The Feeding of the 5000: Compassion, Power, and Sin - John 6:1-15

1:12She rejected what her parents gave her and didn't even get what she wanted. Well, that's the tragedy that we'll see in our passage this morning, and a tragedy that I hope you and I avoid as we relate to the person. Jesus Christ. John chapter 6. We'll just start walking our way through it. Hope you have your Bibles. Keep them handy because we're just going to go verse by verse, line by line. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one right in front in the pew or the seat in front of you. Verse 1. After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee or Tiberias. So we know from the other Gospels that it was right after John the Baptist was murdered, after the twelve had returned from their preaching and teaching and healing ministry.

2:14That's when this account takes place. And at this time, there's a lot of attention upon Jesus and upon his disciples. And as verse 1 makes it clear, it will be on the eastern side or the other side of the Sea of Galilee that the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 will take place. The other side is a reference to the more Jewish populated side at Capernaum and Tiberias and that. And the other side, just like the other side of the Jordan, was seen on the eastern side, so the other side would be the eastern side close to Bethsaido, modern-day Golan Heights area. So north, so we go from the south being in Jerusalem at the Pool of Bethesda.

3:01Up to a mountain outside or near Bethsaida. So, the setting of the miracle. John gives us a very clear setting here. Look at the people, verse 2, the people involved. A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick. And the verb tenses are very unique here. Literally, a literal read would be: a large crowd kept on following him because they kept on seeing the signs that he kept on doing. So, there's this sense of continuation. Now, the size is important. The size being very large, a crowd, a great one, literal translation. However, it's not so much the size that John is focusing on, but the reason. They are following him because he is performing many great signs. Remember in John chapter 2, we came across another crowd at that first Passover where he went in and cleared the temple. We find the superficialist there as well. They were following him because of the signs, yet they had no intention to really be listening or really be taught by him. So, that's the people. Verse 3, John gives us the place. Looking back at verse 3, then Jesus went up on the mountain. And there he sat down with his disciples. Maybe the mountain, maybe a mountain that he had frequented before, or a place that he had frequented before, or just a mountainous area. It's a place, a high place, a mountain area. Look at the time, time of the year. Look at verse 4. Now the Passover of the feast of the Jews was near. Now remember that Passover was a day of national pride, a national strength, national encouragement, national celebration. It celebrated the Exodus from Egypt when God put down the superpower of that day and delivered his people out. We would probably have something similar in our 4th of July as we celebrate our independence. So Passover was, among many things, certainly a day of national pride. And as God had delivered Israel in the past, so there was an expectation that he would deliver them in their presence from the Roman superpower of the day.

5:39Well, the people involved, you see, John gives us the place that's involved, the time. The disciples are doing incredible miracles. Jesus is doing incredible miracles. John the Baptist is murdered. All this comes together. And it's significant that John mentions the Passover here, the Passover. But look back, the significance. I want you to get an idea of the significance of this event. You know, no other miracle in Jesus' ministry is recorded in all four gospels. Do your homework.

6:20The death of Christ is recorded. The resurrection of Christ is recorded in all four. But that's it. Not even the transfiguration is recorded in all four gospels. That tells you something about the significance of this event, doesn't it? Very significant. But for John, it's not just the miracle itself, it's the teaching that follows after the miracle. Remember John's pattern: a sign is done, and then a discourse follows. Well, here we have the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, the multiplication of the bread, and then we will have the discourse on the bread of life. And so for John, there's going to be this emphasis upon the significance of this event that we will see and we will work through in the weeks and months ahead as we work our way through the discourse on the bread of life. But this morning, what I want to do is I just want us to relive the miracle and prepare our minds for the bread of life discourse that will come and to make pertinent. Application to our life right now. There are three elements of this event that I want you to see this morning. I want you to see Jesus' compassion upon all of those who come to Him. Second, I want you to see Jesus' ability to completely satisfy those who come to Him. And third, I want you to see why those who ate the bread will completely miss what Jesus was truly offering them.

