Jesus Feeds the Multitudes - John 6:1-15 - Pastor Jason Fritz - Who is Jesus? [Sermon]

amen will you show him some encouragement one last time thank you guys cruciate it it's the future right there well good morning everybody happy Mother's Day to all the moms grandmas great comments do we have any great grandmas here any great grandmas Wow yes absolutely experts experts so good to be with you guys this morning our our text this morning is not a traditional Mother's Day text it comes from John chapter six although I was talking about it with Jill last night in this text you will see Jesus feed twenty thousand people at once and that's kind of what moms do sometimes right it's what it feels like I've I asked Jill I said yeah we have three kids you know 21 18 and 13 right now I asked her I said Jill how many school lunches do you think you've helped pack so far 180 days of school in 12 years you know we're we're kind of edging toward the end of it close to 5,000 school lunches mom has helped pack so mom's thank you for who you are and and all that you that you do yeah so in John chapter 6 this is a really really interesting text I love this text because it's only there's only two miracles that are recorded in all four Gospels and when I say Gospels gospel means good news it's Matthew Mark Luke John they record the life of Jesus and this is one of two miracles that aunt Gospel writers record it is a very public miracle if you can imagine feeding 20,000 people but the cool thing about this miracle is people don't just observe they actually participate in other words their bellies are full question why did Jesus perform miracles I mean did he do it just to gain a large crowd did he do it because he wanted to be some kind of celebrity no remember from last week John chapter 5 verse 36 he tells us why the miracles are there he says but the testimony that I have he's referring to the testimony about himself is greater than that of John's referring to John the Baptist now John the Baptist was the man for a lot of people it's like his word was gold and he testified about Jesus now Jesus says there's a testimony that's even greater than John's word here it is for the works that the father has given me to accomplish the very works that I am doing bear witness about me here it is that the father has sent me in other words the miracles were to confirm that Jesus came from God therefore we should probably listen to what Jesus has to say about himself so what did Jesus have to say about himself that was so important well John tells us this at the end of the book toward the end of the book in John chapter 20 verse 31 he says let me tell you I am writing but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Christos the Messiah the one who hundreds of years worth of prophecy Old Testament prophecy are fulfilled in that you would believe that that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name eternal life is found only in Jesus Christ this is really fantastic what Jesus does here with this miracle because it's not as if it's small and something private if you remember when he turned water into wine that was a more of a private party but this is in front of thousands this miracle is not hidden and the people are not just observing they are literally participating in it if you were around Jesus for any length of time he gave you the opportunity to see who he really was in John chapter 21 we read this now there are also many other things that Jesus did in other words he performed a lot of miracles where every one of them to be written I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written so if your for any length of time you saw him command nature and even the enemies of Jesus didn't deny this they couldn't deny that there was something supernatural about this man they couldn't deny it but what they did do was dismiss it in fact at one point they attribute the works of Jesus the state tribute the supernatural works of Jesus to Satan that's a big mistake elsewhere the religious leaders will accuse Jesus of healing on the wrong day you healed on the Sabbath and therefore you violated the law you broke the Sabbath law Jesus was like you guys just don't get it the work that I'm doing tells you that I come from God and so this is really important because you have to understand that in Jesus time there were writers and they wrote about events surrounding Jesus New Testament scholars refer to these as as external evidences or extra biblical evidences surrounding the person of Jesus Christ so think it through it would be very easy Munford see this way Christianity would have never gotten off the ground unless the miracles were true of course the biggest miracle of all being the resurrection so in Jesus day you had people who were still alive who had witnessed participated in the miracles and yet of all these writings that we have from the first century you don't have one shred not one piece of literature that says the miracles did not happen what you do have is that literature that goes something like this since they couldn't deny the resurrection the enemies of Jesus what they did was he says I pulled the guards inside they said hey we will pay you in order to spread the lie that the disciples stole the body see they couldn't deny the fact that the tomb was empty not posed a problem for them a threat to their power and authority and they couldn't have that so there was Christian he would have never gotten off the ground if the miracles weren't true this is a ver I mean we're talking thousands of people witness this miracle so the resurrection was feeding of the 5,000 which is more like 20,000 when you do at the men women and children they all point the finger toward Jesus and ask what many of asks and that is who is this man even this guy named Nicodemus who was sort of he was he was among the religious ruling elite and these were the guys I had the biggest problem with Jesus and