 And the title of our message this morning is a circumstantial savior, a circumstantial savior. And our text is John chapter six, verses one through 15. And if you're like me, having grown up in church, I've heard this text so many times that I went to Sunday school for almost all of my childhood life every Sunday and heard this passage and read this passage many, many times. And even in that God's word is so deep, so rich, amen, that even having come to a text over and over and over again, we just find so much revealed in the word of God. And just a simple study of this text and what is being communicated is gloriously rich and we have much to learn here. This is just a wondrous passage of scripture. All of John six, I'm very excited about being able to go through this chapter. We're going to be very enriched from the word of God in this. And so we're looking forward to this chapter. Let me start by saying this. The plague of modern American Christianity and that which we export all over the world is a cheap counterfeit, selfish, self-indulgent, man centered faith. We could call it a circumstantial faith or a circumstantial faith in a circumstantial savior, one that is felt needs based, centered on man, not centered on God, a savior to save us from difficult situations that we face, but certainly not needed to save us from our sin, a savior that will meet our every need, but then won't make any demands on our life, a savior that will give us our best life now, health, wealth, prosperity and ease and then leave us alone to live life how we want to live it. There are those that view Christ as nothing more than a circumstantial savior. Save me from this situation. Save me from that situation. Save me from that situation. In other words, I'll rub the lamp and the genie is going to pop out, give me whatever I want, but just don't interfere with my life. Jesus in that kind of a sense, in that kind of a circumstance is no more than a lifeguard so to speak. As you swim through the pool enjoying your life, you can see him there and he's off in the distance and he's there if you need him, but otherwise you're just free to do things as you want to do them and Jesus is just standing off to the side watching as you swim, wallowing in your mire. Circumstantial faith in a circumstantial savior is man centered. It's you centered. It's not God centered. It's not focused on others. It's not based in love. True saving faith involves knowing what God would expect from you and then humbling yourself, dying to yourself, denying yourself and doing it. The difference lies often in your perspective of your circumstances in the Christian life as you live your life, either the circumstances that you're living in are all your circumstances and God serves you or works for you in them or God is sovereign and God works through his providence and all of the circumstances that you find yourself in are God's circumstances to you in which you work for God and serve him to glorify him forever. In the latter, if you live according to the latter and you're going to trust him with the results, you're going to obey him, you're going to serve him in faith. True saving faith reaches beyond the level of your circumstances. True saving faith reaches beyond self-interest. What's in it for you? The only way for saving faith to be acceptably circumstantial in that sense is for you to say in your circumstances, what can I do in this circumstance? How can I respond to God? How can I serve the Lord in this circumstance to most bring glory to him? It's the only way that we can be circumstantial Christians, so to speak. The Christian life is much more than our temporary circumstances. Think about the Christian life and the circumstances that you face like this. You're in an ice field in the North Atlantic and your circumstances are like icebergs that you're approaching in a ship. Each of those icebergs, some small, some large, but there are circumstances that you have to contend with. If God is driving the ship, then you're going to navigate through that ice field. But if you're the one driving the ship, there's trouble of ruin. Those icebergs in your life, those circumstances, from our perspective, we see the 1% that lies above the water line. And that's what we're contending with. And that's what we're distraught over. And that's what we have difficulty with. When from the Lord's perspective, from an eternal perspective, from God's point of view, the mass lies below the water line. And it's that 99% that we should be concerned with, with a heavenly perspective, a perspective that is God honoring. What God does in those circumstances, how he uses them to shape your life, how in his providence he directs the affairs of man, how he uses difficult circumstances to bring you to the Lord, right? How he uses difficult circumstances in the life of a Christian to develop your character, to build godly faith in you, to teach you perseverance. 99% of the mass of those circumstances lies beneath the water line. And it's that with which we should be concerned. And it's in viewing your circumstances that way that you can bring glory to God and how you respond in them. The Christian life is much more than temporary circumstances and Christ is far more than a circumstantial savior. Amen? We got to learn to have the right perspective. It's a story like this in John chapter six that can inform our understanding of those things. And you can determine for yourself, am I looking at my life from the basis of circumstances and what's in it for me? Or am I looking at the circumstances that I face from God's perspective, giving glory to God and how I face them? And it's a story and account like this that can bring that into focus so that you can determine that for yourself, your own Christian walk. Very, very, very important. There's so many professing Christians today that are deceived by this very issue. It's just their life is a ice field full of icebergs they face for themselves, wanting freedom from their circumstance and wanting the Lord to give it to them, thinking only of themselves. There's far more to Christianity than just simply that. We see that beginning in verse one from this account. We see in verse one, a circumstantial following. There are those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ simply for what Christianity or the Lord can offer them. You come to Christ, you're gonna be healthy. You come to Christ, you can be well. You don't have to be sick any longer. You come to Christ, you can get that brand new shiny red pickup truck you want. You can win every football game. You come to Christ, you have all of your needs and desires met and there are false