8:00Three words: compassion, power, and sin. I want to focus our thoughts around these three. And I want you to see the compassion and the power of Jesus and the sin of those who saw it, so that you and I will not be like them. Okay? Feeding of the 5,000. First, I want you to see the compassion of Jesus in verses 5 and 7 through 7. Two things to notice about the compassion of Jesus. There's the compassion as John describes it, and boy, he paints a beautiful picture of this compassion. And second, I want you to see how he administers this compassion to the multitude.

8:47Well, as we look at the compassion of Jesus as he describes it, or as John describes it, I want to call to your memory that the other gospel writers also Highlight or emphasize the compassion of Jesus in their narratives of this event. So, compassion becomes that which is front and center in all the records. But let me read to you Matthew 14, verse 13. I'll just read it to you. Now, when Jesus heard about John, that is John the Baptist, he withdrew from there into a boat to a secluded place by himself. And when the people heard this, they followed him on foot from the cities. When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. So for Matthew, it's about Jesus' compassion being displayed on those who were sick, needing healing.

9:48Mark 6, verse 33, the people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all cities. So they see the disciples, they see them all making their way to this region east. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd, and he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. So Matthew highlights the crowd's sickness. Mark highlights the crowd's need to be instructed, to have a leader. And what John does is he relates to the crowd's need for food.

10:31Some unexpected guests showed up, right? Have you ever had a bunch of unexpected guests show up that are going to tax your resources? Well, think about this crowd. Now, keep in mind, Jesus is trying to get away for a little respite with his disciples. They've been very busy, very active. He wants to get away, then all of a sudden, here's this crowd, and it's 5,000 men. So there is probably some estimates around 20,000 people that are involved in this whole episode. Staggering, right? A crowd of that large coming to your house, right? Coming to you for need, right? Coming over from your place for Thanksgiving, right? But it's not just any ordinary crowd. I mean, this crowd has a lot of sick people, so they need a doctor. They're ignorant people in spiritual matters, so they need instruction, so they need your attention in giving them instruction. And besides that, they're hungry. They need something to eat pretty quickly. So, you know, the crowd, this is a big crowd. I mean, we all know about the Johnsons' hospitality, right? Well, this crowd is even too big for them, okay? This one would be no match for even the Johnsons' hospitality. And combine all the other hospitable people in our congregation here, put them together, and collectively, still, this crowd is far more than a match for anything we could come. Up with. But look at John's description of Jesus' compassion here. Verse 5. Therefore, Jesus, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these may eat?

12:19Now, if language could ever communicate slow motion, it does so right here. John takes a long time. He takes a number of words to communicate something that could go very quickly, but he wants to draw the reader in. He wants you to see this scene. It's like he's saying, picture this scene. Mass numbers of people coming to Jesus. And then Jesus lifting up his eyes, that's focusing in, paying close attention to the crowd, and seeing them coming to him. He takes sight. He quickly surveys their needs, spiritual and physical. He quickly takes it in. He knows their hunger. Lifting up his eyes, he takes it in, sees the crowd coming to him, and then he turns to Philip.

13:14What are we going to do? How are we going to take care of these coming to us? But what, I think it's worth pausing for a moment and just paying attention to what we should note about our Lord here. Time to communicate this. We should recognize and we need to pay attention and note, especially in our mind, that Christ has a desire to receive and to give. This is the Lord here that John is wanting us to see. He has a desire to receive, a desire to give. He not only wants to receive from people, but he wants to provide for them.

13:57This is a good man. This is a hospitable man. This is a gracious man. The question becomes: is Jesus sufficient for such needs? That becomes the question. In fact, often I hear this passage preached with an emphasis being upon the blessing on insufficiency. In fact, this is a prosperity gospel favorite. And it usually starts out like this. And I've seen this played out. Well, here we find God's blessing. He blessed that which was insufficient. And you can hear the crowd, come on, come on. Yeah, he blessed that which was insufficient. Now, do you have anything that's insufficient? Keep on, keep on, right? You hear the, and usually the sermon ends up with this: that you must give of your little loaves and your little fish. Fish in order to see God's blessing of abundance upon you. And that's usually, and it's a favorite. I've seen the script over and over. And listen, I recognize that these principles are indeed valid in the text. Jesus certainly blesses that which is insufficient, and he blesses it to an abundance. However, what John's emphasis is upon the sufficiency of Jesus, not upon a little boy using God to make his insufficiency abundantly sufficient. The emphasis is upon Jesus' sufficiency, not our insufficiency and how to make God make our insufficiency abound. That's to misuse, misdirect. The emphasis is upon Christ's sufficiency. And the question that we have: who is sufficient to be Lord and Savior of mankind? And that's what John is putting out there. Who is sufficient? Well, John's answer is the one who can take care of the needs of mankind. This is the one who is sufficient to be the Lord and King of mankind. You know, Christ is very different. You know, earthly kings and earthly leaders, they are dependent upon those they lead to be great. That's the way it works here, right?

