“Let Me Test You.”
by Pastor Edwin Lehmann on March 17, 2023 in John 6:1-15
The Fourth Sunday in Lent – Laetare March 19, 2023
Text: John 6:1-15 Historic Series 23:2375
Theme: “Let Me Test You.”
I wonder about the motive that led the Lord Jesus to perform this great act of gracious generosity on the crowd. Do you ever think about His motives and the reasons behind whatever He does or says? What were they here? What moved Him to say what He said and do what He did?
No question, compassion. He is “the compassionate and gracious Lord, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Ex.32:6). He cared for this great crowd of people who ran after Him. They had no food after spending the whole day with Him. They needed His help, and He would give it. In that He teaches us not to be overanxious in our daily needs for He can and will provide. But there is more about this.
John writes, “When Jesus looked up and saw a huge crowd coming toward Him, He asked Philip, ‘Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for He already knew what He was going to do.”
He already knew what He would do. But the disciples didn’t. This was a test to see if they would view a puzzling difficulty in the right perspective. Did they pass the test? I wonder if we would have passed the test had we been there. So, what was His purpose for testing them so that we learn when He says to us: “Let Me Test You”?
I. Let me test you…to draw out your faith.
Jesus and His disciples had just crossed the Sea of Galilee to get escape the crowds for a while. After two years of ministry so many people were coming to hear Him and be healed. He and the disciples needed some time alone together. Besides that, He had just learned that John the Baptist was beheaded. How sad that made them all. “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest,” He told the Twelve (Mk.6:31). So, they got into a boat and started across the lake.
But some of the people who saw them leave began running after them on the shore. Others came out from the towns along the way. They took along their sick, hoping Jesus would heal them.
When they landed on the other side, Jesus found a hill where they could rest. But soon the crowd arrived. They came “because they saw the miraculous signs he was performing on those who were sick.”
Hmmm. Seems like many of them were religious sight-seers, curiosity observers. Did they only want Jesus to entertain them?
Is that how some people see the importance of Jesus in life – a religious entertainer? Do they go to church to be entertained? That’s a wrong motive for coming to Jesus and He sees right through it. Yet, He still looks upon us with eyes of compassion for to Him we are like sheep without a shepherd (v.340. Oh, the love that the Lord Jesus has for wrong-thinking people! He is always willing to help.
Here was such an opportunity, and not just with a sight-seeking crowd. He had things to teach them, soul-saving things. So, as the crowd arrived and started up the hill, He tested His disciples in order to draw out their faith: “Let’s see what you say.”
You know, giving a test is one of the best ways for a teacher to gauge the progress of his students. Tests are good things. Throughout life we are required to take various kinds of tests. They help determine our level of growth and achievement. They show us what we still need to learn. They even serve to protect us. So it was that Jesus gave His disciples a test that they might measure the growth of their understanding of Him. Let Me Test You. Why the test?
Soon He would be taken from them in His suffering and death. It was critical for them to know exactly who He was and what He could do. And it surely isn’t any different for us.
The crowd arrived and started up the hill. “How are you going to feed them? He asked. “Where are we going to find enough bread for them to eat? Let’s see what you say.” And He did this at the beginning of the day with this crowd so that the disciples would have lots of time to think about it.
Now imagine that you are Philip mulling over Jesus’ question. You’re listening to Him teach, but your eye keeps going back to the big crowd in front of you and you start counting. Pretty soon you’re up to 50; then 100; then 500; then 1,000; then 5,000 and you are not done counting. “How can we feed them?” you think. You’re a practical person. So you get out your calculator and start doing a few computations. Pretty soon you figure out that it will take at least 8 months of your paychecks to buy enough bread for everyone to have a bite to eat, just a bite. Do carry 8 months-worth of money in your pocketbook? I don’t. Philip had even less. What could they do? Hmmm. The disciples were actually on the right track. They could do nothing about it. But would they figure out who could?
You know, the Lord often does a similar thing with us. He tests to see if we come up with the right solution to our problems, and it doesn’t lie with us. He already knows what He’s going to do. But that wouldn’t benefit us any if we didn’t have to struggle to see how helpless we are without Him. “Let me test you,” He says, “not to harm you or make you fail, but to draw out your faith in Me.”
