Jesus at the Center of Transformation
More Faith • Message 4
Bryan Jones
March 10, 2024
A. Introduction
When my kids were little and learning to speak, they found little ways to communicate… and one of the things they learned to communicate quickly was a sign for the word more… They would put their fingers together for more, more, more…
So, they would eat or taste something, or they would be tickled, and they would put their fingers together, and Steph or I would hop up and give them more… a few times, I tried that with Steph at the dinner table, just did the more sign, and she looked at me and said, is something wrong with your feet?
At an early age, kids learn how to communicate more. And we live in a culture where we always want more. More money, more time off, more fun, more peace, more fulfillment… and we sometimes treat more as though it’s a bad thing…
But in the passage we are going to be looking at today, Jesus wants more faith for His disciples… He wants more power for them.
B. More Faith
Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for Him. Turning to Philip, He asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for He already knew what He was going to do.
John 6:5-6 (NLT)
He knew what He was going to do but He wanted more faith, more belief from His disciples.
And if you want more faith, more power, more of the miracles of God, today, I want to give you some truths from this passage that will be incredibly helpful to you… They are principles I have applied and am reapplying because I know in my life God wants more faith, more belief, more of His activity…
- We do a LITTLE. God does the REST. (John 6:5-13)
Jody Gibson, who leads our Celebrate Recovery Ministry and is an amazing guy whom God powerfully took hold of his life years ago… coined something that has stuck with me and is part of a staff mantra for us now…
We were in a staff meeting, and we just asked the question, what does it look like for there to be more of the Spirit? How do we make sure that Jesus and the Spirit are our top priority?
Then Jody told this story from his work as a manager at Bargain Foods, and he said one of his jobs was to make sure the bread was laid out for the delivery man... and one day, it wasn’t done… and the guy said to him, Jody, I need you to do a little, and I’ll do the rest… and then Jody said, it’s the same with God… We do a little, but God does the rest…
I love this… We do a little, but God… He does the rest. He does the heavy lifting. The other day, I was moving a bathroom vanity, which was pretty heavy. My four-year-old Selah wanted to help me, so she walked beside me and opened the door for me… when we finished, I could tell she was so proud. I told her, good job,… and she smiled and said, yeah, I did…
This is the same picture. We do a little. We have a part to play but Goes does the rest. He does all the heavy lifting…
And this is a very important part of having more faith and seeing more miracles of God…
He is the central part… He’s the center of it all, which is why we are spending a year talking about Jesus at the center… that’s why I said last week you aren’t the center of the story…
It's easy to put ourselves, leaders or pastors, on a pedestal, but there is a problem with that….
Sure, we do a little, but He does the rest!
Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
John 6:8-9 (NLT)
Notice the boy has five loaves and two fish… it's interesting that he makes the number 7, which is the number for perfection and completeness in the Bible it is a whole number… it points to Jesus…
But notice John adds in the words barley loaves… This is important… because in ancient times, white bread was for the wealthy, and darker grains like barley or rye were for poorer people because they were more prevalent.
It’s important to note this was more than just a snack; this boy was likely with his family, and this would have most likely been their food for that entire trip… this boy; if he had his father there, his father would have had to approve this… Think about this…
The father allows his son to give all he has so that people would be filled up… think about the symbolism. Isn’t this what God does with us… Our heavenly Father allows His Son to give all He has so that the people might be filled up… I just want to make sure you are getting this… its why I love the Bible… The father allows his son to give all he has so that the people might be filled up…
In the Trinity, the Father allows His Son to give all that He has so that we might be filled up…
The boy did a little; he had to bring what he had… But listen to what Jesus did.
“Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward He did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told His disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
John 6:10-13 (NLT)
Now, I find it interesting that there are 12 baskets left over… does anyone know what twelve is symbolic of here? 12 tribes of Israel. These were the people of God….that is for everyone.
He is showing that He is the bread of life. That He is the center. It's all about Him. It’s an invitation to more faith, more belief, and more of the activity of God…
And how do we see that? First and foremost, we have to remember we do a little, but God does the rest. Simply put, God's hands can do what ours can’t.
When we put Jesus at the center of our church and lives, anything is possible… anything!
So, what do we do practically? The boy had to give his food. What do we do if we want to see more faith and more of the activity of God?
- LOOK UP to Jesus. (Mark 6:41)
Interestingly enough, the feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle that is recorded in all 4 Gospels. So the first four books in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John… are called the Gospels because they recorded the life of Jesus but from different perspectives… but Matthew, Mark and Luke give one detail that I want you to note that John doesn’t.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to His disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.
Mark 6:41 (NIV)
You know, I was thinking that the last real miracle with bread happened in the Old Testament, where God literally rains down manna from heaven. It was God’s way of training the people to look up for their help. Notice what Jesus does: He takes the bread, then looks up, and it is like He’s training us to look up for their help.
