Reading for Aug 31: John 7:45-49

45 Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?"
46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"
47 Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."

Reading for Aug 30

40 Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet." 41 Others said, "This is the Christ."
But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?" 43 So there was a division among the people because of Him. 44 Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

My Comments:

Just one brief comment today. Isn't it just shocking at how hard some people will work to try and prove that Jesus is not who He says He is. What's so bad is that they work so hard and are still completely wrong. In today's reading we see an example of this; one group tried to say that Jesus could not be the messiah because they thought that He was not born in the scripturally designated, prophesized place of the messiah's birth. When in fact Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Galilee as proposed by the crowds.

Reading for Aug 29: John 7:37-39

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

My Comments:

"Thirsts…come…drink", three words that summarize the gospel invitation. First, one must thirst; there must be recognition that something else is needed. A spiritual thirst if you will. Then one must search out that something that they need; they must "come". Finally, they must drink. It's not enough to see the water, or gather around the water and believe that it is there. It's not even enough to sing about the water and praise the water for being good water. One must drink the water for one's thirst to be satisfied.

For salvation to be complete, not only must you recognize that you need salvation, not only must you go to Jesus and recognize that He is the way that salvation can be obtained; you must drink. You must, by faith, take Jesus in with the knowledge that you know, without a doubt, that that action is going to save you. The same way that when you turn up a bottle of water, you have no doubt that that water is going to quench your thirst.

You don't take a drink, hold it in your mouth until Sunday is over, then spit it out, return to your usual activities, then expect to be without thirst. The same is true with Jesus and salvation. You can't just take a taste of Jesus and expect to be saved; He must be taken in completely.

Reading for Aug 28: John 7:33-36

33 Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. 34 You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come."
35 Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What is this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come'?"

My Comments:

For my comments today I'm going to ask a question or actually two questions. Jesus told the Jewish leaders that they could not go where He was going, even though they would "seek" Him. First question is why could they not go? Second question is how do you know that you can go where He is?

Reading for Aug 27: John 7:25-32

25 Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill? 26 But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? 27 However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from."
28 Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. 29 But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me."
30 Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. 31 And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"

My Comments:

This is an interesting passage. In it we see the response of the "common" people to Jesus. As a whole they seem somewhat conflicted about Jesus actually being the messiah. Some were saying that maybe He was indeed the messiah because the leaders were letting Him teach in public despite their previous desires to kill Him. Others were doubtful because they believed that when the messiah came they would not know Him or where He was from and they knew Jesus and where He was from, so He couldn't be the messiah.

Jesus responds by telling them that, yes they do know where He is from but what they don't know is Him (The Father) who sent Him (Jesus). However, Jesus does know Him (The Father) who sent Him so He must be the messiah as He has claimed. (Clear as mud, huh)

When the Jewish leader heard of the discussions from the people they again set out to kill Jesus, but they were unable to catch Him.

Reading for Aug 24: John 7:19-20

19 Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?"
20 The people answered and said, "You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?"

Reading for Aug 23: John 7:17-18

17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.
18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.

Reading for Aug 22: John 7:14-16

14 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. 15 And the Jews marveled, saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?"
16 Jesus answered them and said, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.

Reading for Aug 21: John 7:10-13

10 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. 11 Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, "Where is He?" 12 And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, "He is good"; others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people." 13 However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

Comment:

I only have one brief comment today. Jesus was not being inconsistent or untruthful or dishonest by going to the feast when He had previously said that it was not yet time because what He was referring to was a public entrance. It was not time for His triumphant procession as it would be in about 6 months from then on the first Palm Sunday.

Reading for Aug 20: John 7:1-9

1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 2 Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him.
6 Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come." 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.