Jesus Nicodemus has to come to Jesus at night right for fear of being seen by his peers and he comes to Jesus and he says I need to know about you I mean I really need to know about you no one does the work that you do unless they are sent from God I have some questions everybody surrounding Jesus they were asking who is this man he speaks with authority and he has such power and you know we live in Scottsdale and Scottsdale is full of powerful people I mean let's face it you have some of the most powerful people on the planet that live in Scottsdale Arizona in your own backyard so you take all those powerful people and you stack them up next to the power of Jesus they look like child's play so wouldn't you think doesn't it stand to reason that a miracle this public would change the hearts and minds of those who were near Jesus not one bit the enemies of Jesus remained the enemies of Jesus and really for this specific reason because Jesus had something to say about how people should live their lives Oh see that's the problem right I mean we're all well and good with Jesus you know we like his teachings he said some pretty wide things but it's that part where you know he tells you how to live your life that's the part we don't like see this miracle explains as much about the heart of man is that there's anything else so a few weeks back I met with a young lady who'd been attending the church for two or three months and as I often do with folks who are new I asked the question give me your impressions about the church and so she made some comments that were very insightful and very helpful and and I said anything else and and I said I want you to be honest brutally honest yeah be brutally honest so she said well um I didn't like you I know isn't that laughable like someone someone didn't like me and so I said as I often do in those situations well what did I say right it must have it's always something I said so what was it that I that I said that cause you not to like me and by the way I had the biggest smile on my face because you know it's every pastor's fantasy that people actually remember what they say and she remembered and the other thing I love about this this this young lady is she's so honest she's so honest because she said you know when I first started coming you told me that there was something wrong with me you told me that I was a sinner now understand that her problem essentially really is not with me it's with the Scriptures and it's with Jesus himself you said you told me I was a sinner in and I think I'm a good person and very insightful comment with that one comment she really put her finger on the pulse of how many many people think hey I'm I'm a good person isn't that enough so I asked her do you think I'm better than you she said well probably you're a pastor I said no I'm better than you I'm better than you but here's the thing the guys who mentor me are a hundred times better than I am who gets to decide how good do you have to be see that's the beautiful thing about Jesus telling you what you need to hear and let me put it to you this way he's actually telling you what you want to hear what he's telling you is give up that form of religion that has you thinking you can earn your way to God oh well miserable way to live life thinking they know we're nowhere in this book are you gonna find that part that says as long as you do this and you refrain from this the gates of heaven are thrown open for you no you're not gonna find that what you will find is that even your best attempts fall way way short you're the truth of the matter is you and I we're really not that good and even when we say you know I just I try my best come on now are you really trying your best no none of us really tries our best but that's the beautiful thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ it's Jesus saying I'm gonna do for you what you can't do for yourself see that's the power of the Cross that's the beauty of the cross Martin Luther called it the great exchange put it very well you give Jesus your sin and in exchange he gives you eternal life that's a pretty good deal and yet those surrounding Jesus they weren't willing to go there why because they liked hanging on to the control see if I can earn my way to God that gives me the power that gives me the control if I can earn righteousness my righteousness about well by the way we have another word for that it's called self righteousness right self righteous Jesus says give that up exchange yourself righteousness for the righteousness that I can give you and these early early enemies of Jesus just couldn't bring themselves to do it and so this miracle actually reveals what's inside every human heart so let's take a look at it in John chapter 6 beginning with verse 1 after this what's the dis that this refers to sometime after Jesus healing the sick and also after him really engaging with the religiously in such a ways to confront them for rejecting him they hated him they wanted him dead after this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee which is the sea of Tiberias same body of water two different names Tiberias was a large city on on the water verse two and a large crowd was following him why because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick I love the way this is phrase he they saw the signs okay you know what right we see signs on the side of the road those signs have very specific instructions right one way yield so the miracles are put in the form of a sign and what are the what does the sign say Jesus comes from God Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples now the Passover that's the Feast of the Jews was at hand Passover is one of three major celebrations for the Hebrews there is a time to remember God's faithful deliverance delivering them from out out from underneath the ruthless hand of the egyptian farrell verse 5 lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him