Gospel of John, 6:1-58
John 6:1-58 · Courtney Hemenway · Mar 30, 2008
Gospel of John (2008), No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926057162915

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, we are in John 6. We're going to go through verses 1 through 58 today and then continue through the remainder of chapter 6 and a part of 7 next week. And then the third week, I'll finish up chapter 7. So I thought, you know, a lot of times we We get so focused. Sometimes on Tuesdays, when we have our study on Tuesdays, we get into just great detail. But sometimes I find that I've looked at it so close that I haven't seen the whole picture. So what I like to try and do is I'll read through these first 21 verses. You can follow along. I'm reading from the New American Standard, so I'd just like to read through and kind of get an overall picture of what's going on, kind of put everything together, then we'll go back and dice it up and take a look at it. So, Gospel of John chapter 6, reading 1 through 21.

After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick. Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.

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? This he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?

Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, he distributed to those who were seated likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.

When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments, so that nothing will be lost. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten. Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, This is truly the prophet who has come into the world.

So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone. Now when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea. And after getting into the boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea, drawing near to the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I. Do not be afraid. So they were willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going."

All right, it's kind of interesting when you look at this passage of scripture, just how the different Gospels pick up this event of the feeding of the 5,000. You know, we've kind of gone over how the different Gospels are aimed at different groups of people. And this one, even when you take a look at it, When you look at it, Matthew looks at it from the Jewish perspective and with the promised Messiah. Mark focuses on Jesus as a servant and Luke emphasizes the things that bring out Jesus' deity with his humanity. Again, Dr. Luke, I think he puts in the humanity part with the deity. And then John again shows that Christ is the Son of God or primarily he focuses in on the deity of God.

So, it is kind of fun when I was going through and studying this, it is kind of fun to look at how the different accounts of the feeding of the 5,000 and what words they use, different things. It wasn't just a cookie cutter from, you know, everybody says the same thing. It's interesting how they look at it. So, if you have time, go back and just kind of look at the other Gospels about how the 5,000 were fed and you can kind of see the different perspectives. of how they look at it and how they relay that event on.

Okay, so lesson 11, question number one. Why were the people following Jesus at this point? Why were they following him? Miracles. Signs. From verse 2. It says, They saw signs which he was performing on those who were sick. So, was the reason the people were seeking because they wanted to know the Son of God? No! What do we always say? What did the Jews require?

Signs. Man, this is the guy who has signs. We're going to go check this guy out. He's given signs. We're going to go look at it. They just wanted to see all those things. They were not looking at the Son of God. They were looking at signs. And then, yeah, maybe we'll kind of get this Son of God thing in there afterwards. But we're looking at signs. This guy did some miracles. Man, we're going to find him. So, in question two, what is ironic about, it says, the Passover feast being near and the crowds coming to Jesus? Let me get it this way. What did the Passover represent? Oh, come on. What did the actual Passover, what was that representing? What was the celebration that they did? Anybody? One at a time?

They put the sign on the door post and the Lord passed over and didn't take the firstborn. So they took an unblemished lamb, sacrificed it, and put the blood on the door post. And this is when they were captive in Egypt. And so when the angel of the Lord, I was looking at angel of death, but it says angel of the Lord, which was kind of interesting. I didn't realize that until I was looking back at this. The angel of the Lord passed over.

And then if he saw the blood, they'd pass over the house. But then the angel of the Lord then killed all the firstborn. If they didn't see the blood on the doorpost, they'd kill the firstborn. So they celebrated the Passover, which was representative of passing over the Israelites or the Jews if they had the blood on the doorpost.

And the blood represented the sacrifice. Blood represented the sacrifice. And what was the blood of? I said it. An unblemished lamb. So what does it show when these crowds come? We're near the Passover feast and the crowds are coming up to Jesus. What does it show about their knowledge? Or what did it show about the value of the Passover feast at this point?

