these things, these big decisions that they make,
going to do to our lives?
Are they going to improve them or not?
We have expectations of our leaders.
Expectations that they will make our lives better.
And expectations that when they don't,
they should expect to hear from us about it.
And so as Jesus emerges in John's gospel,
we start to see a little bit of what Jesus is like,
who Jesus is and the kind of leadership he's going to bring to earth.
We start to hear the controversy.
Who is this Jesus?
And is he really who he claims to be?
The authorities are actually starting to view him as an enemy of the state.
Why?
Because he's not delivering on their expectations.
But the witnesses, as David pointed out last week,
the witnesses say he is the true king.
He is the promised saviour.
He is God himself.
John is laying out Jesus' life and ministry to reveal the answer to this question.
Who is Jesus?
Not so that we can get the answer right in the pub quiz,
but so that we might believe in him and be saved.
In this next event in Jesus' life,
we get a glimpse of what kind of king he is
and what kind of salvation Jesus offers.
Let's have a look at it now.
So if you actually got your Bibles open,
chapter 6, verses 1 and following.
To start this event,
John actually provides the context.
He introduces this episode in Jesus' life,
kind of like a date in the diary,
like we might introduce.
You know, the where, the when, and the who are we meeting,
that sort of thing.
Kind of like a date in the diary.
But in light of the fact that John is wanting to witness to who Jesus is,
perhaps more like testimony in a witness box.
Testimony in a witness box.
So let me pray now as we start to look at the where, when, and who
and invite God to actually preside over us as we look at his word.
Father God, we thank you for people like John
who so faithfully represented Jesus in this gospel.
But we pray now as we look at it, Lord,
that what we would see is the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, so where were they?
Well, they were by the Sea of Galilee.
They'd just crossed it to a quiet place,
probably the area that we now know as the Golan Heights.
It was a remote place,
very quiet area.
But by the time John wrote this gospel,
the lake actually had another name,
and we get that other name as well.
It was also called Tiberius,
named after the Roman emperor at the time of Jesus' ministry.
By all accounts, Tiberius was a good emperor.
He was humble.
He was the first of a group of emperors
that actually refused to be deified,
turned into a god and worshipped in the emperor cult.
And he was a wise and capable leader.
So King Herod,
well, he tried to rename Galilee after Tiberius.
So both names were known at the time,
Sea of Galilee, Sea of Tiberius.
Why is this important?
Well,
perhaps John wrote both names
to include the non-Jews
who would read his gospel,
the people who would know the lake
by the name Tiberius.
Or perhaps he wrote
this other name to remind the Jews
that they were still under Roman rule.
Or perhaps
he wanted us
to be thinking about
the kind of ruler Jesus is
over and against
someone who was respected
in the world at that time.
Where were they?
They were by the Sea of Galilee,
a remote area
on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
So who was there?
Well,
Jesus,
and most likely
his 12 disciples were there.
Why do I say that?
Well,
they all fit into one boat,
so it's unlikely
that there were more than that.
So it was round about that,
round about the inner 12.
But we also learn as well here
that a large crowd
followed Jesus.
Jesus and his disciples
went in a boat,
the crowd had to walk around the edge,
they took longer.
And we read in verse 2,
a large crowd was following him.
We even read,
why?
Because they saw the signs
that he was doing on the sick.
They followed Jesus
because of what he could do for them.
Where,
who,
and when.
Finally,
the when.
The date,
we read again,
is around the time of the Passover.
Now,
this date is important.
It's the first event
God put into the Jewish calendar.
On this date,
the Jews remembered
their exodus from Egypt.
A lamb was killed and eaten.
Its blood was painted
on the doorposts of the house.
And a prophet called Moses
led them out of captivity
into freedom.
This was a time of year
when Israel probably felt
their captivity the most,
their Roman occupation
most.
At this point of the year,
more than any other,
they longed for salvation.
They longed
for the new Moses.
This is the context
that John presents
this feeding of the 5,000.
This is the context.
But the question is,
who is
this Jesus?
Now we move on
and see the actual sign
of the feeding of the 5,000.
To answer the question
of who Jesus is,
John gives us
this next sign.