teachers today that peddle that nonsense and peddle it in the most despicable ways. Think about taking the health, wealth, prosperity gospel and preaching that sewage in the slums in India, the slums in South America where people are destitute, impoverished and in their sin and need a savior. It is prostituting the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to do that. Here in chapter six beginning of verses one through four we see this circumstantial following taking place and as much as we see it here in the first century it is just as true that it happens today in our own century. Look at verse one. The Bible reads after these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of Tiberias and then a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were deceased and Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat with his disciples and now the Passover, a feast of the Jews was near. In verses one through four we're introduced to this circumstantial following but it also gives us the setting. He begins in verse one with after these things. That phrase in the Greek doesn't specify an amount of time, it is nondescriptive of time. It could be one day, one month, six months, a year after these things that these things that he's speaking of is the account in chapter five. If you back up, remember when we were in John chapter two. John chapter two, the Lord was in Jerusalem at Passover. We know from verse four here that the next Passover is nearing. So we're about one year from John chapter two. If you remember at the beginning of John chapter five there was a feast going on in Jerusalem and it was the feast of booths or the feast of tabernacles. That takes place in October and so if the Passover is nearing we're probably about six months or so from John chapter five. So here we come now in John chapter six. In John chapter six, this Passover would have taken place in April, in April. And so the events here being near to these probably took place about March or early April. Mark says in chapter six that the grass was green. So we're talking about spring time, right? And we're on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus having gone to the Sea of Galilee on the west side is that's where a lot of the action took place. Big cities, the city of Tiberias along the west side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is now about to cross over toward the east and he's heading east toward Bethsaida. Little section on the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee. That's called the Sea of Galilee. John calls it that here. Matthew and Mark both call that the Sea of Galilee and Matthew 11, Mark chapter six in the same account. But we also see here added, John calls it the Sea of Tiberias. About 80, 17, 80, 18, hair of the tetrarch built a city and commemorated Caesar Tiberias with a city on the Sea of Galilee on the west side of the coast there. John that eventually gave the name to the sea. It became known as the Sea of Tiberias. John having written his gospel after all this stuff took place also clears up any misconception or confusion and also gives the name of Tiberias. Also called by Luke, and we gotta put all this together, Luke and Luke nine giving the same account or Luke chapter five calls this the Sea of Genesoret, the Lake of Genesoret. That Genesoret is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name for this sea, which is kinereth, which is a Hebrew word for liar. That's the musical instrument liar, not a liar person, okay? So because it looked like the musical instrument, that's why they called it the Sea of Kinereth or the Sea of Liar in that case. So four names given in the scripture for the same location. So Jesus crosses over all that names of those sea, that sea crosses over the northeast corner of the sea to a place called Bethsaida. And a great multitude is following him. To be more specific, Mark clears it up in his account in Mark chapter six that Jesus and his disciples got in the boat. They had started heading across about eight miles across to get to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And the disciples that were following him were pretty zealous. They actually ran, it says there, across the northern part, around the northern part of the sea to meet him when he landed on the east side of the Sea at Bethsaida. So they were pretty zealous to follow him. The verbs there you see in chapter two, these crowds were always following the Lord, always following the Lord. There are three verbs in verse two. They followed, they saw, and he performed. You see those action words in that verse. In the Greek tense, it means that they were always following. They were constantly seeing, and he was habitually or all the time performing miracles. This was just part and parcel with what Christ was doing. They were following him constantly now, all this crowd of people. They were constantly seeing him perform miracles. That goes hand in hand with what John says at the end of his gospel. When he says of the works that Jesus did, where every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. In other words, Jesus Christ was doing miracles all the time. Miracles all the time. Can false teachers today draw a crowd with fake miracles? Yeah, all the time, right? We see great crowds. Here, Jesus Christ is doing real miracles. He was certainly drawing a crowd. This crowd was following him around and he was constantly performing miracles. Now, he's been in this region at least six months performing these miracles. So he's gathering a crowd to himself, but also we're near the Passover. And so if you think about where Bethsaida, on the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee is located, many people would have traveled past there down the east side of the lake to get to Jerusalem for Passover. So we're also drawing a crowd because of traveling people that were coming along the east side of the lake. Many were following him. Later in verse 10, we read that there were 5,000 men who were following him. If there are 5,000 men, you consider women and children, maybe families that were traveling for Passover. We're talking about upwards of 20,000 people. High estimates make it 25,000 people who were following the Lord Jesus Christ near the Sea of Galilee. Now, why did they follow him? What were they following him for? He got this great mass of people all on foot in rough terrain following Christ, running around the top edge of the lake to get to see him in Bethsaida. Why were they following him? Well, verse two says, because he was the eternal Word, right? The light of the world, and he would save them from their sins. Is that what verse two