You all look perplexed. I have the answer. I don't know why you guys don't have this. It's intuitively obvious. No, it's not. It was so easy for me to come up with these questions. Why don't you get this? there's the fact that the Christ is the Passover lamb for us and I'm just asking all of you the question you were asking you're heading in the right direction I think it's ironic because Jesus was the Passover himself but they had no clue bingo five points here that's exactly it the actual Lamb of God, the sacrificial Lamb of God, the one that the Passover pointed to, is standing right in front of them and they didn't recognize it.

But back when that practice was put into effect, does it say anything that it was to reflect something in the future? Well, it all pointed to Christ. From looking back you can see it, but was there anything given to them, written or revealed to them that they would know, be able to identify?

Yeah, there were lots of different scriptures that point to Christ as a Lamb. I think of in Isaiah, putting everything together, you know, with Isaiah and being sacrificed and all the different things, the crucifixion and all the things, a lot of this pointed to him and that there would be a sacrificial lamb, the one that would, for them, lead them into the Millennial Kingdom. And that's why a lot of the signs and stuff they wanted to come to find, if this was the Messiah, the one that was pointed to. And part of that goes back to the sacrificial lamb, the one who would provide and I guess, give them life in the Millennial Kingdom, I think is what it goes.

There were enough scriptures, and I guess I didn't pull up a lot of those, that they knew that there was a sacrificial lamb of God, and like I said, here, He's standing right in front of them, and they don't know. I guess it points to the fact that it was kind of You know, the Passover had been kind of, yeah, we've done this for how many years? Centuries. Centuries, we're kind of, yeah, you know. And then the Lamb of God is sitting right in front of them and they, well, where?

Well, John the Baptist said, this is holy behold, this is the Lamb of God, but they didn't That's what I said, I'm struggling to remember any scriptures that tied it together between the Passover to the Lamb of God. There's a whole series of them, but right now I'd have to look them up and see. But regardless, he's standing right in front of them, and they have no clue. So I think it basically shows the value of it. Oh yeah, that Passover thing we're coming up with, we're looking around and he's standing right in front of them. And behold, the Lamb of God, he's performing these signs, miracles, all these things, and they're just looking around.

The Lamb of God was standing in front of them. Oh yes. Like in Isaiah 53 where it talks about the suffering servant, the fact that the Messiah is going to come and he's going to be a ruler and everything else, but he's also going to have to die. Suffer and die. Yeah, it's really clear that.

I think that that's something that the Jews by and large completely missed. The notion that the Messiah would come and die and would not come in this victorious century was not something that I think that they had expected. And so when Jesus didn't come preaching that message, the Jewish leaders didn't really want anything to do Right, but it did point to it. There's lots of scriptures that point to it.

It's hard to blame them, because I think that if I were in their position, I probably would have missed a lot of that stuff, too. And it's not until afterwards where you look back and you put all the pieces in, and then you see what the answer is. It's like what you're talking about. Whenever you tell us the answer to a question, it all makes sense. And having seen that, OK, so Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus did die for the sins of the people on such and such a day, and then you go back and fill in all the blanks, It all becomes clear.

But see, I think they weren't even looking. They were just looking at the miracles and signs. They weren't even looking at the Lamb of God that was told to them. Well, later in the New Testament, I think it's Paul, or I can't remember, but Jesus talks about how irreverence for me is consists of things that they've learned by rote in tradition.

And that's what had happened. All of this stuff was something that they had done by tradition. They didn't really know why they did a lot of this stuff. Well, you'll see as we get in more in this. And he kind of comes down. He gets further and further when they start. He gets to eat my flesh and do all these things. And he's getting into this. He's walking them down and seeing how much they don't know, don't understand.

It gets back to the 1 Corinthians 2.14. These are spiritual things. The carnal mind can't understand it. I think he walks down that lane with them, kind of going, you know, here it is. You don't understand. Here's even more you don't understand. And it keeps going. So yeah, they just didn't understand.

But I guess the ironic thing is, here's the Lamb of God that has been prophesied and brought out, and they're looking around him going, you know. You know, we'll look at it too when we see, they were looking for the signs. It's kind of, is this guy... but let's look at these signs first.

