As we find ourselves nearing the end of this series on our vision (at least in a formal sense), I want to take us back to the place where it all started. It was around ten weeks ago that we looked at John 6, and let it form for us a picture of how we believed God wanted to use us. And for a reminder, we said that we believed God would use us as a channel through which He would distribute His grace, much like the disciples probably did with the fish and loaves in the feeding of the five thousand, and, therefore, we titled this series “Distributing Grace to the Multitudes.”
This morning I want to progress by addressing how it is that we will be able to remain obedient to this vision. Because I will tell you, our flesh will always battle against the work of God. But I also want to expand this beyond simply dealing with our vision and ask how it is that we will be able to live a life pleasing to God in the midst of everything that will come against us.
Therefore, they ask Him to prove Himself by showing them a sign. He then rebukes them for being unwilling to believe, and He tells His men to get in a boat because they are going to leave. With this fresh in the disciples’ minds, Jesus decides to make a point about faith. He says in verse 14, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” Jesus’ warning serves as a call to the Disciples to have genuine faith and understanding apart from signs.
The disciples’ response, however, misses His entire point. It’s as if they completely ignore the reference to the Pharisees and Herod, and all they hear is the word “leaven.” And so, the disciples think He is speaking about bread which they forgot to bring because of their abrupt departure from shore. And in their typical fashion, they begin to discuss why it is that they have no bread with them. No doubt they are blaming one another and trying to pass off any responsibility.
Then Jesus, however, interrupts and brings it back to the topic He wants while still addressing the situation. He asks them why they are discussing the fact that they don’t have any bread. And He then asks them if they have eyes and yet cannot see and ears and yet cannot hear. He asks them if they are still slow to believe.
And so, He brings them back to the two earlier miracles. He asks them if they remember when He fed the five thousand how many baskets they took up. They immediately respond, “twelve.” Then He asks if they remember when He fed the four thousand how many baskets they took up. They respond, “seven.” And Mark records that Jesus ends the discussion saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?”
It’s hard to say exactly what it was that the disciples were failing to understand, but I would imagine that Christ is saying to them, “Do you not understand who I am and what I can do through the strength of my Father?” “Do you not yet understand that providing bread is no big problem for me? I am the Son of God.”
It is probably something at which we find ourselves laughing. Why wouldn’t these disciples begin to have faith in Jesus being able to provide for them after they saw all that they saw? But I believe that such a question could be posed to us as well. In fact I believe that simple faith in Christ’s provision is that which will enable to live obediently to our vision and to walking the Christians life, period. The same thing that God used in your life to bring salvation to you is that by which we must live our lives. And how did He save us? Ephesians 2:8 says that “By grace are you saved through faith.” We are saved by faith in the grace of God, and we will live obediently only as we place our faith in the grace of God.
And God shows His grace to you in life, not simply to meet our needs at that certain point but also to give us a platform for trusting Him in the future. Therefore, one could conclude that when Jesus fed the five thousand and the four thousand that it was not only to meet their needs. It was also to teach them to continually trust Him. That’s what the disciples were missing in the miracle. There was a lesson of faith behind it leading the Gentiles to place their faith in God’s provision of grace for the rest of their lives. This is our need as well.
Let me show this in a few ways personally and then as a church.
First of all, it needs to be understood that we sin because we are seeking the promise of happiness that sin seems to hold out for us, and we live obediently because we seek greater joy in God. Those are the two roads from which we will choose. It will either be a pursuit of happiness in sin or happiness in God.
So what is the key to choosing joy in God over joy in sin? It is this faith that God will provide in His grace. But how many times do we sit in the boat with Jesus, as it were, having seen His provision, and still not understand and believe enough to live obediently?
So personally, if you are battling any kind of sin, the answer is to trust in God to provide grace for you. For example, tomorrow morning I am sure that many of us will wake up with our alarms and have time to sit before the Lord and meditate on Him in the Word and in prayer. But something else will happen at that point. Your body will tell you that you are extremely tired, and you will no doubt agree. And then you will begin to think to yourself that you could go back to sleep and forget about it. In fact, you might even reason within yourself and with God that you would be more alert throughout the day if you slept in until you had to get up and go to work. And so you are in a battle.