John peels back
the layers of Jesus' life
to reveal
who Jesus is.
And this next layer
begins with a problem.
As we've already seen,
Jesus and his disciples
had come to a remote area
and the crowd
that had followed them
had followed them
into this remote area.
And Jesus can't help
but see the problem.
If we read in verse 5,
lifting up his eyes then
and seeing that a large crowd
was coming toward him,
Jesus said to Philip,
where are we to buy bread
so that these people may eat?
Jesus' first response
is to lift his eyes.
He takes in everything,
the crowd,
their need,
the resources at his disposal.
And he has compassion on them.
Jesus is in control.
They are hungry
and he's going to do
something about it.
That's who Jesus is.
But,
ever the teacher,
Jesus doesn't miss a chance
to test his disciples.
We read in verse 6
that Jesus said this
to test him
for he himself
knew what he would do.
Now Jesus probably asked Philip,
singling out Philip of the Twelve,
because it seems pretty rough,
doesn't it,
to be the one
that actually gets this question.
But he probably asked Philip
because Philip is a local.
And if there's a shop nearby,
Philip is going to know
where it is.
And Philip's answer
gets straight to the point.
In verse 7 we read,
Philip answered him,
200 denarii worth of bread
would not be enough
for each of them
to even get a little.
Paraphrase that.
Philip is saying,
I don't know.
Perhaps I don't know
isn't even strong enough
to describe the sense
of Philip's response.
Philip is really saying,
impossible.
There is no shop.
There is no money
for this scale of catering.
We're talking 200 denarii.
That was over 30 weeks
of wages
for the average labourer.
tens of thousands
of dollars
we're talking about.
Now Andrew,
he tries to
bail Philip out
a little bit,
maybe take the pressure off
like you do
in the classroom.
In verse 9 he says,
he chips in and says,
there's a boy here
who has five barley loaves
and two fish,
but what are they
for so many?
Five barley loaves
and two fish
were not enough
to go around.
They couldn't just,
I don't know,
cook up a little rice
or throw in a side salad
and try and pad the meal out
to make it bigger.
The task was huge.
Not even the Minter family,
Manning,
Manning at KFC
could actually meet
this demand.
Not even the Walker family
and the resources
of Curry McDonald's
could meet this demand.
But even if they could,
there was no KFC,
there was no McDonald's,
there was no money
to meet this need.
Jesus set a test
and the disciples failed.
But what was the test?
Jesus knew what he would do.
We can read that here.
So the test wasn't actually
to provide the meal.
The test was to accept
the evidence
that David described last week
that we saw in John 5.
The test was to realize
who Jesus is
and act on it
to begin to trust in him.
But they don't get it.
So Jesus gives them
this sign.
In verse 10 we take up,
Jesus said,
have the people sit down.
Now there was much grass
in the place
and the men sat down,
about 5,000 in number.
Jesus then took the loaves
and when he had given thanks,
he distributed them
to those who were seated.
So also the fish,
as much as they wanted.
Jesus had them sit down.
It's a nice grassy area
we read here.
Plenty of room
for 5,000 men.
Probably twice that number
were present
when you count
the women and children.
They didn't count
women and children
in their counts.
And we know there was
at least one child there
because he had the lunchbox,
the only lunchbox there.
And then in verse 11,
Jesus took the loaves
and he gave thanks
and distributed them.
He fed more than 5,000 people
with five loaves
and two fish.
Then after everyone had eaten
their fill,
you read here,
Jesus told them
to gather up the leftovers
and they did.
Twelve basketfuls
of leftovers
from one kid's
happy meal.
It's an incredible feat.
But there's more going on here
than a miraculous free meal.
The phrasing,
even the phrasing
of this verse
of what Jesus does
and how he does it,
well, it's very close
to the accounts
of the Lord's Supper.
If you can read through,
go and have a look
at those later
when you get home.
But the accounts
of the Lord's Supper
in the other Gospels
with Jesus taking bread,
breaking it,
giving thanks.
And the abundance
of the provision
in a wilderness area
is meant to remind us
of the Israelites
in the wilderness
and that manna,
the bread from heaven.
Jesus wants us
to make these links.
He wants us to hear
about what he did
and think Exodus.