That's always what they required. So they looked beyond him to look at what miracles are they going to do. And they were looking for a king, and that's what they tried to do. Well, and that's why I said he goes up to the mountain because he knew by force they wanted, hey, here's the king. That's all they wanted. They didn't understand what they were really They had become so focused on this one thing. If that wasn't what he was selling, then they didn't have anything to do with it. And why do they want a king? To get us out of all this stuff. We're now number one. So again, it was a very selfish motive.

How many years? Have you ever figured out how many years it was since the actual Passover and at this time it was somebody else? Yeah, I don't know. No, I really don't. Yeah, it was a long time. I have no clue. I'd have to go back and look. But that's why I say it's long. I knew it's like hundreds and hundreds of years. We know at least 400 years when there wasn't a prophet. So I know it's 400 years. And then how many years back? 1,000?

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I'd have to go back and look and see. Because it was a long time. Let's put it that way. Very long time. But they've been taught about all this stuff for long. I mean the scriptures keep pointing to it. By this time in their history, had they rather ceased studying the actual scriptures and they were depending on the rabbinical writings and Well, the Mosaic laws and stuff, well then the Pharisees and all that put all these things, again as Mike says, they put all this to avoid breaking these. So yeah, traditions, laws, all these different things.

Right, and I always get this twinge in me that sometimes I feel like the modern day Pharisee because when I'm studying this and we'll see all who come, what kind of requirements do we put? Well, you need to change before you really come to the Lord. You just have to dress a little better. You have that angry streak. Get rid of that before you come to the Lord.

What am I doing? When I'm throwing stones at the Pharisees and all they do, a lot of them are bouncing back and hitting me. They did all these things. So yes, it was probably buried under 500 or 600 laws that they created to go on top of the Mosaic Law. so maybe they didn't know as much but they wanted the millennial king that's what they're looking for and if this guy doing the signs was he the guy? yeah we're gonna look at the signs. Oh people who throw stones shouldn't live in glass. Getting back to the Pharisees, they hated him without a cause. The cause was in And this isn't fair.

These are the people, the crowds coming out. These are the ones who are trying to... They saw these signs and want to find out about this guy. Signs? Wow, we love signs. So we're going to go out and explore this. So that's what he's doing. But like I said, the ironic is here's the Lamb of God right before him, right before the Passover. Are you the king? What kind of signs? Get out of my way. So it's just kind of a... ironic in that here's the Lamb of God right before the Passover and He's standing in front of them. Alright, number three.

When the large crowds had no food, what do the responses by the Lord and the disciples show us? And we'll also look at Matthew 14, 15 through 19. So what was the response of the disciples to the crowd? Just in general, and then we'll look at some of these Matthew passages. What was the general gist of their thoughts of the crowd?

Loving, understanding, compassionate. Would that characterize them? Overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. Compassionate. Would that be how you'd characterize them? Anybody? Realistic. Realistic. Oh, we're going to challenge that one a bit. Well, look at that. That was an interesting response. Anything else? Okay, let's read it and then you give me. Matthew 14, 15 through 16 is what I looked at.

When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, This place is desolate, and the hour is already late. So send the crowds away, that they may go into the village and buy food for themselves. But Jesus said to them, They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. They said to him, we only have five loaves and two fish. From the John passage.

Therefore Jesus, lifting up his eyes and seeing a large crowd, was coming to him, said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat? This he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people? So what does it show about the disciples? Their feeling towards the crowd. They're a big trouble maker. They're a burden. You guys, go the hour into the desert. Find the nearest Burger King that's open. Go find it. Three in the morning, go into the town. Find what you can get.

And then trek all the way back if you want to hear tomorrow's message. that warmth, that understanding of the crowd was evident in all the disciples. Yeah. And Jesus had already performed so many miracles that they wouldn't have thought. Leading me to her response. Basically, what it showed of the disciples was unbelief, no faith. They'd been with Him all day long. They'd listened to Him teach all day long. They'd dropped everything to follow Jesus. They'd seen signs, miracles, all these things.