The way in which you fight that battle is not by shear will power for your flesh is weak, and even if it works for a few days, it might not work for a long time, especially if you are kept up late for some reason. The battle is rather fought by you saying, “God I want to be obedient and I place my faith in the fact that your grace will sustain me throughout the day as I seek to do your will and that the joy of meeting with you will far exceed the joy of lying in bed.” It is only by placing your faith in the grace of God to be there for you.
The same is true with a battle with lust or any temptation. When Lili and I were dating I had to keep telling myself that our greatest joy would be waiting until we were married to have sex. And so often your flesh would tell you something different. Lies would come to mind like, “If you do something now, you can know if you want to be with her, or it will only aid in your future days together.” Such are lies, but they are not combated with mere will power. Rather, it takes you saying to God I place my trust that your will is going to be a greater joy than pre-marital sex, or pornography, or whatever else with which you are being tempted.
Such is the case with obedience in the Christian life. God asks us to be living sacrifices, and such a command requires, well, sacrifice. Therefore, the only thing that will enable you to give when you’re not sure you can, to risk when you are terrified, or to take the gospel to people that need it when it is the greatest inconvenience to you is that God will provide grace for you in which you will find great joy.
And then let me bring this around to our vision. God has done incredible things among us. When we have prayed for Him to bring fellow believers to support His work here, he has done it. As we have prayed for the salvation of people, He has saved them. After many months of prayer, people cried hearing that Nathan and Colleen had been saved. And these are great things to celebrate, but let’s not be like the disciples in the boat that day. Let’s have eyes to see and ears to hear. May we understand the lesson that God is trying to teach us by granting us such grace. God is teaching us that we can trust Him. That’s a deeper purpose behind Him answering our prayers.
And as we attempt to be faithful to our vision, God is going to call us all to do things that are going to be hard. And, in addition, the enemy is going to put much doubt in our minds concerning our obedience. How will we battle it? We will battle it by recalling when He fed the five thousand, or provided brothers and sisters, or split the sea, or saved Nathan and Colleen, and we will continue to trust that He will provide in the future as well. May our faith not be so small that we would be concerned with whether or not He could provide bread, as the disciples were.
So what will we do when we feel like God is directing us to supply the needs of the saints and we can’t afford it? What will we do when God is leading us to give to someone and it is going to require what we have as security for us?
Let’s look at such a biblical example.
In 2 Corinthians 8:1-4 Paul writes, “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, 2that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. 3For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, 4begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.”
What I want you to notice about the churches of Macedonia is that verse 4 says they were begging Paul to participate in supporting the saints, verse 2 says that were suffering a great deal of suffering and need themselves, and verse 3 says that they gave according to their ability and beyond their ability. And Paul is blown away by this. He is so amazed that He is telling these Corinthians that they may know it as well and praise God for it. But He doesn’t let it just stand as a good testimony, but in the ninth chapter, he exhorts the Corinthians to act in the same manner saying that God “will make all grace abound to you so that you will have an abundance for every good deed.” (9:8).
What Paul pointed out, we need to model as well. That is the vision that God has given us, and we need to be obedient to that. And the way that we will fight our flesh and will fight doubt as the devil throws it our way is given in 2 Corinthians 9:8. It is trusting that God’s grace will abound to us, even as we live by faith.
Let me quote John Piper to drive this home a little more. “If you want to be free form the need to stash away your money—if you want to overflow with an abundance (of grace!) for every good work … then put your faith in future grace. Trust the promise that “God is able to make all grace abound to you” in every future moment for this purpose” (Future Grace, 72).
I pray that we as individuals and as a church would not be the kind of people that Christ could say, “Do you not yet understand?” I pray that we would not be people who walk through the midst of His miracles and yet never learn to trust Him enough to step out on faith in obedience. I pray that we would be a people who walk by faith and not by sight.
May God grant us to have faith in His grace each day that we may walk obediently to Him, watching Him work in great power. Amen.