jesus said to Philip where we to buy bread so that these people may eat verse 6 he said this to test Philip because Jesus himself knew what he would do Philip answered him two hundred dinair I worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get even just a little so one Denarius is the equivalent to essentially a day's wage so let's see in the state of Arizona minimum wage is what ten dollars an hour so we're looking at approximately thirteen thousand dollars worth of money thirteen thousand dollars in order to feed these people so that they all get just a little then one of his disciples Andrew simon Peters brother said to him hey there's a boy here he's got five barley loaves and two fish but what what's that gonna do how's that gonna feed so many jesus said have the people sit down now there was much grass in the place so the men sat down about about five thousand in number again you add the women in the children you're closer to twenty thousand verse eleven 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 and when they had eaten their fill he told his disciples gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost so they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten when the people saw the sign that he had done they said this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world they're reading the sign pretty clearly this guy is from God at least that's what they're saying because later on in the chapter Jesus is gonna make some pretty heavy statements and the text literally says those who are with him left him they were cool with the miracles they loved getting a free lunch but when Jesus calls him to something deeper they're like peace out where this is not for us but for now verse 15 perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him their king Jesus withdrew he would drew again to the mountain by himself if Jesus was just some dude who faked miracles in order to get a large crowd in order to become super popular I mean back in the day if you had thousands of people coming to see you you were incredibly pop you were the more most popular guys on the planet next to royalty this is Jesus so if Jesus would work in the scene if he was you know performance a fake miracles in order to gain a crowd to become popular this is the crescendo moment this is the absolute high point it doesn't get any better than this and yet what does Jesus do they want to make him King and they're coming after him and Jesus says no no no that's not what this time on earth is about now if you read the book of Revelation Jesus does come back and he is wearing a crown and he's riding a white horse but for now he's on point he has a message to set and that is you need me you need me you need to believe in me to have eternal life and so he escapes their notice now I want you to I want you to notice something true true to fashion you know the details in these New Testament stories are so important and they're so rich notice who Jesus grabs and makes the hero of the story it's an impoverished little boy you say well how do you know he's impoverished well we know he's poor because the text tells us that the loaves that he's about to eat or the loaves that he's brought are made out of barley barley was fed to horses the poorest of the poor eight barley this kid is poor he's got five tiny biscuits heart biscuits made out of barley that you'd feed to a horse and he's got what are probably too little sardines because there are lots of sardines in the Sea of Galilee and that's his lunch so from a worldly perspective this kid is completely and totally insignificant he's a nobody from nowhere with nothing now you may be here this morning and as you sit in that chair you may be thinking what do I have that God could use what why what do I have you know I'm I'm nobody special I don't have the power I don't have the influence this is your story because whatever you have whatever you have as insignificant as you think it might be when you place it in the hands of Jesus it becomes something extremely powerful five little biscuits two skinny little fish in the hands of Jesus will feed thousands of people with leftovers and this is how God gets it done he takes what is insignificant and makes it so significant there's something else Jesus is communicating here too he's declaring something about himself in a very profound way now many of these people no doubt good god-fearing Jews they understand their Old Testaments and as they read their Old Testament they recall the time when Moses led the nation of Israel in fact we read last week and Deuteronomy Moses says there will come after me a prophet that will come after me a prophet pay attention and follow him so that means he's gonna be a prophet similar to Moses a prophet like Moses questioned what did Moses do on behalf of God toward the people while they were wandering through the desert he fed them bread manna from heaven that's what Moses did is their leader what is Jesus doing right now to these people in the wilderness what is he doing he's feeding them bread but he's doing so much more because you see when Moses called down bread from heaven for the Israelites they had only enough for one day but when Jesus provides bread they're picking up leftovers twelve baskets full of leftovers you say what's the significance of that let me tell you how profound this is please follow closely many people reject Christianity they would have nothing to do with Christianity because they think it's a form of lifestyle starvation you know if I come to faith in Jesus you know what that's gonna mean that's gonna mean I'm gonna have to give up all the things that I really enjoy you know I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to refrain from this I can't do that and you know well that's just the price you have to pay if you want to be a Christian and what's being revealed through this miracle the Jesus is saying