And what were the results of this close fellowship with Him? Move on, move on. We have to be realistic here. It's not mine. They've been with him, signs, all these things, and doing all these miracles. I don't know that they know the extent of his power. That's a good point for us too. And again, throwing stones in glass houses.

How many times do I put God in a box? God is only so big. You've answered all these prayers, but this is a really big one. I just don't think you can handle this one. This one's just a little too big. Or the other, which I always think about too, which is the other extreme on that. Lord, I don't want to bother you with this little thing. I don't want to bother you with that. You've got the world to hold together, all these other things. Why do you want to hear about my little tiny issue here?

So it's micro and macro. A lot of times we do the same thing. This is just a little too big for God. He's done all these miracles, these signs, but He can't feed a lot of people. He's never done that one before. Put God in a box. He can only do so much. He can't do this."

I think we'll get into some of the other ones. It is interesting to look back at the other Gospels, to look at some of the responses. Even more, there are these, whoo-hoo, out of here, leave. John is pretty easy on this description, but when you look at the other Gospels, the disciples are like, whoo-hoo, we can't do anything here, people, go on. They were growing in understanding. When we get further along in here, he really challenges them about their understanding and their motive. And that's why I brought out at the very beginning, what was their motive for coming here? Was it to find the Son of God?

No. They didn't. They wanted signs. and he'll drill into this motive further and further as we get down into the chapter. He's going to root out the motive why they're there. And it's not to understand. And you'll see it, and a lot of them go away. No, this isn't the deal I signed up for. And it really roots out their motives.

He wants them to understand, so he does bring more and more to them, going, hello, You know, here, look at this, and he'll drive that into them. And you'll see, which is kind of, as I study more, it's kind of saddening in that the selfish motive just keeps coming out. And here is the Lamb of God, the one promised, and all that, and they still keep looking for the selfish motive. But the more that comes out, the more you're able to behold the Lord.

If you respond to it, if you don't... You can look at the disciples and see their ignorance, but you can look at Christ and see his compassion. My next question, what was Jesus' response to the crowd? Compassion, love, understanding. He did. The disciples are the ones saying, shoo, get out of here. Go find the local 7-Eleven. It may be open. Then hike through the desert back to here, and you get tomorrow's message.

Jesus wasn't that way. His response was very different. And that's the point. And that's what he shows. One, he knows what he was thinking, which is, again, the intimacy in which he knows each and every one of us. He already knows what Philip's going to do. So he's going to bring it out right away. So he asks Philip and he tests Philip about that.

Secondly, besides the intimacy, the interest of the Lord in the crowd was much more than disciples. The disciples were quite content to send the people away to fend for themselves, even though they were a great distance from any place that they could buy food. The disciples looked at the crowd as an insurmountable burden. They were being realistic, while the Lord looked at them with compassion. The way I did it, this can be of great comfort to us that no matter how much individuals have concern or care for us, great people all around, the Lord is always more interested in us. Whatever people and whatever ministry can do, they don't have the same compassion for us as the Lord. Just a brief discussion about the feeding of the 5,000. A few barley loaves, a couple fish, and we only have 200 pennies, 200 denarii worth of out here. We can't buy anything. And 3 in the morning, we're late at night and a great distance. What was the 200 denarii going to do anyway?

So you know the story. My guidance is that 800 is a month's worth of work. Yeah, but I guess mine had like two, well it said pennies worth. I guess that was the distribution. Eight months wages could not buy enough grit. Yeah, and I guess mine was the pennies worth per person. It would be if you did that per person, 5,000, it was just a couple pennies worth to each person. I'm not kidding that they actually had that money though. Yeah, yeah. thought they could round up 200 denarii or if that was what they thought they were carrying or whatever. But I guess what it is, it represented for each to receive a little. I think that was the deal. It was just a pennies worth or a couple pennies worth of food. And besides, they couldn't go out and buy anything anyway.

