Dennis Tuuri

It’s been my tradition for the last few years, a number of years to have us read responsively Psalm 65 at the closing of the year or at the beginning or in some cases both. God does indeed crown the year with his goodness and his great blessings. And central to those blessings to us is his word which our Savior tells us in today’s text. The word is spirit and life to us. Let us stand for the reading of that word.

The scripture text today is John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Hear the word of the Lord. After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?” But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Philip answered him, “200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have 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 small fish. But what are they among so many?” Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down in number about 5,000.

And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to the disciples and the disciples to those sitting down and likewise of the fish as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remained so that nothing is lost.” Therefore they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.” Therefore, when Jesus perceived they were about to come and take him by force to make him king. He departed again to the mountain by himself alone. Now when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.

Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about 3 or 4 miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat, and they were afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” Then they willingly received him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going. On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone.

However, other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.” Then they said to him, “What shall we do that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.” Therefore, they said to him, “What sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you?

What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.” And then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me that of all he has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day.

This is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the Father and believes in him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then complained about him because he said I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven?” Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” Not that anyone has seen the Father except He who is from God, he has seen the Father. Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life.

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” And then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead.

He who eats this bread will live forever. These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Therefore, many of his disciples when they heard this said, “This is a hard saying. Who can understand it?” When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this. He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life.

The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray him.” And he said, “Therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

And then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Jesus answered them, “Did not I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him, being one of the 12.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We confess and agree with our Savior that your words are words of spirit and life to us. Help us, Father, to understand these words. Help us as we read this text over the next few weeks and think about it, not to be as the Jews who complained and grumbled and didn’t understand a thing, but help us, Lord God, by the power of your Spirit to discern these words, to feed on Christ, Christ in his word and sacrament today and so be assured of eternal life in Christ’s name we ask it.

Amen. Please be seated. Well, wonderful, amazing text of scripture. Many people see this particular chapter as the center of John’s gospel. On your outlines down under the comments or lessons or the numbered points at the bottom of the page, I give a chiastic structure for the eight miracles of our Savior and it places these two miracles at the center. So in terms of if we outline the gospel of John according to his miracles this is certainly the center of the book.

This is a transitional point in the gospel of John as I said earlier from the labor to the table of showbread and then in later chapters we’ll see Jesus seeing, talking about himself as the light of the world so he’s the water of life and cleanses things in the context of the first five chapters he brings life that way now he feeds his people in chapter six and we’ll see him move on to be the light for his people as well in later chapters.

So he goes through the heavenly furniture flowing through the temple or the heaven of God and helping us to understand it in relationship to our lives. So six is kind of a transition point. It’s also clearly a transition point in kind of the tenor, the theme of the background music so to speak of what we’re reading. Up to now Jesus has been popular. People are flocking to him with a few little problems.

We had that run-in with the rulers in chapter 5, but he’s very popular as this text shows us. And yet, this is a turning point, is it not? Jesus becomes unpopular as he moves. This is the second Passover recorded in the text of John’s gospel. The third Passover recorded will be where he dies. And we see hints of that, very obvious warnings of that here at the talk of Judas Iscariot at the end of the chapter, as well as the discussion of his that he must eat his flesh and drink his blood.

So, our Savior is transitioning now in his ministry from being very popular to now the middle of his ministry and people are leaving in the last year of his ministry he will be pointed very explicitly toward his death so John chapter 6 takes that place it’s rather difficult chapter as we read it in many verses and it’s kind of difficult to outline or to try to understand some of the structure of it I have given you an outline which we won’t really do much with today we may in later weeks but a way to understand the text is perhaps you read through it in your family worship at home or in your personal Bible reading and try to meditate on it as we will be in this text for a couple of weeks here at Reformation Covenant Church.

One way to kind of simply understand what happens is this outline where we have three events happen at first are Jesus feeds the 5,000. We hear it talked about that way and then they attempt to make him king by forcing him and then after that the disciples cross the sea miraculously. You know that. So those are kind of the three things that happen at the beginning of the chapter, right? Feeds the 5,000. The people’s response is tremendously sinful. They attempt to make him king and then he does the miracle of walking on the water and transports them.

