FBCWest 567 | More Leftovers than the Meal
Recorded On: 08/13/2023
Bulletin
Hymn # 166 “At Calvary”
SCRIPTURE READING – Romans 8:1 - 5
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Love Is War”
“Living Hope”
“How Great Is Your Love”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“More Leftovers than the Meal”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“God You Are”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Benediction “There Is Freedom”
Sermon Notes
John 6:1 & 2 A large crowd followed Jesus
John 6:3 - 5 Jesus tests Phillip
John 6:6 – 9 Phillip and Andrew state the impossible situation
John 6:10 & 11 Jesus passes out loaves and fishes – after giving thanks
John 6:12 & 13 Only after everyone had their fill did they gather up the remaining food – There was more than when they started
John 6:14 The people acknowledge Jesus as the Prophet who is to come
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
You see, I don't know if most of you know, but I take the Word of God very seriously.
So much so that there will be movies about Jesus and they'll have Jesus teaching things that aren't in the Bible. Now, I'm not saying that they may not, whatever, but I'm very uncomfortable. You can do things with other people or Jesus can come into a house and say, "Hi Mary, how's it going?" I don't have a problem with that. When he starts teaching, if it's not quoted in the Scriptures, I feel uncomfortable. But today I'm going to change things up. I'm not going to talk about this situation with Jesus coming to keep that. But I'm going to pick somebody in this particular passage and do what's called a literary license. Now, in case you don't know what literary license is, I'll give you an example. One of my favorite movies is Braveheart.
One of these three or four scenes that I especially like is prior to the battle at Stirling where the Scots went to beat the English. The Scots armies are starting to leave because they don't want to fight for the lords and the nobles because as they say, all they'll do is get more land and title and they have to work harder for those lands and title. So they're starting to abandon.
William Wallace arrives on the scene and gives this great speech about freedom.
If you haven't seen the movie, it's worth it just for that speech.
It's a great speech. I've even used it as a sermon illustration saying it was such an effective speech. But the problem with speeches is, in that case, he said, "Okay, tomorrow afternoon at 12 o'clock, the army come back and we'll fight. Nobody will come back." But because of the rallying cry and because it got you going, the army fought and they won.
The problem, that whole battle was literary license. It was a great battle and the people, the right people won. I had the fortune to go to Stirling.
It's not the Battle of Stirling. It's called the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
That bridge isn't there anymore, but I got to be there.
This is what happened.
The army of the English was on the other side of the river and the King's army started to cross the bridge.
And then William Wallace, before all the army got across, didn't do what was civil at the time, wait for the army to cross the bridge and become organized. He attacked them mid-crossing.
And because of the conditions of the soil and the peat moss or whatever, the heavy horses were not effective and they couldn't really turn. So William Wallace won a great battle.
But he didn't fight the entire army. He fought part of it and a lot of them drowned trying to escape.
You won't see that in the movie because the battle they showed was a much more entertaining battle.
They took literary license. And so I'm going to take a literary license with a part of this and I will let you know when I do so.
So if you have your Vibals, and you should, turn to the Gospel of John chapter 6 and we're going to start with verse 1.
This is after these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee or Tiberius. I always find it interesting that they call this the Sea of Galilee because it's a freshwater
body of water. But usually when we talk about seas, it's usually salt. And so he goes to the other side of Galilee. And a large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick.
And so the crowd wants to see Jesus do these healings, which again, and miracles, which the Scriptures call signs. And so Jesus is, if you will, the best show in town. And so they're following him because it's kind of cool to see all these sick people get well and it's cool.
And then Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples.
Now usually when Jesus is going to teach or preach, he sits down. So he's going to do something here. So this is kind of a setup.
The reader who's aware says, okay, something's going to happen because Jesus is now sitting.
Now the Passover was the Feast of the Jews was near. Now there's a few commentators say, well, maybe Jesus didn't go to the Passover. I doubt Jesus didn't go to the Passover this particular year because Jesus followed the law and the law said you're supposed to go to Passover. It doesn't say he did or he didn't. I suspect he did. I think again, it's assuming things.
And so 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?
And he says, this he was saying to test him for he knew himself what he was intending to do. So Jesus doesn't ask the question to figure out from him, what are we going to do?
He wants to know what Philip thinks we ought to do.
So he's testing him. Okay, Philip, I've been with you. I've been teaching you. I've been doing things. I've turned water into wine. I've done a lot of, I've healed the sick. What do you think we ought to do?
And Philip answered the way most of us answered, taking a look at our finances. And Philip answered, 200 and I are worth of bread, but not sufficient for them for everyone to receive a little. Now to the Naira, I was about a days' wage. So basically Philip was saying, if we had eight months worth of money, that wouldn't be enough money to just give everybody a little bit.
We're going to see how many people we're talking about because we don't have the resource.
And one of the disciples, Andrew Simon, Peter's brother said to him, there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fishes. But what are these for so many people?
So Andrew's saying, we don't have enough money and we don't have enough resources. We just have this lad who has five barley loaves and two fishes. Now barley loaf was usually the bread of the poor. If you had money or whatever, you had wheat and whatever.
Now this is as I told you, I'm going to now do literary license.
This lad, I'm going to call him Isaac, was getting ready to dash out the door.