Every test that comes from the hand of the Lord has a gracious purpose – that we might feel all the more our own inadequacies and helplessness and see more clearly His gracious and divine abilities. In every matter He seeks to draw out our faith. Sometimes it takes time, lots of time, and He graciously makes use of it for our learning.
II. Let Me Test You to see that I can handle everything.
Back to Philip mulling over the problem. He kept running into obstacles for which he had no solutions. How often don’t you feel that way, that you have no answer for the situations that confront you? Maybe you even get so worn out by them that there is nowhere to turn. “Trapped! How am I going to get out of this one?” you ask.
It’s the way Philip may have felt because when he finally had the chance to give Jesus his response, he said. “Eight months wages wouldn’t be enough to buy bread for each one to have just a bite!” In other words, “We can’t help them.”
There are times that we don’t have enough either. We don’t know where it’s going to come from. We feel the inadequacy of our own resources. Boy! Isn’t that the mood in our country right now!
Though painful to see, it’s not so bad for us. Think of it as Jesus testing, testing to see where we will turn for the answer. The answer is right in front of us; it is with Him who can handle every situation.
The answer to the problem was standing right in front of Philip and Philip didn’t see it. It was the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. He could handle it. They’d seen Him handle every situation before.
“Tell the people to sit down.” He said. They all sat on the grass. Jesus took the boy’s bread and fish, thanked His Father in heaven for the food, and had the disciples pass it out to over 5,000 people. You know, if you allow one half pound of food per person, just 8 ounces, that would mean our Savior provided around two tons of food for this crowd out of 2 little fish and 5 loaves of bread. Each loaf of bread fed over 1,000 people. Although we marvel at this miracle here, keep in mind that God repeats this miracle every day through less spectacular means to our whole world for “He opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.” There was more than enough, with lots remaining. The answer to the problem was there all along. It was Jesus. Do we see that too, in every situation of life?
But why this text now for the Fourth Sunday in Lent? Why a text about hunger and bread in Lent? Because of greater need is the hunger of our souls through sin. How will it be satisfied? The answer? Jesus who stands before us. He is the Bread of Life. We had no solution to the problem of sin and death. But He did. Without Him we would perish eternally. Yes, He performed a great miracle here. But the real test is to go beyond this, to see in Him who stands before us the Bread of Life. He has handled everything for us eternally. And if He loved us so much that He gave His life to save us, doesn’t He love us enough to make everything else turn out, too? Thank God for such a Savior!
So, as this Sunday encourages, rejoice in Him. And when He says to you, “Let Me Test You,” know that He will test you only to draw out your faith so that you see He handles everything you need in time and eternity. God grant it to us in faith for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
The Fourth Sunday in Lent – Laetare (“Rejoice”) March 19, 2023
Welcome in our Savior’s name as we humbly rejoice and are glad that the Bread of Life came to provide us with eternal blessings.
On the three remaining Sundays in Lent our attention will be focused on Christ as heaven’s King. He is not the kind of king that worldly-focused people want to make Him for He came to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil’s power. He did not come to establish an earthly kingdom in which He would supply all our earthly wants. Yet, He provides for all our needs.
This is reason to rejoice. So it was that in the middle of this season of repentance, this Sunday, with the theme “Rejoice,” reminds us that in the midst of the austere regulations of Lent, we rejoice in all that the Redeemer means for us in time and eternity. Christians are not eternally somber people, but ones who have been refreshed with the Bread of Life, glad in the salvation He brings. The psalmist invites: “Taste and see that the LORD is good. Blessed is everyone who takes refuge in Him” (Ps.34:8).
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Rejoice In Christ Who Refreshes the Soul
The Preparation
Opening Thoughts on the Service
The Entrance Hymn: “Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain” #394
Order of Worship: Service: Setting Two with Holy Communion: pages 172-180
Prayer of the Day
The Ministry of the Word
(The Lessons for the Day are taken from the Historic Pericope Series of the Christian Church.)