I mean, they're a great distance from a city. It's late and you've got 5,000 people. It's pretty amazing that all those people were there. I mean, if they're so far away from everything. You know, they're going, and again, they go out away from the city, the crowd's following the teaching going on, and then it's night time. We're way away from the city, the teaching, and I'm sure they've been intently looking at the teaching or whatever, and then seeing, waiting for the miracles, all these things. And then it's like, well, 5,000. And I go back.

God sovereignly knows what's going on. He knew what was going to transpire. you know, bringing him out. I think, had he wanted, he could have ended up in a town at that night. So I think it was to show something and the miracle. I'm just trying to think how I would have reacted. I'm one of the crowd and suddenly we got a couple of them that got here and then you take the baskets around and I take my hunk out and my little piece of fish and then it was, we'll take more and take more and take more. It was until they were full, 5,000 people Phil. Yeah. What I look at here is that you talk. This is twice the order to spend these people, you know.

And I see. it's just like the Passover lamb, this is also he is the manna come down from heaven and we are to feed on him. We will get into that because he will later on he tells them about the bread of life, the manna, manna versus his bread. But that's what this feeding is picturing. Well that's what it's getting to. I mean this is where he drills down into these people. You know it starts here. Here's the feeding. Here's the bread. Fish, loaves, And then he gets into, when he crosses over to Capernaum and the crowds follow, he drills into that a little bit more. We'll see that as he talks about the manna and the differences between the manna. Because they're crying out for manna. And what we'll see as we get into that.

I guess, what would you have done? Had you been one of the 5,000? I don't throw in glass houses. I probably would have done the same thing. And then, wow. I'm full. And it's kind of funny. Somebody brought this up in one of the commentaries. After they're done, they had 12 baskets of food. One of the commentators, which I don't know if this is stretching, but he says that was one basket full for each of the disciples. It was 12 baskets. Okay, you doubting guys, here's your basket, here's your basket. I don't know how true that is, but it was kind of interesting why there were 12 baskets at the end. And they said, well, here's one for each. Twelve of the disciples had their own full basket afterwards. Don't doubt me. I'll take care of it. Again, one of the things too that I see with the 12 baskets, this goes back to our grace class.

What is the definition? One and the second one? Unlimited. Unlimited blessings. Did he just give them enough to get by? Here's your little quarter wafer here and your little piece of fish. No. They ate until they were full and there were twelve baskets left. Unlimited. Are we limited by grace? He only gives us a certain amount of grace? It's a flood. All we've got to do is say thank you. Receive it and say thank you. That's all they did. I don't know the thank you part though.

If you want to try to apply this to our lives, it seems like the Lord, if I have a problem in my life, my first thing to do is how am I going to solve it? I'm getting kind of convicted here. The Lord has given you a brain and how to figure out how to solve a problem versus going to him first. I kind of struggle with that. That's where some of these things, and it's kind of tough with Mike on prayers. That messed me up. But pray, I want this to happen. I want this person's illness gone. Well, you can ask for that, but it should be whatever your will is. If that's your will, fine. But He uses all these things for His glory. This is my cheap theology, I should say. It's from a song. And it was, what is it, sometimes he removes me from the storm, and sometimes he calms the storm. You know, there's times where he'll remove you from that trial, and other times he'll leave you in it. And why? To draw you to him.

You know, in the midst of a trial, my favorite thing that I always memorize, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith will produce endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. You know, He will leave us in a trial to understand His grace, to understand our dependency on Him. Sometimes He leaves us in that for that growth. And so, you know, a lot of times when I kind of get to that one is, Lord, get me out of this thing. Sometimes, Lord, what do you want me to learn? And I know I'm totally dependent upon you.

When trials come, it's just so much more peace and comfort knowing that he's sovereignly in control and whatever his will is, if he wants me to stay in that trial, that's what his will is. I'm comforted by that. If he wants to remove me from that, amen. But when you know he's in control, no matter what happens to you, you can have peace.