Comments:

"After these things" meaning after the events in chapter 6, which based on the two "Feast" mentioned (Chapter 6's Passover in Apr. and Chapter 7's Booths in Oct.) puts about 6 months between the chapters. During these 6 months Jesus spent walking with, and I'm sure teaching, those following Him. If you remember at the end of Ch. 6 some of His "disciples" left and walked with Him no more, missing out on the opportunity to meet with Jesus face to face. This left a smaller group, but as we will see, still within this group were those who did not fully comprehend who Jesus was and what He was there to do.

Verse 3 says that Jesus' brothers wanted Him to go show Himself in Judea. They wanted everyone to see all that Jesus could do. Their motivation for this is not explicitly stated but it is likely that they wanted one or each of these two things: that Jesus would show Himself publicly as the Messiah and become the political king they expected and/or that Jesus would show Himself authentic to them because of their own lack of belief. Whatever their motivation, Jesus responds by telling them that He is not going because it is not yet His time.

In the verses following, Jesus reveals the true nature of His brothers. He tells them that even though His time has not yet come because He is in the will of His Father; their time is always ready because they are not in the will of the Father. In fact they are of the world, that's why He says the world cannot hate them. The brothers did not believe in Him (verse 5) so they were still trying to put things on their timetable instead of God's.

Reading for Aug 18: John 6:66-71

66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"
68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" 71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

Reading for Aug 17: John 6:59-65

59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.    
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"
61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."

 

Comments:

Jesus had just taught some profound things in the synagogue at Capernaum, one of the most important was that He was God and that through Him came salvation. Some of the "disciples" who heard this thought that the teaching was too hard. Jesus rebukes them immediately, saying that they haven't seen anything yet.

He goes on to say that the reason that they can't understand is because they only have their fleshy natural minds to evaluate the situation with. He points out that "It is the Spirit who gives life and the flesh profits nothing" and there were some there who did not believe so they lacked the Spirit. So that brings us back to the question, why did they not believe? They had Jesus right there with them, they had witnessed great miracles; how could they not believe? Well Jesus says it plainly; they were not drawn by the Father and given to Jesus as He has planned.

Reading for Aug 16: John 6:47-58

47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"
53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."

 

Comments

This is a long passage today; I'll leave the commenting to you guys.

Reading for Aug 15: John 6:41-46

41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." 42 And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'?"
43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.

Comments:

Yesterday, Jesus emphatically told the Jews that He was the "bread of life" and that this "bread" is the source of eternal life. In verse 41 we see that this angered the Jews. Why? Because, they knew that He was equating Himself with God so, as it has been said, Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic (and therefore a blasphemer as they charged) or He was indeed Lord (as He claimed). There is no ambiguity about it, Jesus said He was God; either you believe Him or you don't.

The Jews didn't believe, and that begs the question: why didn't they believe? Jesus answers that for us in verse 44, "no one can come to Me (i.e. believe in Jesus) unless the Father who sent Me draws him." So in the context of the passage we see that Jesus is telling them that the reason they are murmuring and do not believe is because the Father has not drawn them. That leads us to a bigger question, why didn't the Father draw them? Why does He call some but not others? That is a much harder question to answer so I'll leave it open for discussion. I'll lead off the discussion by saying this: man by nature loves sin; in fact he/she is dead in sin (Eph. 2:1, Col. 2:13). Unless their desires are changed by an external force then they will remain unchanged because man is powerless to change their sinful natures (Jeremiah 13:23, Rom 5:6). That "force" that changes the lost's desires for sin is God working in many different ways, including using us Christians, His church, to tell those lost who Jesus is and what He has done.

There is one more thing I should say, the reason I want to leave this open for discussion is because this is an actively debated topic amongst Christians with very Godly mature Christians on both sides; so let the discussion begin.

Reading for Aug 14: John 635-40

35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

 

Comments:

Here Jesus comes right out and tells the crowd what He meant about receiving the bread of life. They thought Jesus was referring to an actual piece of physical bread that would give them food for an eternity. So, Jesus unambiguously tells them, "I am the bread of life" and whoever comes to Him will never again hunger or thirst. He is not talking about a desire for food and drink, but about the need to know God; a "hunger and thirst" for knowledge.

