Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Dial In - John 6:1-15 (Ep. 15)

Episode Date: April 17, 2020

Dial In is a devotional series with the intention of helping followers of Christ understand God’s word and love Him more. Jonny seeks to communicate the profound depth of scripture in a digestible and condensed format each weekday. The goal of the podcast is that our “minds would be renewed” as we behold who God is in His word. In this series, Jonny is walking sequentially through the Gospel of John.In this episode, Jonny covers John 6:1-15 and covers the feeding of the five thousand. This sign demonstrates the power of Jesus and points to a greater reality that will be discussed in the next episode.Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. We come now to one of the most important chapters in John's Gospel and potentially one of the most familiar in all of the Bible. There's good reason for that because of all the miracles that Jesus performed. This is the largest that we find in terms of sheer number and it's also the only miracle that occurs in all four Gospels. Our passage today is John chapter 6 verses 1 through 15. Let's dial in. John chapter 6 verses 1 through 15. After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of

Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. And lifting up his eyes, 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? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. One of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,

There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many people? Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus said, Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up, and they 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. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Okay, so this is the fourth miracle that we see in John's Gospel. The first miracle is when Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in chapter 2. The second miracle was the healing of the noble man's son. The third was when Jesus healed the man at the pool in the previous chapter, chapter 5. And now we come to John chapter 6, and we see the fourth of seven miracles in John's Gospel,

and that is the feeding of the 5,000. I've mentioned before in John 21 verse 25 that if John, the gospel writer, recorded all of the miracles that Jesus did, the world itself would not be able to contain the books that would possess them. So the miracles that we see throughout the gospels are merely a sample, a representation of what happens over and over and over again throughout the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ. And this was all to demonstrate that this man who was born in Bethlehem, who was raised in Nazareth, was indeed fully God in human form. And this is John's goal. He wants you to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and every single thing that is included in this gospel is designed to fortify his theme, Jesus is the Christ. Now, regarding these miracles and signs, no one ever rejected these were real. They were too open. They were too public. And there is never an attempt by anyone in the New Testament to discredit any of the signs that Jesus performed.

And the pattern that we see in these miracles is often similar, especially in what we saw in chapter 5 and what we see in chapter 6. The pattern is this. There is a stunning miracle that is performed, which is followed by a discourse or a message by Jesus, which is followed by a rejection of Jesus's people, which is then followed by a plot to kill him. There's a miracle, a message by Jesus, a rejection of Jesus, and then a plot to kill him. And that's what we'll see again in chapter six. So in John chapter six, verse one, it says sometime after this or after these things, which means that we are moving on to a completely different situation and a completely different time period.

Verse 4 tells us that the Passover was near, which means that if the feast Jesus was at in chapter 5 was the Passover, an entire year has lapsed between chapters 5 and chapter 6. If it was the feast of tabernacles, that means it was six months. So at least six months, probably a year. Now in verse 2, it says that a tremendous multitude is following Jesus. Now the question is, why are they following him? Is it because they want to follow him as Lord?

Is it because they want forgiveness of their sins? Is it because they want a Savior? Is it because they want the kingdom of God? No. In verse two, it tells us it is because they saw the signs that Jesus had performed. John is shedding light on the reality that their interest in Jesus was superficial and self-serving. They wanted a miracle worker, not a Messiah. It says in verse 5 that Jesus sees the crowd following him. One thing to note here is that there is no cultural equivalent to understanding the popularity that Jesus had at this time. He was a sensation. His popularity is truly staggering.

Jesus sees them gathering towards him, and the text says that it consisted of 5,000 men. And if we look at the same account in other Gospels, we'll see that in Matthew 14, 21, this figure does not include women and children. So the likely number here following Jesus around is 15,000 to 20,000 people, if not even more. I'm a Laker fan, so this is like the entire Staples Center following Jesus around

in the hills of Galilee. So Jesus walks back up on the hill after spending the entire day healing and teaching about the kingdom of God, and he sees this multitude, this gathering of 20,000 people, and he asks his disciples a question to test their faith. Verse 5 tells us, he says, hey, where are we going to get enough bread to give them something to eat? And how do they respond? It's so interesting. They've been with Jesus for some time now. Does Philip respond and say, why are you asking me, oh God? You're the creator of the universe. You uphold all things by the word of your power. You heal the sick. You cleanse the leper. You give sight to the blind. You make the lame walk. You raise the dead. You decide. No. We see in verse 7 how Philip responds. He says,