says? No, because he was the promised Messiah. And all of the promises of God are, yes, and amen, and him are gonna be fulfilled in Christ. Is that what verse two says? No, but because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased. You think about it, they saw those miracles. That's why they were following him. I guess they saw miracles. For some, he was just a curiosity. It's like, wow, man, this guy's performing miracles. A true prophet having come from God, they believed that he came from God. And so they just wanted to be a part of what was going on. Something was happening. You got a prophet of God who's come and is doing these miracles. Nicodemus said, no one can do the things that you do unless God is with him, right? So something's going on. They just wanted to follow him. He was a curiosity to them. For others, they may have wanted healing for themselves. He was healing people constantly and maybe they thought he could heal them also. So they were following him around for that healing. Some were hungry. Food wasn't easy to come by in those days. Very, very difficult. It was a challenging existence to grid it out and even to get your own food. Very difficult in those days. Regular meals weren't easy to come by. Later in chapter six, verse 26, Jesus would say that they followed him because they ate the loaves and were filled. And then there were others there that were just hopeless. They were hopeless. Very difficult, very destitute circumstances and just wanting a better life and wanting to be free from some of those circumstances. Often these folks were extremely poor, very poor, destitute. They just wanted to be free from circumstances they were facing. Their circumstances were difficult. They were trying, mundane, this gridding it out kind of existence, sometimes very hopeless. They just wanted a change. They think about it today by contrast. How much leisure we have, how much pleasure we have, the technology we have. We are exorbitantly, embarrassingly wealthy by the world standards. And yet don't you find that it's the same today? Don't we see the same thing today? It's proof positive that wealth does not satisfy. The trappings and trinkets of this world do not ultimately satisfy because it's the same today. I'm in this dead-end job. I want a better job. I want a job, but I don't want to work, right? I'm in this dead-end relationship. I have all these responsibilities and I just want out from, can I just catch a break? I just want out from under all these responsibilities. I want to be financially secure, but again, I don't want to work for it. I want to be happy. Don't I deserve to be happy? I just want happiness in my life. I want an easy life. I deserve to have it. We've got it so easy, amen? I just want an easy life. I want nine hours in front of the TV instead of just seven, right? Whatever it is. I want my needs met. I want my lust fulfilled. I want my desires satisfied. And you know what? I don't want it to end there. When I die, I want to go to heaven so I can have it even easier. Just what's in it for me? I want better circumstances in my life. And so what do they do? They think about Christianity in a circumstantial sense. They have circumstantial faith. They place in a circumstantial savior that will fulfill all of their self-will, self-indulgence and leave them alone until they die and then they can inherit heaven. They follow some false teacher that falsely pedals that sewage. They take it in. They believe it. They believe the savior will save them from their circumstances, not from their sin, not from the wrath of God, not from judgment, but simply from the difficult circumstances they think they have in their life. Sadly, there is no shortage of false teachers that will do that today. They are everywhere telling people what they want to hear, giving them some motivational solutions, some motivational speech to just believe. What does that mean? It reminds me, if you think about it, this never, nothing new under the sun. In the Old Testament, we see the examples of this throughout the Old Testament. We obviously see examples of this throughout the New Testament. Reminds me in the Old Testament of Ahab. Ahab and Balaam and the 400 prophets of Ahab, when Jehoshaphat wanted to inquire of the Lord about a battle they were about to fight, he says, isn't there a prophet of the Lord here? Ahab calls his 400 prophets to him and they just prophesy good things, smooth things, whatever Ahab wants to hear. And so, Jehoshaphat, isn't there a prophet of the Lord left? And Ahab says, yes, Micaiah. But I hate him, Ahab says. Why do you hate him, Ahab? Because he only prophesies truth to me, prophesies evil against me. In other words, he tells the 400 prophets telling Ahab exactly what he wants to hear and he's content with their garbage when Micaiah comes along, a true prophet of God and tells him what he needs to hear. Ahab hates him. Happens all the time today. Right now in pulpits all over our country, all over the world, people being told merely what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. Apart from being born again, apart from Christ, we're all Ahabs. Apart from being born again, we're all the same way. We want our ears tickled, our felt needs met, right? This is a felt needs false gospel. Just give me what I want. What we want outside of Christ is a circumstantial savior. Just give me better life, give me better circumstances and leave me alone. Your need. Your need is far greater than your circumstances and the Lord Jesus Christ is far more than a circumstantial savior. You've got to look past your circumstances. Look past the difficulties in your life and see who you are. Look past your circumstances and see your sin. Look past your circumstances and see your state. Look past your circumstances and see your sentence. And then look past your circumstances and see your savior. So in verse three, the crowds following after, just pouring out after Jesus Christ. In verse three, Jesus heads up on a mountainside. This is the area that we know today as the Golan Heights outside of Bethsaida on the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee. He often did this to rest and pray. And if you take a look at Mark's account of this story in Mark chapter six, says exactly that. They're exhausted. The Lord and His disciples are weary. They've been ministering to people constantly and so they just needed some rest. He just needed some time alone to pray, some time with His disciples to teach. And so they thought they would go up on the mountain being tired, being weary from ministry for a time of recuperation, for a time of prayer, time with His disciples. And yet here we