Notice He looked up… The disciples are looking horizontally; they are looking for human solutions…
Remember, Peter is like the planner.. he’s counting up all the money going, we don’t have enough, and even if we did, it’s Sunday and Chick-fil-A is closed. What are we going to do? Jesus has them sit, and then He looks up… He is showing His dependence on God.
His looking up showed where His eyes were fixed, where His hope was.
So often, we look around for human solutions, while the invitation is to look up and see the spiritual solutions.
What are you stressed about? What's on your mind right now? What are you worried about? You only have two options with those thoughts… one, you can look around like the disciples and try to find solutions horizontally, or we can look up to Jesus…
And if Jesus was looking up for help, how much more should we?
Some of you are looking horizontally, and you don’t even realize it… this week, I woke up early in the middle of the night and was stressed. I had thoughts on my mind… and I was about to wake Steph up when God said, she can’t help you… and it was His way of saying look up… I notice sometimes I tend to go to my wife or friends and don’t even bring God what’s on my heart.
God created Adam and then Eve… but notice this… the order of the relationship matters.
God and Adam had a relationship before, Eve and Adam did… yes, it wasn’t good for Adam not to have Eve… but Eve, our relationships can’t replace God… we have to look up first. We have get the order.
I don’t remember how old I was, probably 7 or 8… but every year, we would shoot fireworks in my cul-de-sac growing up… At a young age, I was afraid of loud fireworks… that year, my dad bought a big yellow firework, and I was excited to see it… but when he lit it, I closed my eyes and lowered my head. I heard someone say, that’s awesome,… and I remember being sad I missed it…
I have a terrible memory, like a terrible memory. When someone asks me how long I have been married, I say between 17-19 years, and my wife isn’t remotely mad about it. She knows I forget everything…, but for some reason I vividly remember at 7 or 8 going into my dad’s room that next morning and asking him, what was it like, I think it was the first time I had truly felt some sort of regret.
But I didn’t look up, and I missed it… I believe if you don’t keep your eyes on Jesus, you will miss the faith and miracles He wants to pour out… don’t settle for having others tell you about the activity of God… Open your eyes on the Author and Perfecter of your faith… and see His glory, His radiance, the richness of His power. See for yourself the colors of His grace… and I promise you as you look up at Him, your heart, over time, will begin to explode with a deeper faith than you could have…
But it's not always easy to look up… this is our part to play. God won’t do that for us… we do a little. God does the rest… but we must look up…
That’s why we spend so much time making these daily devotionals as a resource to you… We want to give you a tool that will help you keep your eyes fixed on God! It’s like a good meal; you don’t eat it once and think, let’s eat like that next year… you are filled up, but you are thinking about returning. You wake up thinking, let’s do it again…
The next part we have to play if we want more of God...
- LIFT UP praises to God.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward He did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
John 6:11 (NLT)
Let me ask you this question… Does Jesus praise God before or after the miracle?
Before, right… I believe praise precedes the provision of God. When we worship and thank God, have you noticed how His presence seems to fall in a supernatural way…
Remember, we do a little, and God does the rest… but one of the parts we have to play if it’s something we don’t always like… We have to praise God before we ever see the results or miracles…
My tendency, and I would say probably most of our tendencies, is to praise God once we get out of the storm… we are called to praise Him before we get out.
We have to praise God, even if we haven’t seen the miracles of God yet. Or when He doesn’t answer how we want….
Nobody can praise and thank God but you… and when you thank God, it begins to create a hunger for more of Him, and you begin to see Him in more ways…
We praise Him before we ever see any of the miracles, knowing He will show up and that He will be faithful.
Graham- one of you said, God’s going to make this go smoothly. He’s got this… and I noticed he was thanking God before he knew the results…
It didn’t go exactly how we wanted… but God has done a mighty work, and we praise His goodness…
Praise seems to be like a magnet for the activity of God. Like a moth to a flame, God is drawn to the praises of His people…
Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Psalm 22:3 (NLT)
JC said this over the summer… but think about this: Jesus is King, and where does He choose to place His throne, or His presence, in the praises of His people…
Worship is something we do for 30 minutes before the sermon… it’s what magnifies the presence of God in our church and life… because it’s where God chooses to dwell… it's our part to play.
I find it interesting that that little boy in the story gave all he had, but he got more than he had… he was filled up, and there were leftovers…
So, we praise God and thank Him, so we train ourselves to see all that we have in Him. We train ourselves to see His fingerprints everywhere…
He might not always do what we want, but He always, when we look close enough, always gives more of Himself when we praise Him… this is our part to play… we do a little, and God does rest…