Services/Sermon in Rockford 31.03.2019

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Let us thank and pray. Righteous God, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that this Sunday morning you have gathered us around your Word. Lord, dear God, you know how much we need your grace, encouragement, and support for our weak faith. The enemy is strong, and we are weak. We need your help. Dear God, you also very clearly know the poorness and weakness of your servant. We pray, please open your Word unto us, that we could understand your Word as it should be. We say, as young Samuel said when God called, Speak for thy servant, spirit.

We pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Amen. This Sunday speaks of Jesus being the bread of life. And in each and every three years, the text for this Sunday is in John 6 in succession. So, for this first church calendar year, it is the actual feeding of the multitudes. And then, in second and third, it is the discussion that followed that. And I will read the text, which is set aside for this Sunday, this year. So, the actual feeding of the multitudes. It is found in John 6. I will read first 15 verses. We hear these words read in Jesus' name.

After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles, which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain. And there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes. But what are they among so many?

And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them, that were set down. And likewise the fishes, as much as they would.

When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets, with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over, and above unto them that had eaten.

Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth, the prophet, that should come into the world.

When Jesus therefore perceived, that they would come, and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again, into a mountain himself, alone.

Amen.

Our text began with the words, after these things. So, in the previous chapter, there is again, a lot that happened to Jesus. Sometimes, when I read those testimonies, knowing that this same John, at the end of his gospel, says that what he has written down is just a kind of a glance, or a very little bit of that what Jesus did and said. And he said that if he could write everything, he thinks the whole world could not contain the scrolls, the books, that should be written.

So, I think he wants to say that what is in this gospel is a very little sliver of his life. And when I read what is written about Jesus' work, it comes very clear what he said once to his disciples, that let us go unto a solitary place that we could have a little rest. Because people came and went that they didn't even have time to eat.

These three years of Jesus' life were dedicated to serving the others. And of course, we know that his goal was to serve the whole mankind. But it was a life of serving. He served continuously. People came; there were many people who came unto him. And they came with various motives, which our text even here speaks a little bit about.

There were people who wanted to see a miracle. They came to see something which cannot happen, which is a miracle. And they saw.

Well, our text began by explaining when Jesus went over to the other shore of the lake, Gennesaret. Lots of people followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. There were sick people that followed him hoping to be healed. And it says in the Bible that he healed everyone who came to him. So that was one motive.

Of course, there were those who believed who followed him because they believed that he is the Son of God. But as we see here in our text, there were people who went after seeing this miracle of feeding the multitudes, they were ready to say, this is of a truth the prophet that should come into the world. They were not ready to say or believe that he is the Son of God.

I would say that in their minds, the human sense or carnal reason and what they witnessed battled against one another. They saw miracles. They saw things that nobody had seen or done before. How can you explain that 5,000 men and ladies and children in addition to that were fed by five little muffins, I would call maybe smaller than that, cakes, and two little fishes? It was a little boy's meal that he carried with one little boy. So he was at one little meal for one little boy. And tens or let's be safe and say thousands of people were fed with that.

How can you explain it? It's unexplainable. It is a miracle. And the people saw it happen. Disciples witnessed that because they were part of that. They were the ones who distributed the blessed food.

And I've tried practically to think how it happened. Five little cakes. If there were twelve disciples who distributed that, it means less than a half of the cake. Two little fishes. How much did one get of these two fishes when they went to the people? The people were put to sit down; there was grass on the sloping hillside. And they were in groups of fifties and hundreds sitting there.

How would you feel? You have a little piece of bread, a little piece of fish. And there's a hundred people waiting for you to be fed.

Well, Philip sits here, two hundred pennies, which is one penny was a normal wage for a MENA worker. So two hundred days worth of payment would, he said, would not be sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little. So the group was so huge that if you would want to feed them, you would possibly pay for one year's wages. So Philip said it is impossible. He knew it is impossible.

And this reminds me of another miracle that Jesus did when he revived this little girl of Jairus's 12-year-old girl who died. When Jairus went to get Jesus to come help him, it took a while because there was a lady who had to be healed, and there was a throng of people pushing him from every direction. They all had their own matter in their minds; they wanted to hear an answer from him or get some help, so he was very slow to go towards this home.

And when they were on their way to Jairus's home, a new message was brought that do not bother the master, the child died. So they saw when the 12-year-old girl died. They knew she died, and Jesus came and said, why are you weeping? She's not dead, she's sleeping. They started laughing because they knew she was dead. They did not think she was dead; they knew she was dead. That's a big difference. They knew she's dead and Jesus said she sleeps.

So what is impossible to man is possible to God. But just think of the feelings of those men when they left from Jesus with those little pieces of food in their hands. I know myself if I would have been one of those, I would have been doubtful, very doubtful, that what's going to happen. This is impossible. Hundred people waiting for me, the first group, and then another hundred, and third hundred, fourth, and fifth, and so on, hundreds, thousands of people waiting to be fed by a portion of a little boy's meal. Jesus blessed it. God blessed the work, and that's what makes the difference. The work is God's, the kingdom is God's.