see the crowds just following along after Him. Then in verse four, it says something very important, very interesting. It says there in verse four that now the Passover, a feast of the Jews was near. Now looking at this text and studying this out, this is more than simply a time stamp, giving us an understanding of what time of year this was. There's more than just a time stamp. This idea of Passover and what Passover stood for, what they would have been celebrating, very important lens through which we can look to get understanding of our passage here. We're gonna do that as we walk through the text. This is an interesting correlation, an interesting analogy, interesting connection with Passover and what Passover celebrated. Passover was a celebration of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses leading them out of Egypt, delivering them from their bondage in Egypt. At the same time, knowing that Passover was near, many people would have been following along the Lord Jesus Christ as they traveled to Jerusalem for Passover. And as they traveled, they would have been thinking, meditating on God's great deliverance of the people out of bondage in Egypt by the hand of Moses. They would have been thinking about Moses. They would have been thinking about the prophet who would be raised up like Moses from Deuteronomy chapter 18 that we'll look at as we walk through the passage. How Moses saved them from bondage and slavery and oppression in Egypt and how they were with great zeal, with great messianic expectations, thinking of the prophet that would come to save them out of oppression under the Romans. And to think of Passover, many would think of Passover the way that we think of July the 4th, but in much more zealous ways, is nationalistic zeal, nationalistic expectations. They wanted to be victorious over the Romans and they were waiting on the prophet that would lead them to that victory. They put two and two together. In verse 14, look at what they say. After Jesus does this incredible miracle, they say, this is truly the prophet that has come into the world. They get it, they're thinking about it and again, considering their circumstances. Did they want a savior to save them from their sin? No, they wanted a savior who would save them from the Romans. Did they want to be right with a holy God such that they could worship and glorify God forever in heaven? No, their concern was getting out from under the Romans so they could live life as they wanted to, free from Roman control. Again, circumstantial faith in a circumstantial prophet, circumstantial savior. So that provides our setting for our text, for our story. You have a people here in difficult circumstances. They sense the weight of those circumstances but not the weight of their sin. They have an earthly, an earthbound mindset filled with earthly concerns. They're not thinking heavenly minded, not thinking with a heavenly perspective. And all they're looking for is a circumstantial deliverer, one that will make no demands on their life. So we see here, don't we, a circumstantial following. Not much different than those who follow the Lord after his miracles in Jerusalem in John chapter two. Christ looked at them, knowing what was in their heart, knowing what was in man, and yet he did not commit himself to them because he knew what was in their heart. Here, it's no different. And nothing new under the sun. It wasn't any different in the Old Testament, not any difference anywhere in the New Testament and not different today. The importance is today that we have the full revelation of God to convict us of these things when we're in sin in this way. So examine yourself this morning. Is this where your heart is? How do you view the Lord Jesus Christ? Where are you at? How are you approaching your circumstances? Are you trusting the Lord in them? Let's we think that lost people are the only ones who fall prey to this, this kind of circumstantial faith? Enter the disciples in verse five. Christians can also have difficulty with this, amen? Genuine Christians can have difficulty with this and point two on your notes, beginning in verse five, we see a circumstantial need. We first saw the circumstances here, a circumstantial following. We come to verse five and we see a circumstantial need. Here's what the Bible says. Then Jesus, he 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 he said this to him, verse six, to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, 200 an area worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have a little. Then one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother said to him, there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many? So in verse five, it begins with Jesus lifted up his eyes. Now when I read that, doing observations on the text in verse five, Jesus lifted up his eyes. It reminded me of something that we just recently started, that we were just recently studied. Remember what that was? You lift up your eyes, John chapter four, I thought about the woman at the well and the Samaritans coming out of Sychar to hear the Lord Jesus Christ. You lift up your eyes for the fields or white for the harvest, right? And so thinking about that now, I couldn't help but make some comparisons, some contrasts between those two circumstances. Jesus Christ lifted up his eyes. In John chapter four, when we saw the Samaritans at the woman's testimony, the Samaritans pour out of Sychar to hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did Jesus perform any miracles? No, didn't perform any miracles. They came out and at his word, the Samaritans believed and were saved. Saw a great salvation take place in Samaria with no miracles, no miracles just the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. These here have come out because they've seen the miracles, right? It's gonna be the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that will send them away just a few verses later here. We'll see that as we walk through John chapter six. Lift up your eyes, look at the fields, they are already white for harvest. Outside of Bethsaida here, there are a bunch of hard-hearted Jews who won't even superficially believe without signs and wonders. And it would eventually be his word that would drive them away. Unlike the Samaritans, they're not coming to hear his words. They're not thinking about their sin. They're not considering their need for repentance. They're not considering their need for a savior. They're not concerned with the judgment of God. They're not concerned with the mercy of God. They're not concerned with the wrath of God or the forgiveness of God. They were coming out because