Now, we know that miracle of crossing the sea is several miracles bound up together. I mean, if you know the other accounts well enough, this is the only miracle, by the way, the feeding of the 5,000 that is, that’s found in all four gospels, but the crossing of the sea is found in a couple of others also. And well, you know, from the rest of the text that talk about it that not only does our Savior walk on the water which is a miracle.

He causes Peter to walk upon the water. He also stills the great storm that’s aroused on the water. And then the fourth part of the miracle is that as soon as he gets in the boat, our text tells us that immediately he’s over at the other side. So, so we have a cross, a miraculous crossing of a sea or a body of water. And then we have this discourse So, we got three events and then we have two sets of three discourses.

We have short dialogues back and forth between the people that come to Jesus. They’re recorded on your outline here. Three short dialogues back and forth and then three longer statements by our Savior. So, we can look at three events, three short dialogues, three long dialogues. And some men have said, maybe not all of these things, but in seeing some of these things that there’s kind of a relationship to the temptation of our Savior in the wilderness as recorded in Luke’s gospel.

The different gospels put the order of temptations differently. But in Luke’s gospel, when Jesus goes into the wilderness after his baptism and is tempted by the devil three times, he is tempted first to make the stones into bread. He’s tempted secondly to accept the kingdoms of all the world to worship to serve him if he will worship Satan. And then the third temptation is that he cast himself down from the temple because the angels will catch him and bring him back up.

So you have these three temptations recorded in Luke’s gospel and they seem to correlate to these three events, right? I mean, bread and stones into bread and Jesus turns miraculously feeds people in the wilderness. And then the temptation is that he become king improperly and the people try to make him king improperly by force after they’re fed in the wilderness. And then finally, Jesus brings his disciples across the ocean in union with him, a representation of final coming into the blessings of God.

The promised land as it were ultimately through his death and resurrection. And so as we would take the time and we will in weeks to come to look at these dialogues in a little more depth, they seem to flow through those three temptations talking first about him being the bread of life. Secondly, who are the true subjects of the king? They’re the ones who believe in him, do that work. And then third, he’s the one that comes down from heaven, be raised back up, as he tells his disciples, he will have completed his work.

He will die so that people might eat his flesh and blood. And ascend in that manner. So kind of relating to the temptation of this of the devil, these dialogues kind of flow that way. There are other ways to structure the discourses in John chapter 6 as well, but that’s one way that we’ll be talking about in the next few weeks about the pattern of what happens here. Today, I sort of want to take just the first 15 verses and think about them a little more than we might if we take the whole chapter together.

Now, I’ve entitled this sermon, the starving of the 5,000. We want to talk about this miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. But you really cannot appreciate it fully if you don’t recognize how desperate these times were. We’ve talked about this as the beginning of this gospel a year or so ago when we talked about it, but probably most of you have forgotten that. You know what? What’s going on in Israel at this point in time?

They’re under Roman oppression. Number one, they’re under heavy taxation burden. Number two, their economy is shot because of all of this. Unemployment is rampant. Inflation is sky-high because of the mixtures of currencies from other nations. Times are very, very, very bad. People are literally starving in the streets. Okay, this is not like Jesus coming to, you know, Oregon City and up in the mountain and turning, you know, a few loaves into many loaves and, oh, isn’t that nice?

We can have some bread today. No, these people are starving. It was the starving of the 5,000 so to speak that preceded Jesus’s feeding them. There’s judgment from God being played out against the people. But you have to understand that’s their mindset. So as you look at these people and think, boy, what is wrong with them getting so hung up on physical feeding as opposed to the spiritual truths that Christ tells them, you know, be a little cautious in your evaluation of yourself.

And if you’ve ever been hungry, and probably most of us have not been really all that hungry, but if you’ve been hungry, understand that’s what these people were like. This was the masses. You know, John 5 says, the rulers were sinful who queried our Savior and he turns it into a trial of them by bringing forth the witness of Moses and the word. Here it’s the people that are on trial, so to speak, being evaluated.