Isaiah 55:1-7 The Lord invites the hungry and thirsty soul to come to the banquet of salvation which He has prepared in Christ. Those who seek Him in faith will find refreshment for their souls. They will rejoice and draw other nations to Him.
The Responses following each lesson are on page 178.
Galatians 4:21-5:1 Abraham’s two wives and two sons illustrate the two covenants from God. One was based on the letter of the Law, the other on the promises of the Gospel. In matters of salvation, one enslaves people to perfect obedience; the other frees them in God’s grace. The second is the new covenant, proclaimed in the Gospel. It flows to those who believe in Christ. They are children of the Promise and rejoice in it.
The Gospel Acclamation for the Lenten Season bottom of page 179
John 6:1-15 Jesus feeds the five thousand. When His disciples could find no way to feed so many people, Jesus multiplies the few fish and bread that were available. The answer to the disciples’ dilemma stood in front of them, and they could not see it. As to the crowd who wanted to make Jesus their king, they also did not see who Jesus truly is.
The Sermon Hymn: “Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness” #517
The Sermon: “Let Me Test You.” John 6:1-15
Our Response to the Word
The Confession of Faith: The Nicene Creed page 180
Prayer of the Church page 182
The Offering
The Lord Blesses Us
The Order of Holy Communion pages 182-187
(We invite our communicant members to the Lord’s Table, believing that in the bread and the wine, they receive the Savior’s true body and blood for forgiveness of sins. Since Holy Communion implies a oneness of faith, our practice is that of close communion. We therefore ask visitors to speak with the Pastor before communing.)
The Distribution
The Distribution Hymn: “The Death of Jesus Christ, Our Lord” #677
Thanksgiving & Blessing Beginning the middle of page 187
Closing Song: “Amazing Grace” Zion Choir Members
Silent Prayer
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The Organist: Jane Rips The Preacher: Pastor Edwin Lehmann
Point to Ponder: “Here is another lesson in faith, that we should not be overanxious about our daily bread and temporal existence. Christ stirs us by means of His words and a miracle as though to say, ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ Since the people followed Christ to hear His word and to see the signs of His miracles, they were seeking the Kingdom of God. Even though some of them did not have the purest intentions, He did not forsake them but richly fed them….Nothing is too small and insignificant for Him to do for His followers. He can indeed so bless their pittance that they have an abundance.”
— adapted from Martin Luther on The Feeding of the Five Thousand
Lent 4 – Laetare (“Rejoice and Be Glad”) – Historic Series
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 55:1-7 – Come! Buy and Eat.
1Hear, all of you who are thirsty, come to the water, even if you have no money! Come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why do you spend money on something that is not bread? Why do you waste your labor on something that does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. Satisfy your appetite with rich food. 3 Turn your ear toward me and come to me. Listen, so that you may continue to live. Yes, I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies promised to David.
4 Look, I appointed him as a witness for peoples, a leader and commander of peoples. 5 Look, you will call out to a nation you do not know, and a nation that does not know you will run to you, on account of the Lord your God, because of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found! Call on him while he is near! 7 Let the wicked man abandon his way. Let an evil man abandon his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will show him mercy. Let him turn to our God, because he will abundantly pardon.
Epistle Lesson: Galatians 4:21-5:1 – Christ Sets Us Free.
1Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you really listening to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, and one by the free woman. 23 However, the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through a promise. 24 These things can be used as an illustration; namely, the women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery. This is Hagar. 25 You see, this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is in slavery along with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free. She is our mother. 27 For it is written: “Rejoice, barren woman who does not give birth. Break forth and shout for joy, woman who does not suffer birth pains, because the barren woman has more children than does the woman who has a husband.”
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. 29 But just as back then the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so this is also the case now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, because the son of the slave woman will certainly not receive the inheritance with the son of the free woman.” 31 For this same reason, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.
5 1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again.
Gospel Lesson: John 6:1-15 – Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand.
