What is it that you really need?
The people followed Jesus because of all the signs and wonders he performed, they wanted all the power that he was willing to do for them…but what was sad was they missed who Jesus really was because they didn’t really want what He was offering them they wanted their own way….is that the way we are?
John 6: 1- 15
After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. 5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. 7 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” 10 Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” 13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
The resurrection and this story are the only two stories in all for Gospels, that must mean that this is a very important story…. let’s take a look to see why.
Jesus is making quite a stir, this is nearing the second Passover that he is celebrating in ministry. Which means it is only a year until he will be crucified
The people are seeing the miracles but missing the message…we’ll talk about that later
Notice just like we talked about with the marriage feast in Cana, God cares about what is important to us, Jesus saw the people were hungry and wanted to feed them.
Philip was from the city of Bethsaida the nearest city to where they were so Philip would have known what shops were nearby, how many loaves of bread they could probably get from the local bakers but Jesus is teaching an important lesson.
Faith according to the writer of Hebrews is this… Chapter 11:1-3
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
You have probably heard verse one, hundreds of times…faith requires us to move even if we can’t see or fully understand but we know God’s voice and we move knowing he will meet us each step of the way.
Verses 3 challenges us to believe that every word God says is true and he will always come through and it is trusting that by His hands if he is speaking to us, things are going to happen, it doesn’t matter if it looks possible or not, when we choose to trust him He can take nothing, as he did with the universe and create something out of it.
- So the first thing we really need is the faith to believe God at His word above what may even seem impossible because nothing really is impossible with Him!
Philip knew there was no way in his home village that enough bread or fish would be there to feed 5000 men (which could mean up to 30K people)
It was very practical, Bethsaida was not that large of a village that there would even be a need for that much bread. Bread was not preserved the way ours is so it would go bad quickly so bakers only made enough to sell that day
Second, we see Philip responding with another practical response…BTW faith is rarely practical
John 6:7
Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”
This is two hundred days wages. Some scholars believe they had this much in their treasury which if you think about it was not very much when Jesus is physically caring for twelve men, and their families needs but whether it was an amount of money that they had in the treasury or not Philip is saying we don’t have enough money to feed 30K people.
How many times have you felt like the Lord was asking you to do something and you gave him a million excuses as to why you couldn’t. I am sure most of them are legitimate reasons. We must always realize if God is asking us to do something he has miracles on his mind, the miracle of fulfilling our destiny, the miracle of impacting the world around us, the miracle of teaching us the fruit of the spirit in action and many others….we all have dreams and the Lord challenges us, stretches us, even pushes us because he wants us to draw closer to His heart and understand His dreams for us.
How do we know this? John gives us a commentary that explains this..
John 6:6
But this He (Jesus) said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.
Before I discuss this, we need to understand point two of what we really need
- What we really need is… to understand that when God asks us to do something he has the fulfillment of our dreams and impacting our world on His mind….I know it is scary but we can’t accomplish great things for God in our comfort zone and we will not fulfill our purpose by just living daily life Daniel put it this way11:32b
“the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
So John is saying Jesus is testing Philip. God doesn’t ever tempt us but he will certainly test us and our faith
1 Peter 1:7
“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
Don’t be mistaken, God knows exactly what you will do, but He allows our faith to be tested so we know who we are, so we will end up giving more glory as we grow in faith doing even greater things.
In this case, Jesus wanted to show them what He could do with anything brought to Him. Andrew brought the young boys 5 loaves and 2 fish to Jesus
Think about the faith it took to even think to yourself well it’s not much but who knows what Jesus could do with it…he turned water into wine
-I don’t know if that is what Andrew thought, but it is always important in going deeper with the Lord to remember what He has done for us in the past….that helps build faith.
What did Jesus do to further help them grow?
John 6:11
11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.
First, he gave thanks it is important if you are going to do anything serious for God to have an attitude of gratitude, it causes you to remember who is really in control of your life and who loves you the most
Notice what happened the disciples took the loaves and fish Jesus gave them then they took them and through their hands 30K+ people were fed
- What we really need is… to be faithful to God’s challenge for us and just begin to walk it out and He will blow us away with what he can do through us
This was all preparation the steps of building their faith. See we don’t change the world all of a sudden, God looks for people he can trust with little things and then he can trust them with bigger
Matthew 25:21
His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
God wants the church to change the world, not just endure until he returns, he sent his son to die on the cross for everyone and we are who He wants to use like the disciples to see the miracles at our hands
But we get caught up in wanting the wrong things, we miss the message….Israel saw this man who performed miracles, fed the masses solved their horrible problems of social injustice and they wanted a king
John 6: 14, 15
Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
You might ask now how could they do that but we often misinterpret Jesus ourselves….we want him to make us powerful in government, rich in finances, popular among people, great at everything so people will love us….none of that is wrong if that is truly what God wants but the purpose of those things must be to fulfill our purpose in loving God with everything we have and are, our skills, talents, personalities, minds, drive, and loving all people the same way so they can either come to Jesus or grow to become more like Jesus.
What they really needed was the power and love that enables them to fulfill the Father’s heartbeat.
God wants you to change your world by learning to love God with everything within us, and loving people so they don’t wind up in hell and grow to be who God has called them to be!
What do you really want? What God really wants is for you is…
The faith to believe God at his word so you will always be confident and never fear
Trust Him that if he asks you to do something that you will do it knowing that God wants to fulfill your destiny, your dreams, your purpose and it comes by believing Him at his word…willing to leave your comfort zone?
Take the steps of faith that when he asks us to do something if we are willing to take the steps, he will blow us away with what he will do through us