And these people are dirt poor and our Savior feeds them, but he only feeds them once. I wanted to read the whole text of John 6 to help you to understand that the feeding is cut off. They come to him after he crosses the sea and want more bread. These are hungry people and our Savior doesn’t feed them anymore. So the starving of the 5,000 precedes his feeding of them, but it also follows it. We can see in the context of this feeding of the 5,000 principles of benevolence that we could touch upon and we’ll look at that in these first 15 verses as well as one other point of application.

But certainly we can see here that as Jesus feeds these 5,000, we have to think of that in terms of the benevolent work of the church, do we not? I mean, we put these little plastic loaves in some of the Sunday school classes and churches I’ve been to. It’s a good thing to do to remind our kids to feed the hungry nations of the world. It’s part of Christian benevolence is to feed people, to take care of them.

And in the parallel accounts to this feeding of the 5,000, it’s not listed for us here, but in the parallel accounts, we read explicitly that Jesus had compassion upon these people. Now, we know by the end of the tale that Jesus knew that they were going to, you know, not do so well. They’re going to reject him in this encounter. Many of them at least. But nonetheless, Jesus looks upon a hungry mass of people whose leaders are no leaders and who are as sheep without a shepherd.

And he has compassion on them. And when we look at those starving in the context of our midst or those who have needs in the context of the midst of the church, who are perhaps recipients of benevolences, we must be moved with a sense of compassion. We must have a motivation of compassion for the world round about us. Even if they’re suffering, as these people were, the judgments of God upon a sinful, disobedient nation, still we have compassion and in that compassion Jesus moves to meet the needs of these particular people.

We must have compassion. Jesus also organizes the ministry here. Again, it doesn’t tell us this here, but if we go to the parallel accounts in the synoptic gospels, you know, we read here that he sat the people down, compelled the people to be seated. But what we read in the other gospels, the fuller account is that they seated them by 50s and hundreds, but they put them in groups. Now, why is that detail recorded for us in the other gospels.

Well, part of what that tells us is that the organizational structure of the New Testament is just like the organizational structure of the Old Testament, right? What did Moses do according to the wise advice of Jethro when he had too many governing cases to decide? Gets leaders of tens, 50s, hundreds, and thousands. 50s and hundreds are part of the groupings of the organization of the Old Testament.

And when we look at doing benevolent work, it’s work that must be organized to be effective. So Jesus has his disciples apply organizational principles to the benevolent work that he does. And those truths actually are found in Old Testament management structures. Tens, 50s, hundreds, and thousands. And we’re recording 5,000 men here. So he got five 1,000 groups. Within those groups, he got 50s and hundreds.

And Jesus organizes them. This is the new Israel being organized. It’s a picture, you know, the kingdom, so to speak. They come to the mountain to be with him. He organizes them and he feeds them this benevolent ministry. Our benevolence ministries, all of our ministries, haven’t the announcements again today to pray for the organization of the ministries of Reformation Covenant Church. You know, this is not just some sort of, you know, romantic gushy, let’s feed people kind of account.

We see it in its fullness. It is compassion-oriented, but it is organization-oriented as well. And there are expectations here. Let’s look a little bit at the specific text. And I want you to notice some things that you may not notice at first glance as you go through this text. So to look at verses 1 to 15 and I want us to meditate upon a couple of simple things here. I want us to notice some things.

Okay, look at this account begins and what we see in verse three that Jesus goes up to a mountain and he sits with his disciples. Now I was reading some commentaries on Friday after I had done my outline that you have today and one of the commentators noticed that there’s a he goes to the mountain here and at the end of this account he goes back to the mountain to get away from the crowds and he said this forms an inclusion.