16:24People groups become great, and then their leaders become great, right? They become great. Become great by the strength of their people. I mean, what would many preachers do today if they saw this crowd of 20,000 coming to him wanting to hear? Well, one of the first things some of the false teachers of today, let's take up an offering, all right? It doesn't really matter how poor you are. I mean, let's take up an offering. In fact, I remember some years back in North Brian, I attended, I was coerced going to a tent revival, and I went with a friend, and he said, You need to come to this. And I said, Well, you know, I think I've got a little problem with this. You come, you need to open, you need to lighten up a little bit. Okay, okay, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go. So we go. And after about a 20-minute lilting offering and play on hearts to give and strong compulsion, they give. So we move beyond that. So it's like, okay, now we're beyond that. Halfway through the sermon, this lady stands up and says, friends, we need to do something.

17:36And he says, we need to take up another offering. We need to help this guy out here. And the pastor or the preacher gets up there and says, yeah, I heard it too. I heard it too. Come on up here. You lead this offering. She says, friends, you need to post eight checks. You need to do whatever is necessary. And you need to give deeply and you need to give profoundly. So we go through another big offering, and about the time afterward, my friend's kind of like, yeah, that was out of line. I said, yeah, I told you he was a little off, you know.

18:10But the point of it is Jesus thinks totally different. He's not thinking of what he can take out of the people that come to him. He sees their needs, and his first emotion is one of compassion. His first thought is to give to their needs, and his first act is to receive him. That's our Lord. And that's the picture that John wants you to see. And let this picture forever be engraved in your memory, no matter what happens in your life, no matter what comes upon you. Let this picture of Christ forever burn in your mind. His first emotion to you is one of compassion. His first thought to you is to give to meet your needs. And his first act is to receive you. So come, believe. That's John's message. This is the Jesus that walked among us. This is the Christ of Scripture.

19:16Well, that's the compassion of Jesus as described by John. But next, I want you to see how Jesus' compassion was administered to the people, how it was administered to the people. Look back at verse 5. Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these may eat? This he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.

19:51I love this. Notice the we language. Philip, what are we going to do about this? And Philip, you know, but Jesus is testing him, he's revealing, he's exposing him. He knew what he was intending to do. By the way, I love Texan language. I think we have some words that Bible translators need. This is kind of bulky, what he was intending to do. What's a simple way we would say that in Texas? Fixing, right? He himself knew what he was fixing to do, right?

20:32But look at what he does. He engages his disciples to be the vehicles of his administration, the vehicles to administer his compassion to the people. And this is a huge task, way beyond something that the disciples could do. Denari was a Roman coin, about a day's wages. So we're talking somewhere around eight months' worth of wages. If we have factored that today based on... Minimum wage, which is probably lower than the average back then, we would probably come where around somewhere around $12,000.

21:09Such an amount of bread, if it could be purchased at all, you can't just, it's not just sitting out on shelves for, you know, it's like if you could purchase it at all, it would only be enough for everyone to get a token amount. That's what Philip's saying. Even all this money is not enough to get everybody just a little bit. Certainly not sufficient to satisfy the hunger of the crowd. So if we could probably express that to satisfy the crowd, it would easily take three, four, five times that to actually fill those who were there. So it's a lot of food. A lot of food. But the point of all this, in fact, Luke's account, the disciples say, where are we going to go? Send these people away. And in Luke 9:13, Jesus said to them, You give them something to eat.