it will take 200 denarii, or eight months salary, to feed all of these people. They don't get it. Then Andrew comes up and says, hey, I found some fish and some crackers, but this isn't a sign of great faith because the verse doesn't stop there. He continues and says, but what is this going to accomplish with all of these people here? They don't get it. They have been with Jesus and they've seen him do miracle after miracle, sign after sign, heal the sick, cleanse the leper, give sight to been with Jesus and they've seen him do miracle after miracle, sign after sign, heal the sick, cleanse the leper, give sight to the blind, and they've seen him turn water into wine, but they just don't get it. So why does Jesus test them? It says Jesus asked them to

test them. Why does he do this? I think it's because Jesus is cementing and solidifying that this is an impossible situation. And this is exactly where Jesus operates in the impossible. Mark 10.25, you know the passage potentially. Jesus tells his disciples, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved. And the disciples respond to Jesus and say, then who can be saved? And Jesus responds and says, with man, this is impossible. With God, all things are possible.

Jesus leads his followers to the impossible because that is where his glory shines. And that's what we're gonna read in verse 11 right here. It says, Jesus then took the loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also all the fish as much as they wanted. Jesus just keeps on distributing from the same two fish and the same five loaves from the beginning and it feeds 20,000 people. And I love the end of verse 11. It says, and they had all they wanted. They're stuffed to the rafters. Jesus gives abundantly. This is his overflowing grace. Now, how do they respond after seeing the sign that Jesus had performed after

taking two fish and five crackers and then proceeding from there to feed 20,000 people with divine power, how do they respond? Verse 15 tells us they try to make him king. Now, if Jesus was a guy who merely wanted popularity, this would have been his time to shine. Verse four told us that this was near the Passover and the Passover was not merely a religious festival. It was their independence day. It is their celebration of their deliverance from Egypt. The excitement is building here. They are waiting for their Messiah, not one who would suffer and die, but one who would deliver them from the tyranny of Rome. And here before them appears the perfect candidate, a man of power, unfathomable, unmatched power. This is the king that they want.

They would have said they loved Jesus. They were enthralled with him. But Jesus has nothing to do with this crowd because he isn't there for earthly dominion. He's there to be the bread of life. They were captivated by a Messiah of their imaginations. The Jesus they were excited about was not the real Jesus. Jesus was not honored by their passion nor their excitement about him because it was about what he could do for them

and what he could give them in a physical sense, not because he came to offer them life in himself. They were looking for a kingdom of man, but Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God. They wanted to use him for his gifts and his stuff, not to serve him as Lord. They desired food to satisfy their stomach. Jesus came to offer himself and satisfy their soul. Jesus is always doing more than the miracle itself, and that's why they are called signs. Jesus is doing more than feeding people with natural bread. Jesus is taking something in the natural world and pointing towards something in the spiritual world. We saw it in John chapter 2. He says, I'm the better temple. He tells Nicodemus,

you need to be born again. And to the woman at the well, Jesus declares, I am the living water. And to those eating bread here, Jesus declares, and we'll look at this in our next section, I am the bread of life. These loaves may bring temporary satisfaction and fulfillment, but I bring eternal satisfaction and eternal fulfillment. I am what your soul needs. Jesus is constantly using natural means and taking those things into spiritual realities, but the crowds are blind and they're callous to these spiritual realities. And we'll see at the end of this chapter that many left him because his words were hard for them. Jesus did not come to merely satisfy physical desires. He came to completely

and utterly transform our cravings so that our desire would be him, to see him as more precious than our bread. 1 Peter 2.7 says, to those who see Christ Jesus as precious. These crowds and these people and these gatherings did not see Jesus as precious. They saw his stuff as precious. This whole passage, as I mentioned, is a giant setup for what Jesus will say from here, that he is the bread of life. And we'll look at this next time. And he offers that life to you. So verse 15 tells us that seeing that they are going to take him by force and make himself king, he withdrew from them to the mountains. Amazing. I ask even now, is Christ precious to you? Do you trust in Jesus' power? He operates in the impossible, for nothing is impossible for him. And it is there in the impossible that his glory shines and his people worship.

Stay dialed in.