In other words, look at verse 15. Here’s what I want you to do. There’s a blank piece of paper on the back of your orders of worship. Am I right? It’s blank on the back. Is it Jeff? Is it blank? Yes. Okay. So, at the top of that piece of paper, write down Jesus on the mountain for verse three. Okay. And then look down at verse 15. Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and make him king by take him by force to make him king, he departed again to the mountain by himself alone.

So down at the bottom of the page, right, verse 15, Jesus on the mountain. So you see it forms a bookend. It ties off this account for us. It’s a little account and it’s neatly packaged, right? We got Jesus on a mountain. Now we read in verse four, “Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews was near.” And then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he then says something to Philip.

So he So on your top of your page after that Jesus on the mountain in verse three, put he sees them coming in verse five. Okay? Now Jesus sees them coming. Well, look down at verse 15. And what we notice is before he goes to the mountain, we read, “Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they are about to come and take him by force to make him king, then he goes to the mountain.” So just at the bottom of the page, just on top of where you wrote Jesus on the mountain again, write he sees them coming.

You see that? So he goes to the mountain. It’s Passover. We’re going to have a feeding of people here and a differentiation of groups. and he sees people coming to him and at the end of the account he sees them coming and now he goes to the mountain. See they’re going to come and try to take him by force. They’re sinful people. What are they doing by the way when they come and try to take him by force? What is that?

Isn’t that odd? Well, it’s not odd. Unfortunately, it’s why some people are in church today. There are people maybe in this church, but certainly in many churches across America today that are going to church to come and try to make Jesus king by force. What it means in its broader context is it means that these sinful people, unregenerate people, what they did is they tried to use Jesus for their own purposes, right?

And we see that kind of played out in the discourses. They’re laboring for bread from earth. They want just physical bread and they’re going to make him make bread for them. They are magicians. A magician in its classical sense of the term is somebody who wants to manipulate God, manipulate the forces of nature that represent God for their own benefit. Right? So they want to change get a hold of take God by force.

Take a guy that has power and bind him up somehow to make him do their will. And there are people in churches today who seek Jesus as a source of power and blessing in their life. Right? If you want a better life, try Jesus. That was a big billboard campaign when I was a kid going to Bible college. That was one of the big billboard campaigns, try Jesus. You want a better job? Try Jesus. I mean, I know it’s not quite as obvious as this, but isn’t it the same thing?

People try to grab a hold of Christian principles and truths and use them for their own betterment of their life as opposed to bowing the knee to King Jesus and saying, “You have words of life eternal. Forgive us of our sins. We believe in you that there is no life apart from you.” See, there’s a difference. These people are going to come and try to take him by force. They’re going to try to make their decision ultimate.

You know, we’ll talk about this later in later weeks, but you know, they come to him and you know, they say, you know, our fathers gave us manna from heaven and he corrects them and says, “No, God gave you the manna from heaven and he’s still giving it to you. The manna from heaven is me and here’s how you eat me by believing on me.” He answers their question and he exposits it. That’s one way to look at the text.

And they say, “Well, you know, what works do we have to do to get this stuff? See, they’re works-oriented. They’re trying to manipulate God or Jesus by their works, by their good deeds, by their grabbing a hold of him that they might get those loaves, bread and circuses, that’s what the Romans provided, that they might get that coming in their lives. You see, manipulating Jesus. And he says, “No, no, no.

The only work is believing on him, which is the toughest work of all.” Talk about that again later, too. And then they say, “Well, you know, our fathers did this thing. We got this manna going on for 40 years. What work sign do you show? We were. They’re telling him that our choice, our decision to follow you is ultimate over you. And you’ve got to demonstrate to us that you’re really Lord or we’re not going to do a thing here.

See, they’re consistent. They’re trying to manipulate the Lord Jesus Christ like a magician manipulates the forces of nature. They’re trying to accomplish their own particular purposes, physical bread and deliverance from the Romans, and they’re trying to make their decision ultimate. But over against that’s why Jesus’s words throughout the discourse are so filled with words of God’s predestination, his eternal election, his irresistible grace, his preserving the true saints, he’ll raise them up at the end.