of the miracles. It's like going to the hospital, but not to be healed. You just wanna get that little bracelet thingy, right? Just the trinkets, the trappings that go into the hospital, but you're not concerned about your health. Just give me the bracelet. That's like the, it makes absolutely no sense, right? It's absurd to think, but that's exactly what's going on here. They're looking to Christ for temporary blessings and they're saying no thanks to eternal blessings. However, look at the compassion of Christ. Knowing that, look at how compassionate the Lord is. In verse six, he asked Philip, in verse seven, how they're gonna take care of these folks that have come. The great multitude came in verse five. He didn't turn them away. He's concerned with teaching them certainly and with feeding them. That's the compassion of our Lord. He goes up on the mountainside to get away for a while. He's exhausted, he's tired, he needs a rest, he's time to pray and he's time with his disciples. Here comes the crowd that he turned them away. No, great compassion, he ministers to them. He was weary, he gave up his rest, gave up his convenience, gave up his leisure, gave up his time to minister to them. Why? Because he loves them. Because he loves them and he's concerned for them. He doesn't only see their physical need, he sees their spiritual need too. We see that very clearly in Mark chapter six. Go back to Mark chapter six with me. Let's see Mark's account of this very circumstance. Mark chapter six and look down beginning in verse 30. Mark chapter six and we're looking at verse 30. Here Mark describes the scene. So in verse 30, the apostles gathered to Jesus, told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. This is the disciples coming back from their work of ministry, right? He'd sent them out. Verse 31, he said to them, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile. And it's interesting there, that word for deserted place, that means wilderness. Where were the children of Israel after coming out of Egypt? They were in the wilderness. We'll talk about that more as we go. But that means wilderness, it's a wilderness place. And it says for there were many coming and going. They did not even have time to eat. So they're hungry, they're weary, just needing some, give me just a few moments to myself, right? Moms, don't you feel that sometimes? Can I just have a minute, you know? Dads at work, you know, give me just a minute. Just wanted a little bit of time. So they departed to a wilderness, a deserted place in the boat by themselves. Verse 33, but the multitude saw them departing. Many knew him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. So when Jesus, when he came out, he saw the great multitude, sent them off cause he just needed a rest. No, he was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep, not having a shepherd. This is a gracious compassion on the part of our Lord. You know, this is something we need to take example from. You know, I've seen many of you and I'm just so grateful to the Lord for it. I've seen many of you how, you know, you're tired and yet you'll take a phone call to minister to a brother. You know, you're here and you could take time to yourself but you take a moment to introduce yourself to a visitor and make them feel welcome or you'll see appointments with brothers ministering to them, teaching one another the word of God, you go to fellowships, you could be talking about football game or something that came on some TV show and you're not, you're talking about the word of God, you're talking about the Lord, just ministering, loving one another. It's such a glorious blessing to have that in our church. We've got to continue in that good work. Longer that you continue in that good work, the more that you encourage others in it also and it just becomes a part of our culture. We're just so grateful to God for that here but this is a glorious example from our Lord. You know what else it is? It's also a rebuke of the false teachers they had in their day at this point in time. They were sheep without a shepherd. What about the Pharisees? What about the Jews? Or wicked false teachers, blind leaders of the blind. They would have fallen under the worthless shepherd's description given to us in Ezekiel chapter 34. Verse four there, the Lord says of them, the weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost, but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. Does that not describe the Pharisees in their day? Describes many today. You know here, these false shepherds, they lay heavy burdens on the people, they wouldn't lift one finger to move them, yet they lay these burdens on the people. Describes those Pharisees. So here they are, these people, like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord knows that spiritual need, right? As much as he knows their physical need. And so he has compassion on them. So it says, so he began to teach them many things. Verse 35, when the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him and said, this is, here it is again, a deserted place and already the hour is late, send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread for they have nothing to eat. You know, it's a miraculous meal that takes place. The Lord gives a tremendous miracle. If you think about it, the largest of his miracles among all of these people, all those eyewitnesses, all of them saw it, this tremendous miracle, and yet I think also part of the miracle is he got 20,000, 25,000 people around there and none of them brought anything to eat but that little boy. Nobody thought to bring lunch? That's a miraculous in itself. All this just leading to the Lord revealing who he is to these folks. He goes on to verse 37, he answered and said to them, you give them something to eat. And they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat? But he said to them, how many loaves do you have? Go and see. So he sends the disciples into the crown, find out what was available. They come back, the only thing available, the five barley loaves, these two pickled fish. This is the Lord's compassion and mercy on these people, on display, on display. And we're to minister to people in that way. You know, to show people the love of God here in great compassion. Jesus knows already exactly what he's gonna do. Go back to John chapter six. He's about to feed this crowd physically in order to point them to their spiritual need so that he might feed them spiritually. You get that? He knows their need and he wants to minister to them by performing this great miracle. And at the same time, once more it's an opportunity to teach the disciples. So he