And that's why a lot of us say, get me out of this! No, I want you to stay in there and I want you to understand your dependency on me, that the Father may be glorified. So, there's a lot in here. And he gets into a lot of these things too, and how we respond. After I throw my stones, like I said, I suddenly recoil and go, what would I do? You know, that was a great meal. What's tomorrow? What's on the breakfast? What's for breakfast tomorrow? What's the next sign you're going to do?

I would have done the same. So as much as I throw stones, I immediately, when I throw a stone, I know that's the old man, first of all. And number two, I shouldn't be doing it because look at what my heart would have done. So I understand that. Let's go on to number four.

In verse 14, why did the people call him the prophet? Does anybody look up that verse in Psalms 132? What does it say there? I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with grain. So, what did he just do? Yeah, he gave them all bread. And if you look at verse 13, what they had looked at, for the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her needy with the bread. So again, this is where they're going. The people knew that Jehovah had chosen Zion and He would abundantly provide for and satisfy their needs with bread. They were looking for the earthly kingdom and Jehovah who would provide for them.

If you also look at Deuteronomy 18.15, It says, and again, why they called him a prophet, in Deuteronomy 18.15, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen you shall listen to him. And when you look at the whole thing, but that's why they were looking for a prophet, one who would provide bread and would lead them. So they're now saying, okay, are you the prophet? We know the prophet's going to provide bread.

What did you just do? Loaves. fed 5,000 so that's why they brought him they they brought him up as a as a profit okay are anything on that oh yeah yep just thinking about this planning ahead and I mean obviously I'm actually thinking about sign-up sheets and I'm going well why do we need it you know the Lord didn't say well I'm gonna I need to prepare for all these crowds that are going to follow me and I've got to have the sign-up sheets. I know how many are coming so I can set up enough chairs. You know what I'm saying? I'm struggling with this. I guess that's the difference.

What is human? I think there are some things God did give us. a brain and something. He didn't want us just to flop out and just sit there as a bump on the log. He gave us individual, well, there's things that, I go back to, this is the fleece tossing. Check it out, Lord. We're going to answer this one. We could just not have a sign up and do everything and just wait. Okay, Lord. He's given us a brain. He's given us individual. He's given us organization. There's different things. Taking that to the further extreme, God, you'll protect me. I'll walk right in the middle of I-25 and you will protect me. The Lord's saying, get out of the middle of the road.

You know better. so I mean there's you have to have some manner of understanding about you know I just hope it I guess more to that would be we do that only sign up in he doesn't provide or whatever still God in control that you know I I mean it it's just it it it it goes to when we talked about this Well, I think, you know, reasonable, rational thought, and I'm comforted by the fact that even whatever I do, and I do some dumb things, my wife will attest to that, my child will attest to that, but the Lord knows that. The Lord knows that. I'm comforted by that. Even if I do just a stupid thing, the Lord knew I was going to do that, and He wants me to learn from that.

You know, a lot of times in grace, where we go in and we discuss about how grace is, grace is unmerited. That means nothing we do can extract any more grace by what we do. That can lead to apathy in that, okay, I'll do nothing. I'll just sit here and say, thank you.

A whole bunch of other scriptures come into play. We've given authorities, and His authority, and then earthly authorities. We've got organization. We've got a lot of different things. He's called us to do things. It's not that you're blessed anymore if you do it, but He's laid out these things. And so, he's given us the individual, he's given us thought. We are not to be apathetic. In fact, as we understand grace more, that should motivate us more to do it as not anything selfish, but out of thanks to God.

That's why Peter says, grow. Yeah, grow on the grace. And that's one of the ones I love. You grow in it. And so there will be discernment in time. We have an organization, we have a brain, he's given us a brain, thought, reasonable. And for us, I guess the thing is whatever you do, You just understand that God's sovereignly in control.

And if you just sit there and no sign up and nobody shows up, well Lord, should I have a sign up maybe? I don't know. Well, even Christ had the disciples put them in groups and not organization. And that's the body of Christ too in the church today. I think the Advocates, He works through all of us. Yeah, that's kind of the body concept that I love. We're not all elbows, you know, in the body of Christ. You know, we have feet, fingers, toes, elbows, you know, knees. Everybody is, you know, a different function in the body functioning.