Unless God drags you, you can’t come to him. That’s why Jesus says this over and over. You see, people try to manipulate God, make people’s choice ultimate. And Jesus says, “The Father’s choice is ultimate. The Father has given me a people that eternal trinitarian covenant God the Father has promised people individuals you’re here today and regenerate you have been given to the Son by the Father and if you have been given to the Son by the Father he will call you to himself and you will be his and he will raise you up not seven years before the last day not a thousand years before the last day as dispensationalism teaches somehow there’s two second comings this text tells us he’ll raise you up at the last day you see wonderful theological truths here we’ll get to and they’re trying to manipulate God and they’re trying to make choice ultimate instead of God’s sovereignty.

So you’ve got that right mountain sees people coming at the end sees people coming that’s why he goes to the mountain. Now moving to the next verse as a result of Jesus see the people coming in verse last half of verse 5 he says to Philip where should we buy bread that these may eat but this he said to test him for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered and said 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have a little.

Okay, so the third thing you want to put is money can’t do it. Okay, that’s the third. Get Jesus on the mountain sees people coming. Money can’t do it. Okay, the disciples are inadequate in themselves to provide for the benevolence needs that Jesus is addressing. But if we drop down at the end of this account in verse 12. When they were filled, this is after he feeds them, he says to his disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remained so that nothing is lost.” Therefore, they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

Then those men when they had seen this said that Jesus see the sign that Jesus did said, “This is truly the prophet who has come into the world.” And matching this in effectiveness of the disciples and money up here down below just before the last you know you got mountain on the bottom then he sees them coming to take him by force and just before that right that Jesus provides over abundantly you see when we engage in benevolent ministries we must be moved by compassion for the image bearers of God around us we must move in terms of the organization of the church for the work must have you know not just flying here and there emotionally must be organized for to work and we must have an expectation that God will take in his providence and through his miraculous power whatever small things we might have and do great things with them.

Now ultimately we could talk here about the ineffectiveness till we stop buying one day out of seven. Our money can’t do it. Our money’s good but we tend to make an idol out of it. And God reminds us that through his power he multiplies himself. Ultimately the loaves and fishes are Jesus of course. And Jesus in his flesh, in his humanity that he draws our attention to at the end of the discourse, has fed millions.

His body, his single loaf, has fed millions and will feed billions over human history. It’s pictured for us here in terms of the benevolence ministries of the church. I think we’re expected here to say, “Hey, great things will come as we apply ourselves.” Now, this is what happened last Sunday evening, right? Many people in this congregation took a little bit of their time but brought great joy to people that are isolated at Christmas time both through the program but mostly then through the interaction afterwards.

What a wonderful thing for each of you to do two days before the celebration of Christmas for many of you to do to go there and multiply the little bit of time and effort you brought to it and it brought great joy to those people and I think that this text lays itself out that way. It contrasts our ineffectiveness apart from the blessing of God and then the great effectiveness we have as we move in obedience to the King’s words.

Those words of life. Peter said, “Are you going to go away?” He says, “You know, the words of life.” Jesus said, “My words are life and spirit.” And as we apply ourselves in those words, great things happen. Money can’t meet the needs, but service exceeds needs at the bottom. You see, service exceeds needs. Loaves and fishes are available. This is the fourth one down. Now, one of his disciples, Andrew, says, “There’s a boy here with five barley loaves, two small fish.” Jesus.

And then, so, okay, this daily loaves and fishes. And then corresponding with that just before the last verse we read about this abundance we read in verse 11 Jesus took the loaves which he had given when he gave thanks he distributed them to his disciples to those sitting down and likewise of the fish as much as they wanted. So we have the fourth ring down from the top loaves and fishes fourth ring up from the bottom loaves and fishes.

Do you see how the structure of this is balanced? It’s drawing our attention to things here. It’s saying there’s a structure that repeats things at particular intervals hinging around a center point which is going to be interesting for us to look at and it moves us from an inadequacy in our own strength to a complete adequacy in terms of service to Jesus Christ. So organization, compassion, expectations, and we make use of what’s there.

