Give It To God | John 6:1-13

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The Test

John 6:1–6 ESV

1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, 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?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

  1. Set up for the 4th sign
    1. He’s going to feed 5,000 people and he knows how as well
    2. First he wants his disciples to think about it
  2. This is a test
    1. Done with a sheepish grin
    2. How can we pass the test, and why bother testing?

Why God Tests

  1. Lots of hints scattered throughout that link to Exodus
    1. Done around Passover v. 4
    2. He is the prophet come into the world like Moses foretold – 14
    3. Another Red Sea crossing v. 18-20
    4. Jesus is “I AM” as at the burning bush
    5. Jesus is the bread of heaven – the manna from God
    6. God was testing Israel in the wilderness
  2. So we ought to see how and why God tested Israel with the manna

Deuteronomy 8:2–3 CSB

2 Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

  1. Three purposes behind God’s tests for Israel
    1. Humble them
    2. To know what was in their heart
    3. So they would learn to depend on God
    4. More than seeing what they knew – but teaching them too
  2. Humility
    1. They learned that it was God alone that had saved them from Israel
    2. But like any kid who wants independence, we start rolling our eyes at the hand holding
    3. As a kid you’re generally helpless. Your parents have to feed you, clean you, dress you, and teach you everything. And as a kid you get all that help without an ounce of shame. But as we grow we start asking for help less and less. Some of the things we once asked for help start to feel a little embarrassing. Having your mom fix up your baked potato at 3 is cute – but kind of weird in your thirties.
    4. We want to be the strong independent man or woman who don’t need nobody else!

After God had freed Israel from their slavery they weren’t free to live life by their own power. They still needed miraculous interventions to keep them alive. Israel apparently didn’t see it that way though. God had brought them up out of Egypt and they could take it from here.

But God says they need to learn that they don’t have it all under control. It’s sort of strange – but in order to pass God’s test you need to see how badly you fail at everything else!

Because the only reason we can ever live is through God’s word. Without God:

  • They would be stuck in Egypt
  • They would have been swept away by the Red Sea
  • They would have died of thirst
  • Or of hunger
  • Or from a foreign nation

The only reason they survived is because God said he would provide.

The tests that we face are going to show us how weak we are. They’re going to show us that we can’t take on the world – that we are at the mercy of movements and forces far beyond our control. All so that we will stop saying “I survived this” and instead say “God pulled me through this.”

Jesus Is Imparting a Similar Lesson to His Disciples

John 6:7–9 ESV

7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”

  1. The disciples are immediately confronted by their own inadequacy
    1. Philip sees the magnitude of the problem
    2. Andrew recognizes their own inadequacy
  2. Before Jesus swoops in and saves the day, they need to realize how completely lost they are
    1. That ‘s the nature of the test
    2. It’s not a test to see how they would go about feeding these people
    3. It’s a test to see if they would recognize their incapability
  3. Do you think Jesus does the same for us today?
    1. He’s the bread of life (v. 35) and we have to feed a lot more than 5,000 people
    2. The moral standards he lived out for us to imitate
    3. And we feel like Philip and Andrew – overwhelmed and under-prepared
    4. And that’s the point of the test

The Second Half of the Test

  1. Recognizing our weakness is only half the test
    1. If we don’t we’ll never move to the second part
    2. It is looking to God to do the impossible

John 6:10–13 ESV

10 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. 11 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. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

  1. God takes that tiny amount offered up and turns it into something huge
    1. Over 5,000 people get to feast
    2. The disciples collect a full 12 baskets of leftovers
  2. Why does God want us to feel so pathetic?
    1. One of the core teachings of Jesus is recognition of our weakness
    2. It’s not been a popular one
    3. The cross was a scandal to the Jews
    4. It was laughable to the Romans
    5. It goes against survival of the fittest
    6. It flies in the face of all our encouraging pep-talk (at a bible conference no less!)
  1. But the purpose is to get us to ask God to do more
    1. If I only judge the possibility of success by my own merit – there’s a lot I won’t even attempt
    2. I’m limited in time and ability
    3. I’m a dork
    4. I get tired
    5. I give up
  1. I’ll compromise
    1. Let all my opportunities to serve God pass by until the golden one passes by
    2. But if I know the test I’m supposed to know I’m weak
    3. Not so I’ll give up and wallow in self-misery but so I’ll run to God right away
  1. I’m not picking and choosing my opportunities – I’m giving all of them to God
    1. So much of our anxiety about doing God’s will comes from the belief that we need to be good enough
    2. We just need to give it to God!
    3. He’s the one who makes whatever efforts we have into more than enough
  2. Focus on 12-13 for a moment
    1. Jesus wants to gather everything so “that nothing may be lost”
    2. To be lost is an important word in John, here it is highlighted

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 6:39 ESV

39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

John 10:28 ESV

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

  1. Jesus isn’t interested in saving leftovers for breakfast tomorrow
    1. There’s 12 baskets – the full number of Israel and it’s tribes
    2. Jesus isn’t going to lose anyone because we were too little
    3. He starts with the small and insignificant and makes it grow into something huge
  2. He can do that today as well
    1. Use our weakness as a motivation to go running to him
    2. Instead of sitting around powerless
    3. Instead of resting on our laurels thinking we’ve done all we could
    4. We can give him all of our efforts, and then each of us stand around amazed at how much more God was able to do

How?

  1. Give yourself in prayer
    1. One of the foundational aspects of prayer is asking God to do what he’s already said he would
    2. Here’s what he said in Isaiah 55:

Isaiah 55:10–11 ESV

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

  1. Prayer needs to be a fundamental part of our lives
    1. More than thanks for the food
    2. More than the yawning bed-time prayers
    3. Dedicated time to call out to God to take our words and make them into something more
  2. Give yourself by trying
    1. How many times do we stop ourselves with out doubts?
    2. We pass the first part of the test:
      1. The task is too large
      2. My efforts too small
  3. Give yourself to the effort
    1. Forgiving impossible? Try anyways
    2. Teaching the lost a lost cause? Give it a shot
    3. Becoming Christ-like is giving ourselves to God and saying I need you to do the work because I’m a lost cause – and see what happens

Conclusion

Only God is enough for any of this to work.

Rather than being disappointed in our weakness, he encourages us to bring it to him

If we do that, how long until we stand around seeing the abundance of God?

 

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