22:03But the point of all this is that Jesus is the one with compassion. He's the one with compassion for the crowd. He is the one desiring to give and meet their needs. And he engages the disciples to be their ministers, to be his ministers, to be his servants, to distribute that which is needed to the people. And there's a good example for us here as how we are to relate to Jesus. Jesus and how we are to minister in his name. As the next few verses are going to show, the apostles received instruction and followed it. That's what we're to do. They were not expected to multiply the loaves and the fish, but they were only responsible to receive what Jesus gave and then distribute it accordingly.

22:54And that's what we are to do. Now, sometimes we think that ministering or serving in God or in God's name involves us going out and doing the impossible for God. No. No, it's not about that at all. It's more about doing what He says and watching Him do the impossible. But the idea of ministry comes from Him, it comes out of His compassion. That's how the whole enterprise gets started in the heart of Christ lifting up, seeing the crowds, seeing them coming to Him, and having a heart of compassion to meet their needs. That's where the whole enterprise of ministry begins. So we've looked at the compassion of Jesus. Next, I want you to see the power of Jesus, the power of Jesus. And the power of Jesus is seen in three elements. Number one, the impossibility of the situation. Two, the miracle itself. And number three, the abundance left over. Let's look at the impossibility of the situation. John has already vocalized, or Peter, or sorry. Philip has already vocalized his perspective in verse 7. And then now, here, Andrew steps in. One of his disciples, in verse 8, look back. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are these for so many? So Andrew makes a comparison. Little supply, big demand, equals impossible.

24:28You get the equation? Little supply plus big demand, negative number, right? Impossible. By the way, just not as a rabbit trail, but just to mark it. 2 Kings 4, Elisha does a miracle with barley loaves as well. And there may very well be a reference. Barley is poor man's food. And so there may even be a reference to the prophet Elisha here and the miracle of the loaves with barley. So the power of Jesus is seen in the impossibility of the situation, but it's also seen in the miracle itself. Look at verse 10. Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in number about 5,000. Then Jesus took the loaves, and having given thanks, he distributed to those who were seated, likewise also of the fish, as much as they wanted. And it Clear. It's clear even here, and especially as you look at the other narratives, that the miracle took place in Jesus' hands. He gave thanks, and then he distributed to the disciples, and then they in turn distributed to the men, who no doubt in turn distributed to their families and other people as well. But listen to how Mark records this event.

26:01Verse 41 of chapter 6, Mark says this: And he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up towards heaven, he blessed the food and broke the loaves, and he kept giving them to the disciples to set before them. And he divided up the fish as well. You get that action there? He broke the bread. You got a little bit of bread. He blesses it, and then he breaks it, and he keeps giving it. That's where the miracles happen.

26:36Bread that had never been baked, never been kneaded, from flour that had never been through a milling process, from wheat that had never been harvested, never grown, never sprouted, never planted in existence. Fish that had never swam, never been caught. Never been through a salting process, and yet dinner was served. Dinner was served in such a lavish supply in such a desolate place. And this is John's emphasis: the supply. Now, is this a sufficient one or not?

27:23It was a creative act, and the creative act satisfied the need. Well, the power of Jesus is seen in the impossibility of the situation, it's seen in the miracle itself, and it's seen in the abundance leftover. You see, the leftovers also testify to the power of Jesus and his sufficiency to meet the needs of his people and to meet them abundantly. Look back at verse 12. When they were filled, he said to the disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.

28:11I also like Texan. Got another word here. How do you say you in the plural sense in Texan? Y'all, right? I'm telling you, we could make a translation that needs the word fixin' and y'all, and we'd have the new Texan version. Y'all gather up, gather up the leftover fragments. And so, verse 13, so they gathered them up. And the word for fragments, the word for the surplus here, the leftover fragments, is the overflowing surplus, the abounding surplus. Go and pick up the overabounding surplus. Verse 13, so they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 12 baskets, 12 large baskets of leftovers from little, something that could have fed, you know, you could hold in two hands. And you got 12 baskets sufficient, certainly sufficient to meet the needs of the 12 tribes of Israel and the world beyond. But the leftovers also speak of the creative act, right? And get this. And if you've got a science mind, get this. There was more matter than there was before, right?

29:38Matter. You cannot, one of the cardinal flaws of science, matter can be created or destroyed, right? And what we have here is more matter by far than there was before. Bread and fish, and get this, were called into existence. Previously, it did not exist. That's what takes place. Bread and fish called into existence. Now, think about the power of an individual who can call things into existence. Listen, if you can believe this passage, the age of the earth is not a problem.