look you need to understand something I am the bread of life I will give you so much more than you could ever imagine and I'm not just gonna tell you what you need I'm actually gonna tell you what you want because you see all the things that you've been pursuing their functional false saviours in your life and you've been moving from one to the next to the next and truth be known if you were to be honest you're scared you've got a ton of fear in your life you have a lot of anxiety why because you're placing your hope your sense of joy your peace and all the wrong things place your life with what you have in my hands and you will experience the life that you've always wanted in abundance you will have access to the very power that I have how do we know that's one of the points of this miracle look at this little kid he's about to become the hero nobody thinks about this kid but what he has he offers up to Jesus and to become something remarkable when Jesus performs his first miracle remember he turns water into wine at a party we talked about this a couple months ago what is the effect of turning water into wine at that time and at that place you know what Jesus does he keeps the party going that's the effect so people are always asking who is this man who is this Jesus I'm asking what kind of God is this I did a little research this week on insects plants animals did you know that there are approximately 10,000 species of birds 10,000 do you know how many species of flies there are a hundred and twenty thousand right on 120 thousand species of flies do you know how many species of beetles there are on the planet 350 thousand species of beels and they tell us there are tens and tens of thousands of beetle species yet to be discovered question what kind of god packs that kind of DNA into an insect you've been watching the news you see what's going on in Hawaii you see the lava just flowing and just consuming everything and just the power anything in his path it just is consumed you see pictures of Mount st. Helens erupting literally in a second volcano the power of the volcano just bloat just totally changes the landscape for decades in an instant the power more powerful than a nuclear bomb and yet the power of the strongest volcano on earth doesn't come close to the power of the smallest solar flare and then there are these things called supernovas supernovas are exploding stars that release an immense amount of power and energy and you read the book of Job and job says that God stretched out the heavens the heavens he stretched out the heavens and then he scattered the stars like they're sand and I picture a giant tub of glitter poured into your hand and you just throw it into space god holds supernovas in his hand now I want to share with you one of my favorite verses in the Bible if he's in chapter 1 verses 18 and 19 and it's the Apostle Paul praying for a congregation and from a pastoral standpoint it's just such a beautiful prayer let me praise this I pray that the eyes of your hearts would be enlightened in other words he's saying there's some things you're missing there's some things that you're not seeing clearly I pray that you would know what is the hope to which he has called you it's the one thing everybody needs in life is hope do you know the hope that you are called to what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints do you know what you have coming to you in the life to come I wish I wish you knew these things wish you were enlightened to him then he lays this down I pray that you would know what is the immeasurable greatness of God's power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might this is where the language gets really really special so the Greek word for immeasurable is uber belong it's where we get our English word hyperbole what is hyperbole it's an overstatement for the purpose of emphasis I'm so hungry I could eat a horse wow you must really be hungry right we get the English word uber uber right before the cars car service right uber I mean wow it's like over the tops like the best of the best uber I pray that you would understand the uber greatness I just saw The Avengers movie sounds like an Avengers hero mega sauce that's the word for greatness mega thoughts do DeMaio's dynamite that's the word for power Paul says oh I wish brothers and sisters I wish you could see it I wish you knew it the uber mega dynamite power of God and the best part about it is toward you it's toward you who believe what does that mean what does that look like this miracle gives you a picture of it what you think is insignificant whatever it is in your life whatever you think you have to offer now it's too small it's never too small when placed in the hands of Jesus it's the power to make wise choices in life that lead to the kind of life you've always wanted to live it's the power that enables you to forgive those who have really hurt you it's it's the power to pray for your enemies that power comes only from God and Paul says I want you to know it I want you to know it Jesus says I have this power and I want it to be on display every day in your life and ultimately in the end I actually have the power to conquer death and so do you earlier I mentioned that the details of the texts are important one of the more curious verses in found in verse 11 says that Jesus knew what he was going to do but he was testing Philip so why does he test Phil what what's going on Jesus why don't you just do your thing you know you know why Jesus doesn't just do his thing he wants to draw the disciples in by asking him the question hey guys what are we gonna do about this what do you mean we you know they're they're having a good time it's like oh hey the crowds are coming wow this is a super big crowd wow I can't wait to hear what Jesus says next yeah and they're just kind of sitting there waiting and then Jesus looks at them and says okay guys we have a situation