What happens next? Now we get to the true center of this opening part of the text. This first section which is a definite section unto itself. And here we come to verse 10. Verse 10. Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” So the men sat down. Oh, excuse me. Let me start again. Verse 10. Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place.” So the men sat down in number about 5,000.

So the next thing is men sit down. He made he told the disciples to make them sit down. And then after that the men sat down. Okay. So if you’re making this outline along with me, you’ve got Jesus on the mountain. Jesus sees people coming. Money can’t meet the needs. Loaves and fishes are available. Men are compelled to sit down is the next one. And the very center is much grass. There’s much grass there. And then back out.

The men sit down. The loaves of the fishes are distributed. Service exceeds the needs. Jesus sees people coming and Jesus goes back on the mountain. Now, that’s kind of odd in my way of thinking. As you read through the first 15 verses, if I understand the way this is structured, these first 15 verses is at the middle of this text. It jumps out at you anyway, doesn’t it? You’re reading along about the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus says, “Okay, have them sit down.” And then it says, “Now, there was much grass in that place”.

Why do we care about that detail? What is that? I mean, if it’s rocks, a little bit of grass, dirt, they’re still going to sit. He’s not going to be worried about that. He’s going to feed them bread from heaven here. He’s going to tell them about life in the Savior. Whether or not there’s grass seems somewhat irrelevant, doesn’t it? But it tells us that. It tells us that there’s much grass here. Why does it talk about much grass?

Well, to me, it seems to bring us to mind of again some Old Testament truths. You know, the Gospel of John is an exposition of the scriptures, right? It tells us what the Old Testament, how it all testified of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there’s lots of verses that talk about green grass and stuff, but there’s a couple that I want to point out here to us. The first one, you should see where I’m going with this.

I hope you do, some of you. Jesus brings his people. He compels them to sit down. He compels them to sit down on a lot of grass and he feeds the people there as they’re sitting down. He nourishes them. The Lord that’s being pictured for us here is our shepherd. He maketh us to lie down in green pastures. He restores our soul in the presence of our enemies. He lays a table for us, a table of abundance. These people were in Roman depression.

The world was not moving in the context of Yahweh like our world today. Enemies of the church are everywhere in our world today. Subtle though they may be. God brings us together today. Jesus comes down to us. We go up to the mountain. Both pictures are there. Why does he do it? Why did he compel you to come to church? Why did he order you the Lord’s day, the Christian Sabbath? Come and worship me. Come to the mountain today.

He tells you today that he has compelled you to lie down in green pastures that he might feed you with life eternal that he might restore your soul today that he might have you experience the great blessings of his life-giving flesh and blood on the Lord’s day that’s why we do this every week every week the Savior is compelling you to be seated amongst much grass much pleasure from the Savior a great place to come together as he comes to us to feed us with bread from on high.

Now, you know, our Lord is not unaware of the difficulties of the times. Our Lord demonstrated that by his compassion as he looked at the multitudes in the midst of very difficult troubles. But our Lord says that he brings us together to bless us. Ezekiel 34 says this, “I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

I will feed them in good pasture and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock and I will make them lie down. We come together today as the beloved of the Lord who are being made to lie down that he might feed, nurture us and restore our soul, spreading a table for us in the midst of the enemies that we have.

Isaiah 35 says this, a little different take on this. You know, years ago, there was a movie put out by of all people, Ted Turner, Turner Broadcasting System. It was an adaptation of a play by Horton Foot. It was called The Habitation of Dragons. And that’s an explicit quotation from Isaiah 35 where we read this the parched ground shall become a pool as the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of dragons where each lay there shall be grass with reeds and rushes and the habitation of dragons where each lay there shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

We have dragons amidst. We have difficulties in our lives. That was what the movie the screenplay by Horton Foot was about. Divorce, adultery, infidelity, terrible things going on. But in the midst of it, people found the grace of God ministered to them in the midst of very difficult times. Here in Roman oppression 2,000 years ago on a small hill by a sea, our Savior feeds the 5,000. He gathers them together.