30:25Imagine the power of an individual who can call into existence. Well, this is the one that the Apostle John wants you to meet and believe in. And he wants us to listen to him and believe, right? This miracle, as I span the pages of Scripture, this miracle right here settles my confidence in Jesus like no other. This miracle gives me the most confidence in God's ability to answer my prayers, to answer prayer, to bring about anything that He has promised in Scripture. Nothing is beyond Him.

31:13I think that's why it's recorded by all gospel writers. I think Ryle's comment here is appropriate. Let me just read it to you because it speaks to this issue that nothing is beyond him. In healing the sick, and I quote, and raising the dead, something was amended or restored that had already existed. In feeding 5,000 men with five loaves, something must have been created which before had no existence. Such a history as this ought to be specially instructive and encouraging to all who endeavor to do good to souls. It shows us the Lord Jesus is able to save to the uttermost. He is one who has all power over dead hearts. Not only can He mend that which is broken, build up that which is ruined, heal that which is sick, and strengthen that which is weak, he can do even greater things than these. He can call into being that which was not before and call it out of nothing.

32:28We must never despair of anyone being saved so long as there is life, there is hope. Reason and sense may say some poor sinner is too hardened to be brought to Christ. But faith will reply: Our Master can create as well as renew. With the Savior who by his Spirit can create a new heart, nothing is impossible. You see, Jesus has power to do all things. He can call all things into existence. He has power. And he is gracious. And he is compassionate. And he is approachable. You see who Jesus or who John is presenting to us?

33:24So how should we approach him? How should we approach him? Well, certainly not the way the crowd who enjoyed his hospitality approached him. And that's what we're going to see next. We have looked at the compassion of Jesus. We've looked at the power of Jesus. And now I want to look at the sin of the people, those who grossly sinned against his hospitality. And those who sinned against the compassion and power of Jesus. I want to look at verses 14 and 15. But first of all, notice this. They made a correct correlation of who he was. They made a correct correlation. Look at verse 14. Therefore, for in light of this incredible miracle, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, This truly, this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world. You see, they made the right connection, right? Jesus was. Certainly, the prophet that Moses spoke about. Your mind goes back to Deuteronomy 18. There is a lot of hope in the coming of a prophet. Listen to what Deuteronomy 18:15 says. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. So this is Moses speaking, right? A prophet like me. Verse 18 of Deuteronomy 18: I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, Moses, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I commanded him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. So the crowd gets it. This is the prophet. Moses spoke about a prophet. This is him. In fact, they did a whole lot better than the Jews in chapter 5 down at Bethesda that were trying to kill Jesus, right? Look back at the very last verse in chapter 5, verse 46.

35:38For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? So the Jews there at Bethesda, who wanted to kill him, they didn't even believe the words of Moses. They didn't connect the dots that Jesus is the prophets. But this crowd up here in Galilee, they connect. The knots. Jesus is the prophet. But then they horribly sin against the prophet. And I think there's a danger here for us as well. So pay attention.

36:16There is a sinful intention in the hearts of these people who partook. Look at verse 15. He makes it clear, Jesus makes it clear that the crowd was going to take him by force and make him their king. Verse 15, so Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, stop right there. Jesus, knowing he perceived that they were, here's that word again, fixing, fixing to come to take him by force and to cause him to make him king.

36:52And here's their thought: if the first prophet Moses had led the people out of slavery to Egypt, surely the second prophet would help us get away from Rome. Now think about this. They had witnessed, they had heard. I mean, they had witnessed Jesus, they had heard Jesus, they had seen the power. Surely this individual who could do this thing could provide for his people. Moses provided manna in the wilderness, provided bread from heaven. Here we have somebody else providing bread. From heaven, surely he can take out the Romans.

37:36And if he is unwilling to do so, if he will not take on that leadership, then we are going to foment a rebellion right here, right now. You got 5,000 men. That's a pretty good little militia right there, right? We're going to foment a rebellion. We're going to crown him king. We're going to declare him to be the king, and we're going to dare the authorities to respond. And in this way, we will force him to assume the mantle of our king.

