Questions From God

1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

So chapter 6 begins by saying - AFTER THESE THINGS, Jesus heads to the other side of the Sea of Galilee

AFTER WHAT THINGS...

What had Christ just been doing - He had just been HEALING people…performing SIGNS and miracles...

You know - typical Saturday stuff for Jesus...

So he and some of the disciples get to the other side…and we read this exchange...

John 6:5–6 ESV

5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

A QUESTION - employed by Jesus...

And this shouldn’t be shocking - Jesus asked MANY questions during His time on earth...

Think of that!

God in the flesh - asking questions...

It was a way for Him to - TEACH...

Let’s look at some questions that Jesus asked his disciples...

Why are you afraid…O you of little faith?

Are you still without understanding?

Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?

Am I not allowed to do what I please with what belongs to me?

For which is greater, the gold, or the temple which made the gold sacred?

Question after Question after Question...

And the purpose of the Questions was to PEAL back the layers of the HEART…so that we could EXAMINE what we find!

And so the QUESTION - became a WEAPON to PENETRATE the limitation of mankind…in that we again - ALWAYS get hung up on - THE PHYSICAL!

And we see this very thing in the Bible..

Listen to this exchange in Matthew

Matthew 16:6–12 ESV

6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

BEWARE of their teaching - which will SPREAD (LIKE LEAVEN) - and destroy

Questions - divine questions meant to pierce our hearts and minds…to change us

So back to our text today - Jesus asks PHILLIP a question...

John 6:5 ESV

5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

He asks a question...

for what reason?

To get Phillip to - THINK.

We CAN’T forget what the main point is of this book...

John 20:31 ESV

31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

And so LETS ask ourselves a question....

Does Jesus ask us questions today?

He does...

How?

The answer is found in our text…v5

John 6:5 ESV

5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

Do you see it? How does Jesus ask us questions today??

Here it is: A large crowd was coming toward Him

a large, HUNGRY crowd was coming toward Him...

There it is! THIS is how Jesus asks us questions today!

SLIDE: Divine Questions: Come With Every Situation of Life

Divine Questions

What was the situation - in our text?

It was PASSOVER...

A LARGE number of people (HUNGRY) were coming to Jesus and the disciples...

And the question was asked - by God - How are we going to handle this??

NOW - notice what the slide says - in EVERY situation of life…the question comes!

And on EITHER SIDE OF THIS FENCE - we end up finding that TRIUMPH or LOSS can bring the same sinful reaction

When LIFE is HARD…the divine question comes...

*last week Mackenzie Malone’s wife Sarah (22 years old) - found out she has stage 4 lymphoma...

Recently, Charles’ friend Ritchie passed away...

Rosie is struggling with getting her pace-maker to work properly...

When life is HARD…when it DOESN’T turn out how we had hoped...

When Job’s family was taken out...

When Joseph was sold into slavery…on day 1 in captivity, not knowing how long he’d be there

When Daniel was dumped into the lion’s den

When Jacob worked 7 years to attain Rachel as his wife, only to find out it would cost him another 7 years on top of that

When David’s sin was exposed by Nathan

When Peter’s lack of faith was exposed by the crow of a rooster

When Paul’s persecution of the church became directed at himself

The QUESTION comes!

EVERY situation in life brings with it a DIVINE question...

This is how (1 of the ways) Christ asks us questions today...

SO - when life is HARD and the walls are caving in - the question comes!!

BUT

ALSO - when life is GOOD and the walls seem STURDY - the question comes!!

Even then...

And yet it seems like the ANSWER is an EASY one when things in life are going well...

You get that RAISE...

You get that job you were hoping to get

That guy or girl says - YES i WILL marry you

You find out you ARE pregnant after trying to years

You MAKE the team

You WIN the game

You ACE the test

IT’S ALL going well!

the question comes!

How are we going to HANDLE this - this good news?

AND SO WE NEED TO KNOW...

If DIVINE QUESTIONS COME in EVERY situation of life...

then that means...

SLIDE: Your Response: Reveals Your Heart Toward God

Your Response

We will be more prone to rage against God in the bad times, or elevate ourselves arrogantly in the good times, than we will be to praise Him in the midst of the darkness

And so - HERE in our text - we find an occasion for Jesus to DIG into the heart of PHILLIP…and ask Him...