What follows in Jesus' discussion is some great and deep theology, let's go through it piece by piece.

1. Comes and believes (v35) - to "come" to one place you must leave another. To come to Jesus one must first leave sin, that is repent; and then one can summit fully to God. The other side of the coin is belief. To believe in Christ is to completely trust Him as the one and only Savior and the Son of God. Both coming and believing, repentance and faith describes man's part in the process of salvation; they must both be together. One without the other is useless.
   
2. "All that the Father gives Me…" (v37) – this teaches that those of us who have come Jesus have been chosen and given to Him as a gift from His Father. Every soul saved is an expression of love to the Son from the Father.
   
3. "…will come to Me" – the gift (us, the Church) will be delivered to the Son. The Father cannot make a mistake with His gift, it will come. If that is the case then man cannot have anything to do with it, it has to be all God. If it was left up to man no one would come to Christ , as it says in Romans 3:11, "there is none who seeks for God."
   

   Well you might be asking, what about the coming and believing? Isn't that the job of the person, so therefore he/she is doing something to receive salvation? Actually, scripture teaches that both repentance (Acts 11:18, 2 Tim. 2:25) and faith (Eph. 2:8-9, Phil. 1:29) are granted by God. Therefore, God is completely sovereign is the act of salvation. But isn't there some sort of human responsibility? Yes, absolutely; scripture repeatedly calls on people to repent and to "call on the name of the Lord" (Acts 17:30, Matt. 4:17, Mark 6:12, Rom. 10:13). So how do we rectify this seemingly impossible paradox?
   

4. "…I will by no means cast out" – The Son will not refuse or get rid of the gift; He will accept it lovingly. He will not refuse anyone who sincerely "comes and believes" but remember the gift is from the Father, the gift cannot give itself.
   
5. "all that He has given Me I lose nothing" – Jesus is incapable of losing anything. To say that He can is to say that He is a failure at doing what He says He will do. Jesus says, "I lose nothing"; it doesn't get much plainer than that.
   
6. "not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" – Jesus came to earth to do the will of the Father and nothing else.
   
7. "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing"- again Jesus emphatically stating that He will not lose what the Father has given him.
   
8. "everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life" – again belief is essential to obtaining the "bread of Life."
   

In conclusion, we (the Church) have been chosen to be God's gift to Jesus and He has made it possible for us to present ourselves to Jesus by giving us the ability to repent and believe. Then once the gift is given, Jesus holds on to that gift never letting go.

Reading for Aug 13: John 6:28-34

28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
30 Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"
32 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."

Comments:

At the end of last week we read how Jesus admonished the crowd that came looking for Him, telling them that they were looking for Him for the wrong reason. They were in pursuit of the satisfaction of physical needs but Jesus tells them that what they should be working for is a food that endures to eternal life.

In today's reading we see the people respond by asking what they could do to work (i.e. earn) that eternal food that Jesus had told them about. Jesus responds by basically telling them that there is nothing that they can "do", in fact He tells them that they are dependent on God. In verse 29 Jesus says first off that it is "the work of God", meaning that God is responsible for it, it is His job. Then He goes on to tell what this work of God is: belief. "This is the work of God, that you believe…" In other words it is God that gives us the ability to believe; even our own belief is from God. Without His intervention we would remain faithless. Therefore there is absolutely nothing that we can do to gain the eternal food Jesus speaks about. Only by God working in us, giving us our faith can we be saved.

The people still didn't get it. They ask Jesus what He was going to do to get them to believe. They said Moses provided manna so the Israelites would have faith, what was He going to do for them. First of all Jesus reminds them that it was not Moses who brought down the manna, it was God who sent it down. Then He tells them that He Himself is the bread of life. We will see this week what He means by this.

Reading for Aug 11: John 6: 26-27

26 Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."