Now, if you're thinking
I'm stretching things
a little bit here
and that's, you know,
where are you seeing
all this in the passage,
then what I would encourage you
to do is to keep reading.
Keep reading in this chapter
and look at the links
that Jesus makes.
See, when Jesus goes back
to the other side of the lake
and the crowd catches up
with him,
he starts explaining
exactly what he was doing
and he overtly
makes these links.
So he's setting us up here
to be starting to think
along these lines.
He wants us to hear
about what he did
and think Exodus.
He wants us to think
Passover lamb
and Moses
leading the people
out of slavery.
This sign is meant
to tell us
who Jesus is.
It's meant to tell us more.
It's meant to tell us
about what kind of kingship
he is going to have.
what kind of king
Jesus is going to be
and it does.
The word of what Jesus
had done
spread through the crowd
and it provokes
a response,
a right response
and a wrong response.
In verse 14
we read this.
When the people
saw the sign
that he had done
they said,
this is indeed
the prophet
who is to come
into the world.
Jesus has just claimed
to be this prophet
in chapter 5
verses 45 to 47
and the Jewish leaders
didn't believe him.
Now the crowd
is making the connections.
Connections
that the Jewish leaders
wouldn't.
They are beginning
to believe
that he is the prophet.
It's the right response
but it comes
with a wrong response.
the wrong response
is that they then
try to make him king.
Their kind of king
in verse 15.
Perceiving then
that they are about
to come
and take him
by force
to make him king
Jesus withdrew again
to the mountain
by himself.
Jesus is the king
the ruler
over everything
but he's not
the kind of king
that they want.
When the people
of Israel
saw what Jesus
could do
they saw a man
who could save them
from the problems
as they saw it.
They saw their problem
as their circumstances.
Life was hard
under the Romans.
Things were difficult
in a subsistence
economy
living day to day.
Sickness and disease
went virtually unchecked.
Life expectancy
was half of what
ours is today.
We're going to say
that 2,000 years later
things aren't too
different for us.
We want our leaders
to sort out
our problems.
Even our prayers
reflect our worries
our circumstances
our jobs
our families
and relationships
or lack of
our health.
These were
and are
real problems.
we should
take them
to Jesus
and Jesus
is genuinely
concerned about them.
Jesus fed
the 5,000.
He healed
many.
But even though
he fed the 5,000
we need to understand
that he was
concerned for
far more
than their stomachs.
He was concerned
for something
a little north
and west
of our stomachs.
He was concerned
for our hearts.
So he didn't come
as their kind of king.
He fled from that.
They wanted the
Moses of the Exodus.
Jesus
came as the Lamb.
The Lamb of God
who takes away
the sins of the world
is how John the Baptist
introduced him
in John 1,
verse 29.
The Lamb.
You see,
our problems
are only symptoms
of the real problem.
Our problem
is that we are
separated from God
by our sin.
We live in rebellion
against God
as our rightful king
and so we don't
experience the goodness
of God's rule.
We experience
our brokenness
and his wrath,
his judgment.
And you know
the world is messed up.
Here's the problem
and this is what I think.
I'm guessing
that most of the time
you and I,
we spend our time
thinking about
the problems
and the mess
being stuff
that's out there
that impinges on me,
that sticks to me
but it's not my fault.
It's all this other stuff
going on.
It's the stuff
going around us
but not in us
that we see
so clearly.
And if that stuff
could change,
we think
everything would be
all right.
But am I the only one
in the room
who knows
he's a mess inside?
Am I the only one
who has those moments
of lucidity?
I'm afraid
there are,
you know,
unfortunately
there are moments.
Those moments though
where I say something
or I do something
or I think something
that genuinely shocks me.
sometimes I even
can feel these thoughts
actually forming
in my mind
and I can't stop them
from coming out
in an action
or words.
And when they do,
they become words
and attitudes
that do real damage
to the people around me.
these attitudes
that actually come
from within me,
attitudes that take
the blood,
sweat
and tears
of Jesus
to untangle.
Jesus is that
kind of king.
The kind of king
who would take
our brokenness
and God's anger
on himself.
the kind of king
who would get slain
like a lamb.