turns to Philip in verse five and he says to Philip, where shall we? See that we there? He's involving the other disciples with him. Where shall we buy bread that these may eat? If we think about the wilderness that they're in, we think about Passover being near, the deliverance, the great deliverance of God by the hand of Moses, thinking of the first Exodus, this reminds me of Moses. Where can we buy bread that these may eat? Reminds me of Moses and the wilderness with God and the children of Israel. Where can I get meat for all these people? Do you remember that in Numbers 11? Where can I get meat to feed all these people? Moses crying out to God for help. I can't bear the burden of this myself. I need help, God. I can't take care of all these people. Here, they're in the wilderness and once again, God is gonna provide food for them. It's the second Exodus. It's a second deliverance. Second deliverance by now, the will and the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ having given himself as the bread from heaven. We'll see that as we go through John chapter six. It's the second Exodus. Formerly by the hand of Moses, now by the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Just an awesome example. And it isn't a testimony of the deity, the messianic fulfillment that Jesus Christ is in that the Bible across 40 different authors, 1500 years connects these events. This is not the only way this event is connected with the Old Testament. Think about the account in 2 Kings, I think it's chapter 22, when Elisha looking for bread for these hundred men, right? Go back and look at that for yourself. All these little connections, all pointing to fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the Messiah, that the Word of God is the infallible, inerrant Word of God, and that he should be worshiped and he should be followed in faith. Here in Mark chapter six, verse 35, a little spot near the Sea of Galilee called the wilderness. We have crowds following Jesus, lamenting their circumstances. What were the people, what were the children of Israel doing back in Numbers chapter 11? They were following Moses, lamenting their circumstances, right? Grumbling and complaining against God. Only interested here in John chapter six, that Jesus would somehow make their lives better. Listen, as long as everything goes okay, then we're okay. But as soon as they start going bad, they're gonna go bad. John chapter, or Numbers chapter 11, as long as everything was going okay, people are okay. But as soon as something doesn't go their way, they start complaining and grumbling. They face God's judgment. Here, just like there, they're concerned about themselves, but not acknowledging their real need. Think about the miracles that these people have seen. The lame man on his mat for 38 years rises up and walks. All the people healed, right? The constant miracles that he was habitually performing all the time that their eyes have seen. Think about those that followed Moses out of Egypt and came to this account in Numbers chapter 11. How they saw the 10 plagues. Astounding power, astounding miracles, just unfathomable. They can just imagine them just in awe. Look at the power of our God. They saw the river, waters piled up on either side. The dead sea and how the entire Egyptian army perished in the sea. Astounding, they saw the pillar of fire, right? The cloud of smoke. They saw the Shekinah glory fall on the tabernacle. They heard the audible voice of God. Astounding miracles and yet they grumbled and complained. Only in it for what was good for them. Only in it for their own circumstances. God, I'm sick and tired of this miraculous manna that you dropped out of heaven. Give me meat to eat. I mean, in that, we look at the foolishness of that, the absurdity of it all, and yet you and I have to understand we are no different. We're no different. Turn back with me to Numbers chapter 11. Let's take a look at that together. Numbers chapter 11, just absolutely astounding. Numbers chapter 11, Luke beginning at verse one. And just think about this as a correlation. It's an analogy, an example here, a connection. In chapter 11, verse one, the Bible says, now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. That is, I think theologically, a divine understatement. It displeased the Lord, look at what happened. For the Lord heard it and his anger was around. How angry was he? Look at what he did. So the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. That's gonna wake you up. You've got grumbling and complaining in your heart. The Lord does something like that. Then the people, verse two, cried out to Moses and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So that brought about great repentance in Israel, didn't it? No, verse three. So he called the name of the place Tabera because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. Now the mixed multitude were among them yielded to intense craving and so the children of Israel also wept again and said, wept again and complained again and grumbled again, right? Wept again and said, who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely and eat. Wow. So they've come out of bondage, out of slavery in Egypt. Now they've been set free from that bondage, set free from that slavery given a tremendous inheritance. God has promised them land, seed and blessing. Has promised that he will take them into the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey and yet they can't just trust the Lord and wait a minute on him. They're already grumbling and complaining so much. They wanna go back to slavery in Egypt because look at the fish that we had. Like, are you kidding me, right? Look at, we ate freely in Egypt. Look, cucumbers, they were so good when we were in Egypt. The melons, the leeks, I don't even know what that is, the onions, the garlic, but now they are the people of God, given the oracles of God, blessed by God to be the people of God, given this inheritance, but now they say, our whole being is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes. Are you kidding me? This is, God fed them from his hand out of heaven. Miraculous manna and yet they're despising it and despising the Lord's goodness. Look at verse seven, the manna was like coriander seed and its color was like the color of delium. The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones, beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, made cakes of it and its taste was like the taste of a pastry. That's terrible, prepared with oil and when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it. Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every one at the door of his tent and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused. You know, when you face your circumstances, which are God's circumstances for you and you weep and you grumble and you complain, how does God feel about that? He feels the same way that he feels about their griping and complaining and grumbling right here in Numbers chapter 11. His anger greatly aroused. Moses was also displeased. Verse 11, Moses said to the Lord, why have you afflicted your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight that you have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them that you should say to me, carry them in your bosom as a guardian, carry as a nursing child to the land which you swore to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give all these people? For they weep all over me saying, give us meat that we may eat. Not able to bear all these people alone because the burden is too heavy for me. If you treat me like this, Moses says, please kill me here and now. If I've found favor in your sight, do not let me see my wretchedness. Grumbling and complaining, back in John chapter six, grumbling and complaining over their circumstances. Can you see how man-centered they are? How selfish, how self-indulgent. God simply exists to give them what they want. Many people look at God that way today, don't they? In failing to lift your eyes above your earthly circumstances, to trust, to depend upon, to love, to serve and obey God who is sovereign over all of your circumstances and failing to do that, you relegate him to nothing more than a genie in a lamp. To simply meet all your needs and all your desires. Because of a lack of genuine faith, trust in the Lord, you would make God subservient to all your circumstances. Does that mean that in difficult circumstances that you can't pray to the Lord to plead for help? Certainly not, certainly not. We're gonna go boldly before the throne of grace. We have access to the Father in Christ. We can pray for help, but it's that prayer and faith, right? That avails much. That prayer, trusting God, knowing that God has our best in mind and His glory. All things work together for good for those who love the Lord, called according to His purpose. All things are for the glory of God. That God brings about difficulty, trials, tests in your life. God brings them about to develop your godly character, to teach you perseverance, to bolster your faith, so that as you entrust yourself to him in your circumstances, following him in the obedience of faith, trusting him for the results, he may glorify himself in your circumstances. Worth reading again, right? God brings about difficulty in your life to develop your godly character, perseverance, and faith so that as you entrust yourself to him in your circumstance, following him in the obedience of faith, trusting him for the results, he may glorify himself in your circumstances through you. God in that situation, rather than you, is glorified in your circumstances when you work through those circumstances by repentant, obedient faith in him. You gotta remember that God gives us circumstances for your good and for his glory. You gotta learn to be faithful through trial. How do you learn to be faithful in trials? By going through trials, trusting the Lord. You have to learn not to be faithless in trials. Have you ever been faithless in trials before? Am I the only one? Teach us how to be faithful in trials. Teach us to be faithful in difficulty. What is he doing with the Israelites here in Numbers 11? What's he doing with them? He's testing them. He's testing them. What is he doing back in John chapter six with Philip? He's testing him too. Says there that he's testing him. He said these things, verse six, to test him. How are you going to respond in difficult circumstances? Are you gonna complain? Are they just circumstances to you? Or do you see the 99% below the waterline? Do you see God's hand in it all? And your responsibility to glorify him in the way that you respond, in the way that you act, in what you do. If you're not a Christian, your circumstances, the Bible says are the goodness and forbearance of God that should lead you to repentance. So that miserable, despairing, horrendous trial that you are currently in the middle of is God's goodness to you. Is God's patience toward you that should drag you kicking and screaming to repentance, to trust him alone, to see your sin, to see your state before him, to see the sentence that awaits you, and so that you can see your savior and be saved. If you're a Christian, those circumstances, you're in those circumstances to bring glory to God in how you respond to them, and how you work through them, and how you trust God through them, and how you faithfully obey him through the circumstances, how you don't compromise, how you pray to him, how you cry out to the Holy Spirit for help, all for your good in God's glory. You know, it's interesting. If you read this account of the Feeding of the 5,000 in Luke chapter nine, at the very end of this account in Luke chapter nine, by no accident, by no coincidence, comes Luke chapter nine, verse 23, where the Bible reads, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, let him fulfill himself, let him deny himself, let him take up his cross daily, let him follow me, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. You're concerned about your own circumstance? Your own circumstances? You're desiring to save your own life? You're gonna lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake, Lord, take them, they're yours. I'm trusting you. I'm going to obey you. I'm gonna trust you. I'm gonna live for you. I'm not gonna compromise, God, help me. I'm just gonna follow you. In the midst of that, you live for the Lord and the Lord gets the glory. What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and he himself destroyed or lost? You think about the children in the wilderness, the exodus. We in this world are in an exodus wilderness. We are aliens and sojourners. You think about those coming out of Egypt, staff in their hand, tunic tucked into their belt, sandals on their feet, that they'd be traipsing through a wilderness. Is it gonna be easy for them? No, it's gonna be downright difficult. Is the Christian life easy? No, Christian life is difficult. Is it worth it? Absolutely, absolutely. Those who come to Christ, come to Christ denying ease, denying their earthly circumstances. They forsake their bondage to sin and they take a journey. Take a journey through the desert. Are you willing to do that? They trust God, deny themselves, look beyond their circumstance because we are headed for the promised land. This life