on our hands what do you mean yeah we got to feed these people what's it gonna take to feed them right they're getting nervous now they get nervous I don't know how can we do is we what we can't do this on our own that's the point you just bringing them to that place where they realize they can't do it on their own number one number two they're gonna need him to figure this thing out and Jesus the cool thing about it is by including them into what he's about to do they're going to experience the joy of partnering with him in doing something incredible so my dad died a few years ago and my dad was this is super salt of the earth kind of guy blue collar he was amazing with his hands he could fix repair or build anything with his hands before my dad died I actually took a picture of his hands just before he died he was a mechanic and so growing up we always had cars around the house and he was always fixing cars I remember being a little kid and dad would call me over and he'd say hey Jason I want you to grab that wrench I want you to put it on that bolt and I want you to tighten it up so I'd go get the wrench and I'd put it on the bolt in yeah I'd be hanging off the wrench and it wouldn't budge and then dad would take his hand put it on the wrench then he would take my hand and put it on top of his hand and together we would we would tighten that bolt and it would get tighter and tighter and tighter and we did it together but make no mistake about it it was all dad's power not mine but by having me partner with him I was able to enter into the joy that my dad had and together we were able to experience the joy don't you see what's happening here see this is how good Jesus is Jesus is not some diva he doesn't know hey stand back everybody watch this e he says what are we gonna do okay what are we gonna what are we gonna do guys how are we gonna figure this out Jesus is so good in every way he draws them in they're getting nervous that's right where you need to be a a meeting traditional traditional announcement my name is Jason Fritz and I'm an alcoholic you know what's so powerful about that there's an admission there right a recognition I need help let me tell you why I'm here Jesus brings the guys to that point this is way too much so Andrew finally speaks up and Andrew says well the only true that I see these little hard biscuits and there's a couple pieces of fish that this kid has and Jesus says perfect we'll take it have him sit down and then another interesting little side note to think about what does Jesus do with a little boy the text says he takes his food he takes the kids food what's the good thing is I came mister you know my mom took mine where's your mom be back here lunch you know take my stuff he takes you how the kid react we don't know but the kid gave it over and in Jesus hands a harvest I mean a harvest was reaped that's the challenging part right there it's taking what you have in your hands and handing it over to Jesus see some of you are here this morning and your expectation of this time is actually way too small way too small you know you come through the doors and it's Mother's Day you want to have a good time with mom and maybe mommy even dragged you here right maybe you call me you want to be inspired this is not about inspiration is about something much deeper than that what kind of life do you want to lead what do you want to be known for what what is your legacy what do you want to set at your funeral let me tell you I've been involved in a lot of funerals there two words that are constantly used the words always and never Oh bill he was always so kind no he wasn't Oh Mary she was she was never rude please she was rude all the time see what you want is the truth you know Jason he was far from perfect he was so imperfect he really didn't have a lot to offer he was definitely a won talent dude but he took the talent and he put it in the hands of Jesus and he was transformed and the lives of those around him they were transformed see that's what we want said of us some of you are hedging your bets mmm-hmm you're totally hedging your bets right now like yeah I don't know about this you know it's like God give up a little bit but enough to make me feel too uncomfortable so what's gonna happen is you're never gonna experience the fullness of the joy that is there for you to take and participate when you hand everything over and you place them in the hands of Jesus and you'll never experience the fullness of his power so may it be said of us the church would not be here if it wasn't for a handful of people essentially handing over everything do you know how much joy we receive every week because of those decisions and we continue to receive we want more more people more partners to experience that kind of joy alongside us may it be said of us father what a rich text so much here were grateful for it God we ask that we would that we would not withhold anything from you we would hand over our very lives to you and that we would experience the power to make good choices the power to do things we would otherwise never be able to do because that power is being demonstrated through us from you so that the name of Jesus can be lifted up be known kingdom of God expanded you may be given all the glory we pray in the name of the one who is the most powerful his name is Jesus Christ and God's people said amen

Channel: Illuminate Community Church

Views: 15,145

Keywords: Jesus Feeds the Multitudes - John 6:1-15 - Pastor Jason Fritz - Who is Jesus?, jesus feeds 5000, miracles of jesus, bible, gospel, christianity, jesus, John 6:1-15, jason fritz, illuminate community church, sermon, Jesus Feeds the Multitudes, Who is Jesus, teaching, arizona, church, scottsdale, gospel of john, truth, preaching, religion, christian, who is jesus christ, who is jesus?, fish and loaves, five loaves

Id: 1w3XiLHxZxk

Length: 36min 55sec (2215 seconds)

Published: Tue May 15 2018