And so no matter how weak and empty and lacking the servants come here, God can bless. We cannot. It's God's work and it's God's kingdom. Oh, if we would never forget it. We so easily measure everything with our own measurements and think from our perspective. And so many things are impossible to us.

How many times have we laid awake in the early hours of the night and the waves crash high over our heads and everything is impossible no matter what direction you look everything is impossible. We forget so easily. We forget God can, God is, and God can.

So there were many people with many motives, with many reasons why they came there. All of them were fed with the temporal food. They all received the temporal blessing of God being amongst them. And for many of them that was enough. That was all that they looked for. They were pleased. They were so pleased that they wanted to take Jesus by force and to make him a king.

We remember a man who came to Jesus once and said, Lord, say to my brother that he would share his inheritance with me. So there were two brothers and one wanted to have the whole inheritance and maybe leave pennies to the other. And the other one was so blessed, so fortunate that he was able to approach Jesus and talk to him.

So he talked the most important matter in his heart, the most pressing need in his life, and that was money. That was all that he cared for. Well, I wouldn't say that was all what he cared for, but that was the number one thing that he cared for. He might have cared for many other things, but that money was number one.

And that's why he used his unique opportunity to talk to God by talking about money. And he did not receive an answer that he hoped for. Even that failed. He did not even get that. Jesus said, who made me a judge between you and your brother?

And then Jesus turned to the other people and spoke a parable about a rich farmer. And the focus or the meaning of this parable was to warn about the love of money.

So I would say it is not enough that we are close to God that we can hear him speak. It is not enough. The Bible clearly testifies of that. How it is not enough that our bodies are sustained with food. It's good for this temporal life and it's a blessing. Sure it is a blessing.

We all know what hunger is although we live in the land of plenty. I would think that most of us have been very hungry every once in a while and how sweet it is to eat, how even those situations bring into our minds the blessings that God has bestowed upon us. How sweet it is to eat, how good the food tastes. So that is a blessing.

But it is not enough. And that's what this Sunday speaks about. Jesus is the bread of life. This Jesus is not the bread of this world. God sure blesses. Yes, there is a temporal blessing even of outward fear of God.

When Israelites were still in Egypt and God was preparing for their departure, you remember God gave plagues. One plague was the hail storm and it was a hail storm that has never happened before or after. It was mingled with fire and it was so fierce.

I know that we have had severe hail storms in this country also and throughout the world, but it was so fierce that it killed everyone who was outside. Every person was killed by the hail. Every animal was killed or I would say the livestock that those that were left outside were killed.

And God warned through Moses the Pharaoh and his court that God gave the exact time when it will start and that everybody should go inside under the shelter. God gave the warning and the Bible says that those who feared God and his warning, it doesn't mean that they believed that they were all believers, but they feared this warning from God.

They went inside and they took their servants and the cattle inside. But those who did not fear this warning God left outside and the storm killed them.

So we see even this kind of a temporal fear of God brings a blessing, some kind of protection. It doesn't have saved those people only this one faith saves but even this temporal fear of God or respect brings a temporal blessing.

So we see how here this temporal blessing came unto everyone who were present there and for most of us, for most of them, he was enough. And that's the sad part because Jesus is the bread of life.

And our text ended where when Jesus saw and knew what people were planning to do, take him by force and make him a king, he left. But Jesus also cared for his disciples. Jesus sent his disciples away from those overly thankful people who were praising them and it was good.

We don't need praises. What we need is love and support and not praises. When the people wanted to make Jesus a king, of course they praised those disciples who were very influential in carrying out this miracle. They distributed the blessed food.

Jesus sent them away and they took a boat and started rowing. And you possibly remember what happened. We are going to have summer service next summer maybe some of you have heard about that and we have a model for the summer services where Jesus said, it is I, be not afraid.

When the disciples had been toiling and working in that rough sea, the wind was contrary. They worked for hours. Jesus left them now in the evening. Sun was setting maybe around 6 pm and the disciples were to cross this lake which is not a huge lake, it's sizable but not huge.

And the storm was so bad and the wind blew against them and it was the fourth watch in the night, so it was between 3 and 6 am. So they had been rowing I would say 9 hours minimum.

So we understand that they were tired. All the good feelings which they felt after this feeding of the multitude had disappeared hours ago. There are blisters in their hands. They feared for their lives and they were tired. They were doubtful.

And then all of a sudden they saw something moving upon the waters coming towards them and they cried for fear. It's a perfect nightmare. I tried to cry again a couple nights ago. I saw a nightmare and tried to cry. Luckily I was not able. I didn't wake up my wife.