1 After this, Jesus crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2 A large crowd followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he was performing on those who were sick. 3 Jesus went up on the hillside and sat down there with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 But Jesus was saying this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to have just a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what is that for so many people?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, so they sat down. There were about five thousand men. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves and, after giving thanks, he distributed pieces to those who were seated. He also did the same with the fish—as much as they wanted. 12 When the people were full, he told his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 When the people saw the miraculous sign Jesus did, they said, “This really is the Prophet who is coming into the world.” 15 When Jesus realized that they intended to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version® (EHV®) copyright © 2019
Calendar & Announcements for Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
A member congregation of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
4717 S Farm Rd 135 (Golden Avenue), Springfield, MO 65810
Church phone: 417.887.0886 www.zionluthchurch.com
Pastor’s cell phone: 417.693.3244 email: revelehmann@gmail.com
You can also find us on Facebook
| Today
March 19 |
Monday
March 20 |
Tuesday
March 21 |
Wednesday
March 22 |
Thursday
March 23 |
Friday
March 24 |
Sat.
March 25 |
Next Sun.
March 26 |
| 9:00 am
Divine Worship Service with Holy Communion online -Facebook 10:15 am Fellowship & Bible Study
Laetare – Lent 4 |
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4 pm
Confirmation
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11 am
Midweek Bible Class 5:45 pm Supper 6:30 pm Midweek Lent 5 We Preach Christ Crucified |
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9:00 am
Divine Worship Service online – Facebook 10:15 am Fellowship & Bible Study
Judica – Lent 5 |
A Brief Bible Study on God’s Word for Today
Many blind themselves to the true glory of Jesus. Some are distracted by worldly concerns. Others have false opinions about Christ which destroy true faith in Him. Still others look for solutions to life’s problems apart from Him. Yet Christ always stands before us, even as He stood before the disciples. But they could not see in Him the solution to their problem. How blind we can be at times. Only Jesus can overcome all things. So He invites us to feed on Him, who is the Bread of Life.
The Gospel Lesson: John 6:1-15 (answers are found on the back side)
- What concern did Jesus have for the great crowds who were following Him? What was Philip’s response?
- How did Jesus show His power? How did some wrongly react to Jesus’ miracle?
Those We Remember In Our Prayers: Greg Miller; William & Laurie Moon; Pauline Jaeger; Kirsten Jaster (Laurie Moon’s sister); Greg Pierson (the Long’s son-in-law); Libya, Jodi Milam’s granddaughter; Lucille Huston; Barbara Long; Lois Wiese; Barbara Breidel.
Forward in Christ’s present issue for March has arrived and may be found in the narthex. There are also plenty of copies of Meditations daily devotions there if you have not yet taken one. There are enough copies for family and friends.
Continuing in Lent With 2 weeks left in the Lenten Season, our mid-week suppers and services at Zion continue to be held on Thursday evenings; at Peace in Marshfield on Wednesday evenings. The Lenten theme this year is drawn from Paul’s words, “We Preach Christ Crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23). The events and people of the Passion History are worked into Paul’s grand theme. This week’s focus is Peace with God through Our Lord Jesus Christ – Romans 5:1-11. The supper theme at Zion is German.
Upcoming Events
Thursday, March 16 – Midweek Lenten Service 5 at 6:30 pm; a German Supper will precede the service at 5:45 pm
Friday, April 7, 7 pm – Combined Maundy Thursday/Good Friday Worship at Zion (at Peace on Thursday, April 6)
Saturday, April 22 – LWMS Spring Rally at Christ Alone LC, Dardenne Prairie – Mission Speaker from Indonesia
The Week in Review
Last Sunday Worship: 28; Bible Class 18; Midweek Bible Class: 3; Offerings: $966.
Midweek Lent 4: Supper and Worship: 11; Offerings: $150..
Next Sunday’s Lessons:
Lent 5 – Judica: Numbers 21:4-9; Hebrews 9:11-15; John 8:46-59 (Historic Pericope Series)
Answers to Today’s Gospel Lesson Brief Study:
- Jesus wanted to give the people something to eat. Philip thought that it was the people’s responsibility to find food for themselves.
- Jesus fed the entire crowd with two fish and five loaves of bread. Some people, seeing this miracle, wanted to make Jesus a worldly king by force. But Jesus had not come principally to give physical bread but spiritual bread, as the Bread of Life.
This week I am praying for……