is short. So he tests Philip. And with the we there, he involves the other disciples back in John chapter six. Where's the bread gonna come from? Once again, we're confronted with the same kind of conflict we've been confronted with before, right? The conflict between earthly, earthbound perspectives and the heavenlies. Having your mind focused on eternity, mind focused on faith in Christ, on the heavenly places. You're either gonna view circumstances through a spiritual lens while trusting Christ or you're gonna view circumstances through an earthbound lens and live as if there is no Christ. We saw Nicodemia struggle with that, right? Trying to understand the new birth. If I tell you earthly things and you do not understand, believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Couldn't get it, had the wrong perspective. The woman at the well, struggling with the difference between regular water and living water. The truth is the eternal perspective that Christ was teaching. And here again, we see it with Philip and the disciples. You know, three times, I'm sure he's here, get repetition like that. He's trying to teach us something. We need to view our circumstances from a heavenly perspective. And to view our circumstances through the lens of God's word, through the lens of Godly Christian experience, through the lens of Christ's example. Again here, like the others, Philip doesn't get it. Doesn't get it. He clings to his earthly perspective. Basically he just reports that the whole scenario is just unthinkable. It's gonna be a huge amount of money. 200 an area, that's eight months wages for a worker at that time. An average worker, eight months. And if we spend eight months of an average worker's pay, it's only gonna be enough for everybody to get a little bite. And Andrew comes along. The salary's not gonna be enough. The money's not gonna be enough. It's too expensive. And also, the supply is just too scarce. In Mark's County, he sent them into the crowd. All they came back with five barley loaves and a couple of fish. And Andrew's responding. That's not gonna make any difference among all these people. So as much as the cost is prohibitive, the supply is also prohibitive, and these folks were poor, right? Poor. You know, barley was a poor man's bread. They couldn't eat wheat, because wheat at that time was three times the cost. So they ate barley loaves. A philo, Greek historian said at that time, that barley is for irrational animals and people in unhappy circumstances. Just describe them, right? Unhappy circumstances. The fish were small. At that time in the sea of Galilee, they had tilapia. You're in Florida, you know what tilapia is. They had tilapia, small tilapia, about the size of your hand, and they were called red-bellied tilapia. Very, very common. So these little fish, and they would pickle them. They'd pickle them and then eat on them over a period of days. They were very accustomed to living in very modest, impoverished circumstances. What do you need to learn when you live in circumstances like that? Gotta learn to trust the Lord. Gotta learn to trust the Lord because you're in modest circumstances. And Jesus loved to associate with the lowly, didn't he? With the poor, impoverished, those who, you know, in that sense, they saw their physical need, but it was often understanding and viewing that physical need that led them to realize their spiritual need. And the same is true today. The difficulty today is that we don't have those difficult circumstances all the time to lead us to our spiritual need. You can be blinded and ignorant to your great spiritual need because you think you are rich, wealthy, and have need of nothing. You do not see that you are wretched and poor and blind and miserable and naked. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, you've never turned to Christ. Yours is a miserable state. Your circumstances are miserable. If somehow you think you've got it good, you're mistaken. And the Bible gives you clear understanding of exactly what your condition is. Your destitute. And one day, this short life, you think it's your best life now, kind of a thing, living up, living up for yourself, you're gonna die, you're gonna drop into hell, and you'll spend an eternity in torment. Glorifying God in your condemnation, bringing glory to him in your torment. Gotta look beyond your circumstances. There is an eternal circumstance with which you must contend. Flee to the Savior. All of this, all of this is for the purpose of pointing you to Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that believing that he is the Christ, the Son of God, that you may have life in his name. If you're here today and you're a Christian, then glorify God in your circumstances. Don't think of him. I'm in trouble, I need you. The trench warfare, right? The trench confession, prison confession. Glorify God in every circumstance. They are his circumstances in which you serve him. They're all given to you. You know, I read the quote a couple of weeks ago that God has ordained that all the universe be made up of atoms, smallest particles in the universe. That all the universe would be made up of atoms, but God has also ordained that all of history be made up of moments. And what are you doing with yours? Are you serving the Lord fervently, faithfully, using every circumstance in order to glorify him? Or do you compromise? Do you waste? Lord, keep us from wasting those. They're God's means of grace if you're a Christian, of building you up, of bolstering your faith, of developing Godly character in you, teaching you perseverance, and of bringing glory to himself in the Christian who is a pilgrim in this world. Let's serve the Lord faithfully, fervently, right? Lord has done all that for us and we are simply Exodus children in the wilderness, walking toward the promised land. Let's make use of every one of those moments, amen? Amen, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this time. Thank you for this glorious text, Lord, and thank you for the opportunity that we have to finish it next week. And I pray that this would be on our hearts and minds as we ponder this throughout the week, as we think about your word, help us to apply this, help us to redeem the time, help us, Lord, to see our circumstances through an eternal lens, an eternal framework that we might glorify you and not grumble or complain against you. Lord, that we would serve you, obey you, trust you, love you, be grateful to you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for all that you accomplished through the circumstances of our lives for our good and for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.