And in the habitation of dragons, in the midst of the most difficult economic circumstances you can imagine and the most difficult political oppression that you can imagine, crucifixions going on, difficulties, tremendous difficulties in the habitation of dragons, there was much grass. There was rest for the Lord Jesus Christ and there was feeding. He brings us together today. And I don’t know what dragons may be plaguing your life this last week.

I know that Christmas time is a time of depression for many people. You think you should be joyous, but somehow it just doesn’t work. You recognize that maybe you’re not. You don’t have as many friends as you thought you did, or your friends don’t like you as much as you thought they did, or you don’t like them as much as you. There could be difficult times during holiday seasons. And I don’t know what dragons you may have, but I tell you today that this text, these words of Jesus Christ surely tell you that he has brought you together today in much grass to compel you to lie down and to be fed with manna from on high the greatest blessings of heaven.

Now Isaiah 35 says that when you get these kind of blessings when in the habitations of dragons there is pasture and feeding by the Lord Jesus Christ it is to a particular end. Verse 8 says a highway shall be there and a road and it shall be called the highway of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road although a fool shall not go astray. No lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast go upon it.

It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. The Lord Jesus Christ has brought you today to compel you to lie down in much grass, to feed you from his own humanity, to bring you life, and to cause you to walk in the highway of holiness.

That’s why I wore this white tie today. Reminder of the holiness we’re to walk in. How do we do that? It’s not magic. It’s not hocus pocus. It’s not ritual. It turns into the blood of the Lord and all of a sudden we got grace from on high apart from belief in his word. No. Jesus says, “Unless you eat my flesh, unless you believe in my humanity, come to take your punishment for sins. You have no part in this. As you trust in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as you believe in him, he gives you these blessings and he sustains you and gives you strength to walk into this new year in the newness of the highway of holiness that the redeemed of the Lord should walk in.

Men, you are the leaders whether you like it or not. Why do we call it the feeding of the 5,000? 5,000 men, probably 20,000 people, women and children included. By the way, he feeds the kids, does he not? Of course he does. But the men represent the culture. You see, now as we walk into this new year, when you come forward today to receive communion, I want and when you give your offerings, if you come forward today, I want every man here to dedicate himself to walk in the highway of holiness this year.

How do we do that? Jesus said that his words his words are life and spirit to us. That’s why we say the Spirit of God is found in the word of God and life is in that word. Peter says where else can we go? You have the words of life eternal. We cannot walk in the highway of holiness if we do not appropriate to ourselves the words of Christ, that are light, life, and the spirit to us. Men, I want you to commit yourselves to read your Bibles, to read your Bible to your sheep this week.

If you’re a head of a household, will you compel your family to sit down in green grass tomorrow and the next day and the next day and feed them the Savior’s words, which are life and spirit to them? Will you do that? And if you won’t, why will you die? Why will you have your family to die, to starve without the word of God being ministered to them. I know three people so far, three men I think John S., Mike L., and John A., who are committing themselves to John’s schedule of reading through the scriptures this year.

It would be wonderful if by the end of the day, 10 or 15 of you men committed to that. And maybe that’s too much for you. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew. But can you commit to reading the Bible every day, just a verse or two, if that’s all you have time for, and to read that scripture to your sheep in your home to cause them to lie down in green grass at some point during the day that they may be fed by the word of God that they might walk in the highway of holiness as the redeemed of the Lord.

We’re all going to take this today. Maybe some of the visitors won’t. Everybody’s invited who’s been baptized, who’s confessed their sins, who believes in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It’s not suspended from the table. You all should eat this meal that God has prepared for us. It is grace from on high, but you must come to this table with some sort of some confidence in God’s grace. So these people were circumcised. These people were brought to that grassy place and compelled to lie down and given miraculous bread and they refused to eat.

They walked away. They grumbled and complained just like their fathers had grumbled and complained in the wilderness. What happened to their fathers? Jesus tells them, “Your fathers ate and are dead.” I think he’s not just talking about their physical death. I’m thinking he’s saying those people died off in the wilderness cuz they were never believers in my word. They always complained and grumbled and disputed.