And so, you know, I guess that's something that the Lord will bring you through and, you know, should I just... and give you peace about it, you know? And I think that's the growing part. You know, what should I do? And I look at the motive. Is it for, if I'm doing it just so God will smile on me a little bit better? Nothing. That's not the motive. Well, yours is to point to God and glorify Him. And that's the motive and purpose. As we see, what was Jesus? To do the will of the Father. we should be delighted to do the will of the Father and not for anything selfish.

It takes a long time to teach in the grace class and all that. I tell you, it's just opening my eyes and I'm this far along in understanding it and what that means as far as death to self. I've started to understand the old man in me more than I ever have before and it's ugly. And the more I reckon him dead, the more I'm free to receive grace and to glorify God. It's a painful process, very painful. But the more I recognize it, the more words I say, it's like glass in my throat. It's like, man, that's old man. Especially while you're out there. Just don't throw things, no. Alright, we're rocketing along. Brian's still here, so I'm okay so far. The bell has not been rung.

Number five, what do we learn from the disciples on the boat when the Lord approaches them on the boat? Well, first of all, we need to know that Jesus wasn't on the boat when the disciples set out for Capernaum. That was one of the things that was well established, and I think that was established so you know He didn't sneak on the boat late, He didn't do anything. In John 6, 16 and 17, when the evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

Also from verse 22, we get the crowd's take on it. The next day the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat, but his disciples had gone away alone. And then also if you look at You don't have to. Mark 6, beginning in 45. Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, he left for the mountain to pray.

When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land. He wasn't on the boat. Very well documented. He was not on the boat when they left. We see that there are strong winds and they're about three to four miles from shore. And that was in verses 18 and 19. Then Jesus walks on the water towards the boat. So what do we learn from the disciples on the boat in the storm? They still don't know who Jesus is.

They realized they were in trouble. I don't want to keep going. That was a great setup. We're in trouble here, you know. And actually this was, you know, they're rowing and it says in one of them the wind was contrary to them. They're huffing and puffing. They're three to four miles out. And the winds are strong. I don't know if we can make it across here. So they're about three to four miles out.

And then all of a sudden, who walks up on the water? Jesus. So what was the first thing that the disciples did? Well, he wanted them to know their inability Oh yeah, we have a prior proving this. When the storm, he's asleep on the boat. Remember when they're going to sleep and they're all fearing that the boat was going to capsize and we're all going to die. He gets up. What are you afraid of? He multiplied the loaves and fishes and I saw that he had power over matter. And then he comes walking on the water and you see that he has power over nature. And it's interesting that in verse 20 where he says, in his eyes, he says, Ego, I me.

I am. I am. Right. But the first thing was that I thought, you know, here's a guy walking across the water. Wow, who's this? They thought it was a ghost, you know. Wait a minute. They didn't recognize the guy walking on the water. It might possibly be Christ. They didn't recognize him. It's a ghost! Oh no! And remember, this is after the time that they've been on the sea.

He calmed the sea. He'd just done a miracle feeding the 5,000. We put him in a box. He could do that, but can he walk on water? He can make loaves and fishes multiply. But that walking on water thing is just a little too tough for him. We put him in a box, and that's all he can do. He can make those fishes and loaves grow, but walking on water?

So they don't even recognize him. They see a form coming towards them, and they think it's a ghost, until he says, I am. I am he. So it is, I do not be afraid. Secondly, which we don't get from the John passage, they did not have the faith in him. They'd already seen him calm the sea when he was asleep with them in the boat. You can look at Matthew 8, 23 through 27. Now they see him, first not recognize him, and then they show little faith as witnessed by Peter walking on the water as detailed in Matthew 14.

I'll quickly read that. Peter said to him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, come. Peter got out of the boat and walked down the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said to him, You of little faith, why do you doubt? When they got into the boat, the wind stopped, and those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, You are certainly God's Son. Again, how many times do we do that?

