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(upbeat music) - Hi, I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions. This is
Pastor Tom, and we are beginning to look at John chapter six today. We're going to
be looking at one of Jesus' greatest miracles this week.

As we look at this miracle, it's a reminder of what we've been seeing all
throughout this book of John. Jesus meets our needs. He meets our most basic
needs, our deepest needs.

We've seen already that he's the living water. We're going to see in this chapter
that he is the bread of life. When you think about what it takes to keep you
going in life, Jesus is what it takes.

Like gas to a car or electricity to a bulb, Jesus is what we need in our daily
lives to make it through. He is, he's the basic source of life. He is the bread
that our most basic need.

And in John chapter six, Jesus uses two methods to teach his disciples then and
now that he is the one who's able to provide for our needs. He uses an object
lesson, a very powerful one in a miracle, and then he uses a teaching session.
He talks about what he's just done.

Let's begin our look this week with John chapter six, one through four, and sort
of set the stage for what Jesus is going to do. John six, one. Sometime after
this, Jesus crossed over to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee, that is the Sea
of Tiberias, and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the
miraculous signs that he'd performed on the sick.

Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish
Passover feast was near. We're going to see in just a moment a miracle related.

It's the only miracle that's recorded in all four gospels, and it's about to
happen. You know how powerful it is in that every one of the gospel writers
recorded this miracle. From here and the other gospels where this miracle is
recorded, we see how the scene is set for this miracle.

There are really five things that set the scene. When something happens, where
it happens is extremely meaningful. And in this miracle, in these first four
verses and in the other gospels, we see that the disciples, the learners from
Jesus, had just finished their first preaching experience.

So they're excited, but they're also worn out. Jesus has just learned of the
death of John the Baptist, and even though he, as God, I believe, knew it was
coming, he still had to feel the disappointment and heard of that. Jesus
himself, we're told, was weary from ministering to the crowds, and Jesus and his
disciples had gone up to this mountainside to be alone.

The Passover was near, this time of deep and high spiritual interest, and in
that background, Jesus does something that foreshadows the miracle that he's
about to do with his disciples. He foreshadows the miracle by asking a question.
And here's something interesting.

When God wants to do something great in your life, it often begins with a
question. John chapter six, verse five. When Jesus looked up and saw a great
crowd coming toward him.

Now, just remember, they didn't expect a great crowd. They'd gone there to get
away from the crowd, but he sees this great crowd coming toward him, and he says
to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? " This powerful
miracle that we're about to see, just remember that for Jesus and especially his
disciples, it began with an unwelcome interruption.

This crowd was coming towards them as they'd gotten away for a rest. Truth is,
life is filled with sudden interruptions, unexpected interruptions. And my first
tendency, probably yours is too, is to ask why.

The example of Jesus, the way he taught, the way he lived is to show us that
instead of asking why, we should ask what. What is God trying to teach me
through this interruption? God allows interruptions in our lives, even unwelcome
ones, because they teach us things.

And the key to understanding this miracle that we're about to see is to ask
what. What is Jesus trying to teach us? He later calls what he teaches here the
lesson of the loaves, the lesson that's in the bread.

What's he trying to teach us? Well, he's trying to teach us how to trust him.
And in lesson one that we're going to look at today, I'd call it the yardstick
lesson.

Jesus teaches us this, do not measure a problem or a challenge according to your
own abilities. We all tend to use the wrong measuring stick. We look at the
problem, we measure our abilities, and then we panic, unless the problem seems
downsized to our abilities.

But then we never tackle the biggest problems of life. We never get involved in
the biggest opportunities of life. And so the lesson here is, do not measure a
problem or a challenge according to your own abilities.

Otherwise, you'll only get involved in small things in life, never in great
things in life. Jesus loves impossible circumstances. We've seen this already
through the Gospel of John, a virgin birth, a woman that no one else could
reach, Jesus reached this woman, a man who'd been sick for 38 years, Jesus
healed this man, a crowd we're going to see in just a moment who has no food.