But you know the feeling you can't do anything and the disaster is approaching you and you feel like crying for fear. These disciples cried for fear because they thought it is something which they couldn't explain or understand.

It was a rough sea, high wind, waves crashing against them and they saw something moving upon the waters. It cannot be a human of course it can't be. Nobody can be there but it was Jesus approaching them in the midst of the storm.

Jesus knew very well that the disciples are tired, weary, doubtful because of the storm, they're scared. He approached them and Jesus' message for them was, it is I, be not afraid.

That is our Jesus. That is how God cares for us, takes care of the weakest and the most doubtful one.

But this discussion that took place after this miracle is interesting where Jesus spoke when they went when they were on the other side of this lake. They were Capernaum. People were seeking for Jesus. They were so excited.

They had not experienced these difficulties which the disciples had. They just walked on the dry land. They were still happy and pleased with a miracle. They were not looking after him because of faith but because of bread. They didn't need faith. They didn't need heavenly bread but they needed the temporal bread. They loved it. It tastes good in their hungry mouths.

Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.

People ate themselves, I would say, to the bread they ate so much that they couldn't eat more. Do you remember that twelve big baskets were gathered as a fragment? I don't know maybe I'm reading too much into it but it says twelve baskets were filled with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

It doesn't mention fish. Maybe the fish was so good that they saved the last little bit of room in their bellies by eating this last savory piece of fish but they were willing to give the bread away because it was more everyday food.

Well, that's what he said, that the baskets were filled with bread. It doesn't speak of fish at all. I love fish so I kind of understand that kind of mindset that if you can eat only little and you have a piece of bread and a piece of fish, you take the fish and give the bread away.

But anyways, Jesus said Jesus saw into their hearts. Jesus knew what they were thinking. He said you seek after me because you were filled. You love the bread.

And then he started teaching of this more important matter which is faith. And he reminded them how their forefathers on their way in the wilderness they ate the manna. He did not mention to them that some of them hated it. They got used to it. It was not good enough for them anymore which is of course a picture of the heavenly food.

Again they said our souls loathed this light bread. They didn't like about it what they first loved and were thankful for. After a few years they started looking down on it. They didn't like about it anymore. They wanted to have meat or something better.

In their hearts they again went back into Egypt where they had enjoyed different kind of lifestyle. And so Jesus reminds them of this manna.

Then he says verily, verily, I said to you Moses gave you not the bread from heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

And then he speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And I don't know what's your reaction to that but in my mind it kind of triggers this kind of odd feeling that how do I eat human flesh and drink human blood.

And as a side note the Christians in the persecution of Rome were accused of eating human flesh and drinking human blood. Maybe this portion of the Bible maybe somebody recalled this speech of Jesus. I don't know if that's the cause for this rumor that they were accused of.

But this for sure is again something which my human mind does not understand nor accept at all. It doesn't feel natural. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel something that my heart says yes amen to that.

But Jesus said if you don't do that you have no part with me. Many of those who had followed him before were so disgusted that they left. They were horrified. They could not accept it. For sure it didn't make sense and they could not believe it because it did not make sense.

They could not kind of submit under that. They left. And so Jesus asked of Peter, do you also want to leave me?

And by the way the Bible says and they did not follow him anymore. When the people left, they left for good. They did not come back. They were not only kind of offended for that day or that week and then they timidly sheepishly returned back. No, they were gone.

Because if somebody leaves God they cannot come back if God does not give them grace to be fed. Nobody can leave God and come back on their own will or take a vacation or whatever. Repentance is always God's gift based on God's inviting grace.

So Jesus asked of his disciples, do you also want to leave me and go? You remember how Peter answered with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, Lord, where should we go? You have the words of eternal life. There is no other place.

And faith comes by hearing those words. So if I leave I can't hear those words and I cannot live. So if I leave I'll die.

So no matter how difficult it was for their obviously also for their carnal minds to accept it, they understood there is more in that than this temporal eating or drinking, temporal eating of human flesh or drinking human blood.

The spiritual it's a spiritual picture of how deep and close the connection is and the spiritual food, the spiritual bread is the food for our souls. This food which God provides in his kingdom through the audible word of God's word, through the audible word of the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins.

It is food for our souls. It nourishes our souls. It sustains our faith so that with that strength with that food we can continue believing.

And so dear brothers and sisters it is so important that we hear the word of God, we receive it in faith and we believe it.

And even now uplift your hearts and believe all sins forgiven in Jesus name precious atonement blood. And if you believe God forgives because God is forgiving God.

That is the bread of life that sustains our souls that we can continue one more day one more day until the last day of our lives come and then we'll make it to heaven.

So uplift your heart and believe sins forgiven in Jesus name and in his blood and I also believe my sins forgiven. I want to believe together with you in Jesus name. Amen.

Let us pray. The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, Amen.