Little children recognize what this text says is the sin of these people that moved them away from life in Christ. It was grumbling and complaining and it was grumbling and complaining about food. How much more practical than the text tell us? Yeah, we’re all going to eat here today. But if that’s as far as it goes with you, if you don’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ enough to say, “Do you believe that his word that his words have life and spirit?”

Watch what the text clearly tells us. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Hard for me to believe. I believe it’s easy to believe for anybody to believe. It’s hard to believe. But if you don’t believe that, then you don’t have life. Jesus says, “And if you don’t take that word this week and eat it and minister it to your family to eat, you probably are saying by that you don’t believe these words are light and spirit and life rather in spirit.” You see, two choices.

Always two choices. These people were circumcised. They ate the heavenly manna, so to speak. They ate the manna in the wilderness. Nonetheless, Paul tells us with many of them, God was not well pleased. They didn’t believe in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their works could not merit the blessings of God instead of humbling themselves before him. Last chapter, John 5. People seek glory on their own apart from the glory of the Savior.

Here they seek life on their terms, apart from the Savior’s terms. And both are washed away to hell. Eternal death comes upon such people. May we be those who find ourselves today doing what we do the rest of the week, being compelled by your elders to eat of the sacrament to recognize that God in the midst of whatever difficulties you have provided pasture, green grass for you. May we understand that Christ has fed us today.

May we believe in him and be strengthened in our belief to minister then his word which is like life and spirit to those in our care. Whether it’s just ourselves, single men, single women, young children, or whether it’s the families that God has given to us. God says, “Why will you die? Feed on me.” Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for the work of our Savior. We do acknowledge your words are indeed life and spirit.

May we, Lord God, as particularly the men in this congregation, recommit ourselves to walk in the highway of holiness as the redeemed of the Lord, believing his word, not trusting in our works ultimately, but recognizing that it is belief in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ that is the basis of our life. We thank you, Father, for your grace, for your salvation, and for your life. May we walk in it this year.

In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen. Now to God our King. Joy and strength of Israel. Lofty anthem sing praise with the harp and cymbal. This our festival day. Jacob’s God has given joy display throughout all the land. This is the command of the God of heaven. Hear my children here. Save the Lord above thee. Never serve no fear. God of wood or stone. I am God alone. Worship and adore me. Open say the Lord. Why thy believing this my covenant word?

I will lift thou plead. Fill thine every need I want once relieving. Oh that hear my voice Israel will hearken. Then they would rejoice walking in my ways, bright and joyous days, no for a darken, most abandoned good. If thou has prepared me in thy choicest food, honey from the comb, we finest known I would pour upon thee. As God has spoken to us in his word this morning, now we speak to him. And I would ask that we would gird up our loins and sharpen our minds that we might pray to God and ask him for those things that we need and that he has promised to provide us in his word.

The context for our prayer this morning will be the Magnificat of Mary as found in Luke 1, verses 46-55. Let’s pray. Gracious heavenly Father, the Lord and giver of life. We magnify and glorify your wondrous holy name. This day our spirits rejoice in you, Savior of our souls and preserver of our souls, Comforter and Counselor. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You who are mighty and who hold the keys to hell and death, have not dealt with us as our sins deserve.

But you have done great things for us and have redeemed us from the pit so that our youth is renewed like the eagles. You have filled our days with goodness and even the trials from your hand work good to our souls and the cause of your kingdom. We bless you and we rejoice in the unsurpassed privilege of being called your children, a people called by your most holy name. We thank you and praise you that you have redeemed us and we have been born again not of blood nor of the will of our own flesh,

nor of the will of man, but of God. Forgive us, dear Lord, when we think and speak and act as those who are of the kingdom of darkness. Forgive us for forgetting your tender mercies to us, for doubting your love, for fear, for pride, for sloth, and for lack of faith. Forgive us and sanctify us to be good stewards of your manifold graces.