Later in the Gospel of John, we're going to see a man who's been dead for four
days and Jesus resurrects him. The words omnipotent, all-powerful, and
impossible, they shouldn't even appear in the same dictionary. Impossible does
not bother God.

Can you imagine Jesus chewing his fingernails, worried about whether it's going
to happen or not? Can you imagine him pacing the room really concerned? No,
because he knows he has all of history and all of our lives in his hands.

And so he asked this question of Philip, and he's really asking him about how
he's measuring the problem. In verse six, the Bible tells us exactly why he
asked him. Verse six says he asked this only to test him, to test Philip, for he
already had in mind what he was going to do.

Why does Jesus love the impossible? Because it provides a real test. When
something seems impossible to me, it provides a real test in my life.

And what's the test for? What's any test for? A test isn't to make us feel dumb,
to show us what we don't know.

Maybe some did that in school for you. But the real purpose of a test is to show
you what you do know, to give you the opportunity to share what you do know or
to see what you know. And that's why God puts us, allows impossible
circumstances in our lives.

He puts us in impossible situations to stretch our undeveloped faith. He puts us
in impossible situations to strengthen our eternal hope. He puts us in
impossible situations to show his incredible love.

I want you to notice as we walk through this that Jesus allows his disciples to
struggle with the problem for a few moments before he works the miracles. He
wouldn't do that in our lives, would he? Well, of course he would, because the
purpose is not so much the miracle.

That's what he wants to do in us because that's what's going to last. This
miracle of feeding the 5,000, that lasted as long as the 5,000 were fed. But the
lessons he taught his disciples, those lasted all the way into eternity.

But Philip had a lesson to learn. In John 6-7, here's his answer back to Jesus.
Philip answered him, "Eight months wages would not buy enough bread "for each
one to have a bite.

" I want you to notice the difference between Jesus's question and Philip's
answer. Jesus asks, "Where will we go to find the bread? " And Philip answers,
"Here's how much it will cost.

" This is an extremely important moment in any of our lives. And we often do
this. I do this.

I would guess that you probably do this. Philip substituted a second question
for Jesus's question. And so then it seemed impossible to him because he was
concerned about his concern.

How much could it cost? Rather than thinking about, "Where will I go? " You see,
that was the question.

But Philip, in his mind thought, "Well, we have to go to a store. "We have to
buy it somewhere. " So he began to think about the cost of it.

Sometimes when you feel like something is impossible, it could never happen.
There's too many barriers in the way. One of the greatest things in life is to
get back to the original question.

Because God, when he asks us the original question, the answer is often in the
question. And so when he says, "Where will we go? " The answer was obviously,
"Well, to you, Lord.

" I mean, you're the one who turned the water to wine. You're the only one who
could possibly feed this many people. It's to you that we have to go.

But once in your mind, you think there is some other solution, some other way,
and you try to figure that out on your own energy, of course it's impossible. So
oftentimes when you're in a situation that seems like, "I'm trapped. "I can't
get out.

"God's asking me to have faith, but I can't have faith. " It's good to take a
step back and go back to the original question. Where do I go?

Where do I start? Now, the truth is, you might be facing an impossible situation
right now. It might seem like a small impossible situation.

It might seem like a life-changing, life-altering, huge impossible situation. So
as we go to prayer today, as we talk to the Lord for a few minutes, my question
to you is this. Just in prayer, ask God this question.

"God, what question do I hear you asking me "in the midst of this situation? "Do
I hear you asking, "how can I be brought closer to you in this? "How can my
focus be even more deeply on heaven "even through this?

"Do I hear you asking, where do I go? "Where do I start? "Am I starting with
you, Jesus?

"Am I trusting you? "Am I starting with me and some solution "that I have in my
mind? " God, I admit before you today, you are wiser than I am.

You have all the resources that are needed. And so in this moment, even though
the situation seems impossible, I realize I can trust you. And I do.

I trust you with my life. I trust you with this situation. And I pray that you
help me.

Help me to see what it is that you want me to do next. I pray this in your name.
Amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to see the miracle that Jesus works in verses eight
to 14. And we're going to see why he does it.