I can't throw stones at Peter, even though you want to. Man, you're walking on the water, what are you doing? It's a little windy out here. I'm walking on this rough water. He looks down, takes his eyes off the Lord, starts doubting. How many times do we do that? Like I said, I'm not throwing stones at Peter because I look in the mirror. Lord, you did this, but wow, you can't do this. That's a little too much for you. Lord, can you do this in my life? What do we do? Do we do the same thing? That's my point.

I can't throw stones at Peter because when we doubt What is it in James 2, when you doubt you are driven and tossed by the wind and the waves of the sea? That's talking to us, when we doubt. It's kind of like the wind is the world, the cosmos, that we're pushed to, and then Peter took his life on the wind, and then he started falling. Our faith is that God can't do Like you said, you look at the world. Look to somebody, something, and we take our eyes off.

Who is the Lamb of God? Who is the One who is gracious to us? It doesn't seem like the difficulties for us is so much understanding and believing what God is able to do. It's an uncertainty about what He's going to do. You know, here, just because God has the ability to call him to see, that doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to.

Exactly. And so, I think it's tough to say that it's doubt, necessarily. He says it's doubt. Right, but not doubt in what he's able to do. Well, he hasn't found himself to do any of these things. No. He hasn't said what he's going to do, and so it's difficult. Yeah. But he does say you doubt.

I mean, why did you doubt? Because God tells him to get out of the boat. That's a whole different thing. Whenever God has made a statement and said this is what I'm going to do, then we don't believe that. Yeah, I guess how many times do I doubt, you know.

I guess that's the thing. We can bring anything before, we have the intimacy to bring anything before the God. He can do anything. And if you understand that, yeah. But the answer could be no, yes, no, yes, maybe, not any answer right now. But you have to have a peace and understanding that that could be his answer. But you don't have the doubt that he could do whatever he wants. He could do, like I said, yes, no, maybe, or nothing. Yeah, I have no problem accepting the fact that God can do anything.

It's difficult for me to say that this is what he's going to do and then trust in that whenever he hasn't said what he's going to do. But I think sometimes we do this thing, and I do this, and that's why I said the micro to the macro. You know, this is just a little thing that's bugging me. I don't want to disturb you, Lord, with this thing that's just kind of bugging me. Or the big thing, Lord, I don't understand what's going on in my life and whatever. Do you understand, Lord? Or there's a doubt that he understands? As you get more knowledge of the sovereignty of God and that he's in control of this stuff, the doubt goes away. At least for me. What do you mean by the doubt? The doubt of what? That he can't do anything. That he can do anything.

Because if I know he's sovereignly in control, he can do anything. I know, I don't disagree with that. I know that he can do all things, but the difficulty for me... I never doubt that. My difficulty is saying, okay, well, I have no idea what he's going to do.

It's not a question of having faith in Him, because I think it's easy to say, okay, this is what God's going to do. He has one of these two options. I'm going to say He's going to do this. I'm going to trust He's going to do that. But I don't know that He is. No, He may do something we don't even understand. Yeah, He's under no obligation to provide. Mine is the overall, the doubt in that He's in control. He can do anything. That's the doubt I'm talking about. Once you know that He's in control. I don't know, I asked some people about that. We've got to get going pretty quick. It's not what he's going to do, it's what he's done.

We'll get into that faith in the object and what is important. The object or the faith and some of those things. Just so understanding, you're going to be part of the prelude singing. So let's close real quick in prayer and then we'll finish this lesson next week and hopefully get on to lesson 12.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for any time we can just delve into your word. We just thank you for who you are. Father, we do have great peace knowing that you're suddenly in control. We don't doubt that. Father, we just thank you that your grace is poured out to us and all we have to do, there's nothing we have to do that is meritorious. All we can do is say thank you and receive it. So Father, we just say thank you and thank you for the unlimited blessings that you provide to us. Father, again, throughout all that we do, may we glorify You, glorify the Father, and we thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.