John Chapter 6

John Chapter 6


As my wife and I were praying the other day, I began praying that God would give some revelation, some deep truth that night. Not 20 seconds pass until John chapter 6 comes to mind. So we stop and read this chapter aloud and here is what God gave. In the beginning of the chapter it reads “1Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. 3Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4The Jewish Passover Feast was near. 5When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" 6He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" 8Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
Note the Word says in verse 5 He asked Philip “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” and then in vs. 6 it says “He asked this only to test him, for HE ALREADY HAD IN MIND WHAT HE WAS GOING TO DO”. So we have two disciples, one very skeptical and not knowing what to do, and another disciple responding with action to Jesus’ question. One is looking at a problem and saying, “its too big, too great, 8 months wages wouldn’t even do it Jesus“, while another disciple went out to look for something, and in this case found a child who had 5 loaves and 2 fish. Neither one of them could have been prepared for what Jesus was about to do, but the illustration here is when one steps out in faith and relies on Jesus for the rest, there is nothing that we cannot do through Him! 12When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." 13So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. Wow! Through one mans faith look at what Jesus accomplished. Jesus was teaching them huge principles in faith or else the Word would not have read “He asked this only to test them”.
We see a few things illustrated here, the first I think is the benefits of faith. Faith without action is dead right? We have a beautiful illustration of that truth here with Jesus disciples. The other is the dangers of skepticism. The problem with the skeptical heart is that it blocks both the good and the bad. Vehement skepticism produces no good thing and is one of the greatest forms of pride because it essentially says “I know and you (or whoever else) doesn’t, it is the opposite of faith. “God resists the proud but gives grace unto the humble”, do we see how all of these principles come together? I used to be one of the worlds worst skeptics (very proud in knowledge and could tend to foster a judgemental attitude), and I payed for it with the gift of arrogance, and lack of revelation. I am not saying we throw our intellect out of the window, but this attitude behind skepticism has to end if you or I ever want to receive from the Lord. Now I believe in asking things in a humble manner to the Lord when something is brought to my attention in His Word. Do not just pass it off immediately because you feel you know. Pray over it, seek the Lord’s face on the issue and He will answer you!
Isn’t it wonderful that you and I do not have to have all of the answers? All we have to do is live a life in obedience to Jesus and He we take care of the rest. Notice that after Jesus fed them all to their fill, they had to get 12 BASKETS TO FILL WHAT WAS LEFT! What Jesus wants to do through us we cannot comprehend, but we will see it if we are but humble and obedient. Never take the attitude that says "What can I do? This is much too great of a task!" If the whole body of Christ did that, nothing would ever get accomplished.