The kind of king
who would be the lamb
so that he could
be the Moses
and lead us
out of slavery
to this mess
once and for all.
So Jesus,
when they tried
to make him king,
he withdrew from them.
He left his disciples
alone
to return to Capernaum
without him.
Who knows
how they must
have been feeling.
Who knows
after all that
had just gone on.
The melee
that must have
actually happened
around these people
starting to surge
toward Jesus.
I can tell you now though,
we know enough
to know this,
that these 12 disciples,
even these 12 disciples
argued over
who would be the greatest
in the kingdom of God.
These 12 disciples
lobbied for
who would sit
at his right
and his left
in the kingdom
when it came.
These 12 disciples
resisted Jesus'
servant leadership
and we'll see that
in John 13
when Jesus tries
to wash Peter's feet.
These 12
defended Jesus
with force
when the soldiers
came to arrest him.
They likely
wanted a Moses too.
I think at least
a part of them
was hoping
that the will
of the crowd
would have its way
that day.
But instead,
they were left alone,
crossing the Sea
of Galilee at night
without Jesus.
And the crossing
was turning out
to be a hard one.
In verse 18,
we read these words,
the sea became rough
because a strong wind
was blowing.
When they had rode
about three or four miles,
they saw Jesus
walking on the sea
and coming near the boat
and they were frightened.
Now,
the Sea of Galilee
is roundish.
It's not massively
bigger than Lake Macquarie,
but it's kind of roundish
and it's deep,
way deeper
than Lake Macquarie.
So the water
can get pretty rough
when the wind
picks up.
And three or four miles,
that kind of puts them
roughly in the middle
of this lake.
But it wasn't until
they saw someone
walking on water
that they really
started to freak out.
In the ancient Near East,
water was a sign
of the,
well,
the chaos,
of chaos in the world.
It was one of these forces
that they just could not
even think of controlling
and they struggled
to live alongside.
Working on the water,
therefore,
was a dangerous job.
I remember Joe
and I on our holiday
recently.
We went back to England
and we went to a coastal town
called Bridlington,
which was a fishing town.
And we discovered,
I didn't realise this,
but you know the cable
knit jumpers that we don't
tend to wear over here
because it's too warm?
We've got Ugg boots,
like Matt.
Yeah.
The cable knit jumpers
all have their own
unique pattern
according to the village
that the person
comes from.
Why?
Because when you get
lost at sea,
you're not always
easily identifiable.
And so they would look
at the jumper
to see what village
they came from.
They could take the body
back to that village
and they would know
who was missing.
It was a dangerous job
working on the sea.
So people who worked
on the water
were often
incredibly superstitious.
someone
walking across
the surface
of the water
in the middle
of stormy weather
was not going to
send their thoughts
in a healthy direction.
They were alone,
demoralised
by what had happened
that day
and afraid.
And something
was coming
toward them
across the water.
So Jesus spoke
to them.
In verse 20
we read,
he said to them,
it is I,
do not be afraid.
It is I.
A literal translation
would be,
I am,
like,
I am the bread
of life,
which we'll read
as we go into
the next part
of chapter 6,
635.
As John also
recalls Jesus saying,
I am the light
of the world
in chapter 8,
verse 12.
I am the good shepherd
in chapter 10,
verse 11.
I am the way,
the truth,
and the life
in chapter 14,
verse 6.
But this time,
when the disciples
are totally confused
about who Jesus is
and totally freaked out
about how he's appeared,
it's just,
I am.
This is the Greek version
of God's personal name,
Yahweh.
When they were feeling
at their lowest
and most helpless,
Jesus appeared
and he said,
I am.
Who is Jesus?
He is the king,
but more,
he is I am.
He is Yahweh,
the God who cares
for his people,
even in the mess.
Whoever you think
Jesus is,
he's more.
Whatever you want
Jesus to do,
he delivers more.
whatever the mess
in your life,
he is with you
in that mess,
working toward a time
when one day
all of that mess
will be wiped away.
That time
when the Lamb
once and for all
deals with the sin
in the world,
deals with the sin
in our hearts,
and restores peace
to us all.
Whoever you think
Jesus is,
he's more.