…”what does your heart say about Me?”

When Jesus saw the situation before Him...

He used it as a chance to peal back the layer of Phillip’s heart...

And in asking him - Where are we to buy bread for these people...

He was asking him - Who do you say that I am?

So back to our first point....did Jesus need to ask Phillip the question, for the question to be relevant?

NO!

If tomorrow, you find yourself in a SEEMINGLY impossible situation...

The SEEMINGLY impossible situation WILL provide the question....

“Who is Jesus Christ to you?”

Think about what happened to Job.

Job 1:18–19 ESV

18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Hard to imagine...

But how did Job respond?

Job 1:20–22 ESV

20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Now - this is something that clearly happened to Job on a personal level...

In those cases, we’ll often seek God in some form or fashion...

Tragedy comes, and we either want to EMBRACE God....or FIGHT Him...

But like in our text today...

What about situations that are more of a general nature...

Many people were coming to Jesus and they were probably going to need to eat… Just a general situation

So in your life - maybe tomorrow at work you find out that you’re going to be asked to give a presentation at the end of the work day...

Hardly ANY time to prepare...

The QUESTION comes - Jesus does ask you in that moment - “What do you think of Me?”

Will our minds RUN STRAIGHT to:

ALRIGHT - I have to figure out how much time I have to prepare

Have to figure out how I’m going to cancel...

my prior meetings so I can at least look at what I’ll be presenting...

Have to figure out if I’m going to eat lunch, or just skip it

Is THIS where we go first?

DO we first start DOING the MATH like Phillip did?

OR - do we START by - taking it to the Lord!?

*My Dad - when he’s running late in the morning (VERY EARLY) for work...

…he’s told me that he doesn’t treat the empty roads at 3 am as his own personal RACE TRACK...

He drives the speed limit, because in his mind he’s thinking...

God is not surprised that I’m running late today...

He ORDAINED this to happen…i’m not going to SPEED my way because I’m running late.

In that SMALL situation - that’s taking it to the Lord - FIRST!

That’s LETTING God REIGN - in the routine things of life...

That’s not trying to DO LIFE - in our own STRENGTH! But HIS!

Zechariah 4:6 ESV

6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Galatians 5:16 ESV

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

OK, so - HOW DO WE DO THIS?

How can we - CHRISTIANS - do this?

Walking through life - BY THE SPIRIT...

Responding to the DIVINE question that comes in EVERY SITUATION of life...

and responding in a God-Honoring way…?

I think the answer is found in Romans 12

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

When Jesus asked Phillip that day - Where are we to buy bread for these people....

Phillip’s RESPONSE revealed that his mind was functioning at the WORLDLY level...

He was thinking in his OWN power…He AND Andrew.

And what ended up being the result of that?

Andrew had said what?

John 6:8–9 ESV

8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”

The result of mankind RELYING on his OWN power....might....wisdom...

The result is always - LIMITATION

At EVERY turn - mankind forgets how LIMITED we really are!

We NEED - we are in DESPERATE NEED of a RENEWED MIND!

Romans 12:2 ESV

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

• If you want to break free from conformity to the world...

• If you long for the day when you FIRST seek the LORD in EVERY SITUATION...

• If you long to be transformed from the inside out, so that you stop THINKING of Christ as merely a:

therapist

butler

or a shoulder to cry on...

BUT AS LORD....

• If you want THIS kind of freedom...

• then pursue with all your might...the renewal of your mind.

Now, that sounds as though we're the ones who power the renewal...who make it happen.

But let's look at this...

The only way this happens for us...this renewal of mind, is if the Holy Spirit is behind it...

• This word 'renewal' here in verse 2:

• This word is only found in one other place in the Greek Bible....

Titus 3:5 ESV

5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

• 'Renewal' of the Holy Spirit...

• The Holy Spirit renews the mind...

• This thing starts with Him...the Holy Spirit....

- and before we get into what He does, let's look at the AIM of this renewal (the point of it)...

Back to verse 1 in Romans 12:

Romans 12:1 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

• Yes, the aim of this renewed mind is so that all of our lives would be - worship...

• that EVERYTHING we do would be done in the shadow of lifted hands to Him..

• That all of our lives would become worship...