38:18So, what is the sin of the crowd? The sin of the crowd was to use Jesus to further their own ends. And maybe you have come to believe that Jesus is God, that he is God come in the flesh. Maybe you even can look at the pages of Scripture and say, He is gracious. I see he is compassionate. I see he is powerful. And I see that he is approachable. I see all that. So I come to him. And then a spirit of madness comes over you. And you say to the one who is gracious, to the one who is hospitable, you do what I want you to do.

39:00You ever been there? This is a struggle for us all, right? God, you can speak things into existence. You can speak to my situation and you can change it like that, so do it. That's madness in the soul of man. Beware of a spirit that demands Jesus to advance your own ends. Such a spirit does not come to be taught, but to control. I want you to see the tragic consequence of this crowd's reaction. Verse 15. So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force and make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.

39:55He departed. He withdrew. Jesus was not going to be tempted or corralled into military aggression against the Romans. Two consequences. Number one, they didn't get what they wanted. If Jesus was king enough to heal, king enough to create, king enough to overthrow the government, then he was also wise enough to know when and how to do it, right? But they wanted to force Jesus to advance their cause. And because of this, They didn't even get the king they wanted.

40:35Tragic history has followed the Jewish people ever since. And any student of history will readily affirm. The king they wanted didn't exist. And they didn't get what they wanted. But what's more sad, they didn't get what Jesus was offering. Not only did they not get the king they want, they didn't get what Jesus was offering them. I read recently the top ten saddest expressions in the English language, top ten expressions. Among them are goodbye. Certainly that's a sad expression. The word terminal, no matter how you put it, doesn't seem to have a positive spin on it. Sad words, it might have been. And as James pointed out, Astros, Aggies, what could have been, right?

41:46Sad words. But above those words, here's one that I would say tops the list, even though it wasn't even on the top ten. This is number one: Jesus withdrew. Jesus withdrew. That's got to be the saddest phrase. Jesus is the king. He is. And he is not going to be made to fit a role defined by man. Man is going to fit the role that the king chooses. The crowd had it backwards, didn't they? So do many of us. We'll recognize his kingship, we'll recognize his lordship, but then we want him to serve us and advance our ends. But that's all the way around. That's backwards.

42:41He is the king. He has the supply. He has the wisdom. We are to learn from him and listen to him. They recognized that Jesus was the prophet that Moses spoke of, but then they didn't pay attention to the next part of the verse. Listen to him. Listen to him. It's not just recognizing him, it's listening to him. What do we really need? What do we really need as people? Well, we need a king. King doesn't need us, not this kind of king. Jesus doesn't need us to make him strong. We need him. We need a king, number one, who will provide for us. John makes it abundantly clear. That Jesus is sufficient to provide. Number two, we need a king who will justly pardon us. John makes it very clear that Jesus is able to justly pardon us to an abundant degree, make us righteous. But third, we also need a king who will guide us, right?

43:53In fact, when the disciples come to Jesus and they ask him, teach us how to pray, what does he tell them? He says, Pray like this: Give us this day our daily bread. We need someone to provide. Forgive our debts. We need someone to forgive. Lead us not into temptation. We need someone who will guide us. That's what we need. And the other tragic conclusion of this event is that Jesus withdrew. They didn't get the king that they were wanting, and they missed the gift that God was giving them in Christ. They're like that little girl who rejected the gift of the bicycle, and she didn't even get her little lipstick.

44:48And the comparison is about like that, right? What we need, what we think we want, is so small in comparison to what our Provider wants to give. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you that you walked among us, that our confidence is in a God who can create matter out of nothing, but it's not just raw power that draws us, it's your compassion, and that you use your power to satisfy the needs of your creation. So, Father, forgive us where we have been ungrateful to your charity and your kindness and your hospitality. And we have seen your power and wanted to force you into our little world and make you fit our little understanding and to serve our puny needs all the time without recognizing that you are good and that you have so much lined out for us. Father, forgive us as we have tried to use you to advance our ends and not been mindful of just being grateful. Father, cause us, help us, forgive us to understand the truth, understand your supply, see this beautiful picture that John has laid for us and then respond correctly. Respond by coming to you.

46:25We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.