He was all excited because he wanted to see Jesus because Jesus was doing cool things and he could hardly wait, but his mom said, wait, wait, you need to take a lunch.
Oh, mom, I don't need a lunch. We'll take care. And he goes, no, no. You need to be prepared. You know how moms are.
You need to take a lunch.
Here are five barley loaves and two fish. Mom, as Isaac said, I only need a sandwich. This could be one fish and one barley loaf and I'll make a sandwich and it'll be cool because I got to go.
And his mom goes, wait a minute, Isaac, remember I've taught you. You need to share.
Be a friend of yours or somebody that doesn't have what you have might need it. But you take the two fish and the five barley loaves with you. He goes, okay, mom, she goes and take a coat. He goes, mom, it's spring. I don't need a coat. I'm out of here.
Okay.
Now, at the end of this, I'm going to jump for the literary license. Isaac's going to come home to mom, but mom, you won't be able to believe what Jesus did with my life.
End of literary license.
Jesus said, have the people sit down.
Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down and number about 5,000.
Now this isn't the entire crowd. It's saying there were 5,000 men.
So ministerially speaking, there's probably 20,000 people there, but there were more people than 5,000 because we're not talking about the women. We're not talking about the kids. So if you will, there's at least 5,001. There's 5,000 men and the boy.
And so they're there and they're sitting on the grass, getting ready for something to happen.
Then Jesus took the loaves and having given thanks.
Jesus always before he eats, gives thanks.
Before Jesus is going to do something, he gives thanks. And so he gives thanks and he distributed it to those who were seated likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. And so Jesus gives thanks, takes these five barley loaves and starts passing them out.
And then he takes the two fish and starts passing them out.
Now you ought to be suspected and say, well, wait a minute. It doesn't take very long to pass out five barley loaves and two fish. It's like five people and two people and you're done.
But that's not what's happening.
And when they were filled, let me repeat it. And when they were filled, they didn't have just a little, when they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.
And so they didn't have sufficient money. They didn't have sufficient resources, but in the hands of Jesus, everyone was filled. And so they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with the fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had heaped feet.
Jesus' sign here is fantastic for you and me because what it says is that in the hands of Jesus, he can take that which is inadequate and not make it adequate, make it more than enough.
He does that in our lives. When we come to him and acknowledge him as our Lord and saver, he gives us life. He doesn't just extend our life. He gives us eternal life.
He gives us not the peace that the world gives us. He gives the peace that only he can give. He gives us joy. He gives us all of these things and he doesn't do so.
He does it with great abundance.
And so oftentimes when we come and we say, well, who am I that I can do anything for Jesus and you're right. You're nobody compared to Jesus, but in Jesus' hands, he can do great things.
He can do abundant things that you can't even think because you're in Jesus' hands.
And so these couple of sandwiches feeds 5,000 men.
His disciples had been with him, didn't see what he could do. He tested them not to see whether they would pass or fail because he knew.
He tested them to see whether they knew they would pass. And oftentimes when Jesus tests us, it's not about whether he determines whether we're going to pass or not, that we might know that our faith has grown because we've seen what he can do.
If you don't know him, he can take your life and change it. You could say, well, you haven't seen my life. You haven't seen the mess. You haven't seen whatever.
All you got to do is see all the other believers who have come in their messy lives.
There are those who become believers, but they only determine to do what that is safe and what they can accomplish.
And Jesus is saying, no, no.
In my hand, you can do this.
In my hand, we can do signs and wonders and miracles.
Jesus is going to take this event and he's going to teach and he's going to show his disciples some certain things. He's going to show those who are following him certain things. And he is going to teach to a point that he is going to bring them to a crossroad.
Most churches want to fill their sanctuaries with people and then have a second service and a third service and then raise more money for more buildings to house more people.
And I must confess, I would love that to happen here.
But Jesus oftentimes doesn't seek to increase. He just seeks to whittle out those who aren't really his.
And he's going to take this event and he's going to teach and he's going to cause them to really seriously think about what he has to say.
Now the crowd, having participated in this, come to a conclusion. Therefore when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, this is truly the prophet who has come into the world.
They came to a partial understanding. They didn't come to a full understanding because yes, he was the prophet discussed by Moses in Deuteronomy, but he was so much more than that.
He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the priest, he is our high priest. He is the one who makes intercessions for us. He is more than just a prophet.
But they come to the conclusion of partial and later next week we will see that they want to use Jesus for their own purposes, not that Jesus might use them for his purpose.
And again, so many believers want to use God for their purpose.
They want to have a purpose-driven life, which is wonderful. You ought to have a purpose-driven life. It prevents you from wandering around and making bad decisions.
But your purpose shouldn't be your purpose. Your purpose should be his purpose.
Your purpose should say, "Jesus, I'm inadequate."
Just like you took some bread for the poor, a couple of probably pickled or salted fish.
Doesn't sound particular. Barley bread and pickled or salted fish does not sound appetizing to me.
That's how we get locked in. Jesus said, "No, no, don't look at positivity.
Don't look at the way your attitude is. Look at your relationship with me.
Your relationship with me will determine what you accomplish.
You can accomplish great temporary things, or you can accomplish great eternal things in his hands.
What do you want to do?
Who do you want to be?
You want to use yourself? Well, let Jesus use you." And all God's people said.