Comments:

The last couple days have shown us a crowd of people searching for Jesus after He left the gathering where He miraculously fed them. Today, Jesus tells us why they were searching for Him. Before we get to that let's reflect back on what we have seen in chapter 6.

First we saw Jesus take the seemingly impossible situation of providing food for 5000 men plus their families and use that situation as an object lesson on His sovereignty over all things. He was able to feed those people with food left over. He had shown Himself to not only be God, but a God that is able and is willing to provide.

Then we read about Jesus testing the disciples with a storm. He put them out into the Sea of Galilee alone (without Jesus), without detailed information about His plans, and then on top of that sent a storm. During all that the disciple briefly tried to handle things with their own power but quickly realized that they could not. Then, once they had failed on their own, Jesus walks on water to the boat, they enthusiastically invite Him in, and then the water calmed, and instantly they were back to the shore where they needed to be to continue with His ministry.

Finally, we seen that once Jesus left, those that He fed began looking for Him, they noticed that He did not leave with the disciples and He did not take His own boat. When they finally found Him they ask how he had gotten there but Jesus doesn't answer that question. He instead reveals their heart to them. He tells them they are searching for Him because of what Jesus was able to give them not who He is. Leon Morris said it like this: "They were moved not by full hearts, but by full bellies".

Jesus goes on to make His point; we should not be working for the physical things of this life, because they will all pass away. Instead, we should strive to obtain, and then glorify, "the food which endures to everlasting Life." He says plainly that the way to receive this food is through Him because that is the will of the Father.

It is still a common misconception that one should become a follow of Christ so they will get all of their physical needs taken care. It is true that God will provide what we need if we are in His will, but that is not why we become follows. We should be servants of Christ simply because of who He is, Holy God, Creator of all things, King of the universe.

Reading for Aug 9 and 10: John 6:22-25

22 On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone— 23 however, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks— 24 when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You come here?"

Reading for Aug 8: John 6:20-21

20 But He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." 21 Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

 

Comments:

In the midst of a storm the disciples became afraid, they thought that they saw a ghost (Matt. 14:26) when in fact it was who they had been longing for the entire time, Jesus. They were resistant to leave when Jesus compelled them to go and as they sailed I'm sure they wondered what Jesus had in store for them, why had He sent them to Capernaum. So finally when they saw Jesus, after all of their failed attempts at saving themselves and even thought He came in a way that they never expected, once they recognized who He was they became overjoyed and eagerly received Jesus into the boat. In fact, Peter was so eager he got out of the boat to meet Jesus there in the water (Matt. 14:28-31).

Their faith had progressed from trusting in themselves mostly with faith in God only when it looked easy to now knowing that the only way to survive is to have God Himself in the boat with you. The storm had provided the catalyst to get the growth going, the previous miracle of feeding the thousands had provided the fertilizer, but ultimately it came down to Jesus making Himself known to them.

Then once Jesus was in the boat the boat immediately returned to shore, the storm and confusion was over, for now.

Reading for Aug. 7: John 6:18-19

18 Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. 19 So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.

 

Comments:

On the way to Capernaum a storm arose. So here the disciple were, sent out into the sea by Jesus just when things were getting good (they had crowds in the thousands), 3 or 4 miles in the middle of nowhere with no Jesus with them, and now a storm. Just what they needed, right? Well it must have been just what they needed, because Jesus was behind the whole thing and surely He didn't make a mistake. But why did they need a storm, they were doing exactly what Jesus had told them to do? We are going to see that the purpose of the storm is to take them from the condition that they were before the boat trip to the condition that they were after the boat trip.

We saw last week an example of their condition before the trip; their faith was weak. When presented with the seemingly imposable task of feeding the multitude, they turned to the physical; they turned to their own skill and wisdom.