That PHILLIP - when asked - How they were going to feed all those people - WOULD HAVE SAID - HAA…are you kidding me Jesus - YOU’RE GOD IN THE FLESH...

- COMMAND THESE STONES to turn into FISH - and they will!

You’re the SON of GOD!

THAT - would have been a God-Honoring response!

• This is the aim...ok, But what does the Spirit do...?

i think 2 Corinthians 3:18 will help us...

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

• So what does the Spirit do to 'transform' us into an image of the God-exalting Son of God?

What does the Spirit DO to RENEW our MINDS into SEEING life differently in that EVERYTHING is now filtered through the lens of Jesus Christ as Lord!??

• He enables us to 'behold the glory of the Lord'...

• This is how our mind is renewed...by gazing at the glories of Jesus and seeing them for what they are.

AND SO - you see how there's 2 aspects to this?

Our minds are renewed by:

1. gazing at the glories of Jesus

2. seeing them for what they are....Glorious!

• 2 sides to this, and the Spirit must do both...

• He must work in our lives:

• from the outside-in....and

• from the inside-out

• He must work from the outside in by exposing our minds to Christ-exalting truth.

• That is, he must lead us to hear the gospel, to read the Bible...

• ...to study Christ-exalting writings of great, spiritual men...

• ...and to meditate on the perfections of Christ.

• He must lead us to these things...

But then He must also work in our lives:

• from the inside-out

• If all the Holy Spirit did was lead us to the truths of God in hearing the gospel, and left it at that....

• we would all reject THAT truth...

If all the Holy Spirit did was lead us to the truths of God in hearing the gospel, and left it at that....we would all reject that truth.

• The Holy Spirit must break our hard hearts...so that we CAN receive the truths of God, and embrace them...

And once embraced, the way that the RENEWED MIND is formed...

is by - LISTEN - the TESTING of Jesus Christ

Romans 12:2 ESV

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

And so when Jesus asked Phillip - How are we going to feed all these people...

We see in the text itself - that this was - a TEST

John 6:6 ESV

6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

And so THINK thru it - TESTS come - Divine Questions come today through - TRIALS...

AND SO - are TRIALS THEN - a Blessing or a CURSE?

Do you see how NOW - in Christ - our TRIALS are NOW BLESSINGS...

They bring with them- these DIVINE Questions...

• This is what it means to BE ON YOUR WAY TO A - renewed mind.

And it’s a GLORIOUS THING....not a damning thing...

WHY?

SLIDE: God-Honoring Answers: Reveal God’s Working in You

God-Honoring Answers

Seeing all of life through the lens of Jesus Christ is the CONDUIT to pure JOY...

Do you want a life filled with unshakeable JOY?

Pursue a RENEWED mind!!

When TRIALS come - HEAR the QUESTION...

Most times we DON’T!

RECOGNIZE the question!

And in recognizing the question… pursue with all the WEAKNESS you can muster up - the God-Honoring answers that bring Him glory...

We’ve been talking in Bible Study how DEPENDENT we all really are on each other...

That if we’re wanting to pursue Christ the way He would want us to, we would get to a place...

…where we could LOOK at our fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ...

…and say - I GIVE YOU PERMISSION to challenge me...

…to call me out if you see me heading astray...

If we DO NOT get to that place - when someone does lovingly come up along side us...

to help us see a sin in our lives -

We Will Get Angry - and RUN...

I’ve seen it...

You’ve SEEN it...

Think of how MATURE in the faith David was when Nathan came to him to show him his sin...

In the very moment that Nathan said - YOU’RE THE MAN!

YOU have SINNED!

David could have easily MISSED the Divine Question that was before him...

But he didn’t...

In that MOMENT - David heard the question…and he ANSWERED...

And his answer was God-Honoring...

He said - “I have SINNED against the Lord”

The question came to David from God - “David, who do say that I am?”

And David’s answer GLORIFIED God!

SUMMARY

SLIDE: Divine Questions: Come With Every Situation of Life

Divine Questions

SLIDE: Your Answer: Reveals Your Heart Toward God

Your Answer

SLIDE: God-Honoring Answers: Reveal God’s Working in You

God-Honoring Answers

May we be a people who LISTEN for these questions...

Who embrace these questions...

And who walk through life answering in a God-honoring way...

Let’s pray

Have a Great Week

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