As they rowed across the sea they were still in this weakened condition when the storm hit. Mark's account tells us that the disciples actually, initially tried to fight against the storm with their own power, "straining at the oars". So, even seeing Christ's miracle did not cause them to grow spiritually, what it did was give them a baseline to refer to. Their actual growth will come tomorrow……stay tuned.

Reading for Aug 6: John 6:16-17

16 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.

 

Comments:

This week will are going to read about Jesus walking on water, and just like last week, look at not just at the miracle of Him walking on water but instead also notice the response of the disciples. Also spend time reading the corresponding verses in the other Gospels: Matt. 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52. The three books together fit to make a nice complete story with many great learning points.

Today's verses are just the set up verses. These verse are actually two nights away from the feeding of the 5000+; in Matthew and Mark we are told the disciples were forced to go by Jesus to Bethsaida (Mark 6:45) where they thought they were going to meet back up with Jesus. However, He does not come; and this is where John picks up saying evening came. When evening came they got back into the boats and headed for Capernaum.

So here's the one line summery so far: The disciples were forced by Jesus to leave by boat to first go to Bethsaida and then they sailed in the dark to Capernaum when Jesus did not turn up.

Reading for Aug 4: John 6:11-15

11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples^[a] to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost." 13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world."

   
15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Comments:

Now that Jesus had allowed the disciples to demonstrate their lack of faith, He was now ready to show them that when He is in control anything is possible and there is never any need to doubt. He even continues to use them in His plan; having them pass out the bread and fish. He could have easily distributed the food without them but instead He allowed them to participate in the miracle, which in turn allowed them to grow spiritually.

There is so much that could be said about this miracle, about this wonderful display of Christ's grace and provision that I could never touch them all. The things that I take away from it the most is: one even though the people had His purpose all wrong He still cared about them; two, God's grace is never used up, in fact when He works you end up with more than what you started with; and three, God is faithful to accomplish His will even when our faith falters.

Reading for Aug 3: John 6:8-10

8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 9 "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"
10 Then Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

Comments:

In verses 8 and 9, we see another futile attempt by a disciple to fix the problem that had been presented to them. Andrew did at least put forth an effort, unlike Phillip who just dismissed the whole idea all together. Andrew had followed Jesus' command to go and look to see how much food was available [see Mark 6:38], but when he (Andrew) determined that only five barley loaves and two small fish were available to feed the huge crowd, he became discouraged and pessimistic. He thought that the problem was too big; even too big for Jesus. So, Andrew complained: "what are they (the five loaves and two fish) among so many?"

It is at that point that Jesus took over. He had seen both Phillip and Andrew and very likely the rest of the disciples lose faith when presented with a task by Jesus. Jesus gave the disciples a job to do and they put their trust in the physical instead of in Him. Therefore, Jesus takes charge of the situation by putting the disciples to work. He gives them a specific job sitting the people, that by itself may have seemed unrelated to the ultimate goal of feeding the crowd. I can hear them now: "how is having these people sit in the grass, in these groups [see Mark 6:40] going to get them fed." Sometimes I fall into the same trap, wondering what the jobs that God has lead me into has to do with His ultimate plan of building up His Kingdom. Just like the disciples I have trouble seeing the big picture.

Reading for Aug 2: John 6:5-7

5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.
7 Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little."

Comments:

While Jesus was on the mountain teaching the disciples the multitude came crowding around Him. He knew what they wanted (see yesterday's reading) but despite their selfish motives He still had compassion for them and still ministered to them (see Mark 6:34, Matt. 14:14, and Luke 9:11). He also knew their needs, so He recognized that they were going to need food. He used this opportunity to teach His disciples a lesson. He knew what kind of response Philip would have but wanted to use this situation as an object lesson.

He asked Philip where they could get the food to feed so many people. This was a test to see where Philip's trust was. As you know, Philip failed; his focus was still on the worldly things. His first instinct was to turn to the fallible physical things (money) instead of the infallible God, who was standing right there with Him.