John 6:1-14: “Jesus
Miraculously Feeds The Five Thousand”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study we looked at verses 30-47 of chapter 5.
1.1.1. Jesus completed defending Himself to some Jews in the
temple for healing on the Sabbath a man who had a crippling disease that had
lasted 38 years.
1.2.
In our study
today, we are going to look at verses 1-14 of chapter 6.
1.2.1. Jesus will leave Judea where He was defending Himself
against the Jews in the temple for healing on the Sabbath and go back to
1.2.2. When Jesus realizes that the people are in need of
food He will ask the disciples how they can meet that need, testing their faith
in the things they have learned thus far from Him.
1.2.3. Jesus will then take the meager resources given to
Him, bless them, multiply those resources, and using His disciples miraculously
feed the 5,000 all that they would like to eat.
1.2.4. This miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 is the only
miracle that is recorded by all four of the gospel writers in their accounts of
Jesus’ life. The question as to why the
miracle must be so important as to be included in each gospel perhaps has to do
with :
1.2.4.1.What it reveals of Jesus’ power and glory, and His
ability to provide for our every need.
1.2.4.2.This miracle and the first miracle in which Jesus
turned water into wine are the only miracles where Jesus did not just make
correct something that had already existed before, but rather created something
that hadn’t previously existed.
1.2.4.3.This miracle revealed Jesus power over nature.
1.2.4.4.This was the most public of Jesus’ miracles in which
He performed. On this day thousands saw
and personally experienced this incredible miracle which He performed.
2.
VS
6:1 - “After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the
2.1.
The phrase
‘after these things’ is John’s typical vehicle he employs for
transitioning to the next story or teaching that He wants to introduce.
2.2.
The setting of this incredible miracle of Jesus’
feeding of the 5,000 is the west side of the Sea of Galilee, Sea of Geneserett,
or the Sea of Tiberias, all of which are different names used in the scriptures
for the same body of water.
2.3.
The New Bible Dictionary has the following entry for
the city of
“TIBERIAS. A city on the W shore of the
Sea of *
Tiberias is mentioned only
once in the Gospels (Jn. 6:23; ‘
Of the towns which
surrounded the
2.4.
This
graphic from the Logos Bible map set shows that Tiberias is located just to the
west of the
2.5.
As was
mentioned, in Luke 9:10 Luke includes in his account of this story that this
feeding actually occurred not in Tiberias but near the city of “Bethsaida,”
and Easton’s Bible Dictionary has the following entry for this city of “Bethsaida”
:
(2.) A city near which
Christ fed 5,000 (Luke 9:10; comp. John 6:17; Matt. 14:15–21), and where the
blind man had his sight restored (Mark 8:22), on the east side of the lake, two
miles up the
2.6.
Since John
6:23 tells us that it was near Tiberias that the people ate the bread (where
the feeding of the 5,000 happened) and Luke 9:10 tells us that this occurred in
Bethsaida, then their must have been a city named Bethsaida on the west side of
the lake near Tiberias where Jesus performed this miracle.
2.7.
The word “
3.
VS
6:2-4 - “And a great multitude was following Him, because they were seeing
the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there
He sat with His disciples. Now the
Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.” - John tells us that a great multitude was
following Jesus at this time because of the signs that He was performing, and
Jesus went up on a mountain with His disciples
3.1.
John tells
us that ‘the Passover, the feast of the Jews’ was at hand at this time,
so some time had elapsed since the events of chapter 5 that occurred during
some unnamed feast (thought though to be the feast of Pentecost that occurs 50
days after the Passover).
3.2.
The other gospels tell us of many things had occurred
prior to this miracle, including :
3.2.1. Jesus
appointed the twelve apostles and commissioned them on their first intern
missionary journey.
3.2.2. Obviously, the disciples had seen Jesus perform many
incredible and wonderful miracles by this point in time.
3.2.3. Matthew and
Mark, in their account of this miracle of feeding the 5,000 say that the multitude
had sought out Jesus and that He had compassion on the crowds and healed their
sick, and that He saw that they were as sheep without a shepherd, so He spent
the entire day teaching the people many things about the
3.2.4. Mark says
that the disciples came to Jesus and suggested that they send the multitude
away in the cities so that they could buy food since they were hungry. Jesus then said to them, “You give them
something to eat.”
3.3.
Notice
here that the people were following Jesus not because they wanted to know and
follow Him, nor because they were sincerely seeking after Him to see if He
might indeed be the Messiah. People in
the general sense have not changed. The
people on this day were seeking Jesus merely because they had seen or heard of
the many signs He had performed and they were curious and hoping to receive
something from Him, and they weren’t disappointed.
4.
VS
6:5-7 - “Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great
multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, that
these may eat?’ And this He was saying
to test him; for He Himself knew what He
was intending to do. Philip answered
Him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for
everyone to receive a little’.” - Jesus sees
the great multitude coming to Him and asks Philip where they could buy bread
for all of the people to eat, and Philip tells him that 200 denarii would be
sufficient for everyone to receive some bread
4.1.
In both
Matthew’s and Mark’s account of this miracle performed by Jesus they mention
that Jesus had “compassion” on the people and thus He wanted to feed
them (Matt. 14:14; Mark 6:34). However,
one of the interesting aspects of John’s gospel is that he never mentions that
the Lord had “compassion” upon anyone.
John does not include Jesus having compassion because His theme in his
gospel is to reveal the divinity and glory of the Son of God, more so than His
humanity.
4.2.
In
Matthew’s account of this miracle, Matthew 14:15-21, he tells us how this
incident developed bringing out that the disciples came to Jesus asking Him to
send the multitude away so that they could go to the villages in the area and
buy food but Jesus told them to give the people food, “As evening approached the disciples came
to Him and said, "This is a remote place and it's already getting late.
Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some
food." Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them
something to eat."”
4.3.
In John’s account in this gospel, Jesus is shown as
seeing the great multitude coming to Him, and then testing Philip by asking the
question as to where they can buy bread for all of the people to eat?
4.4.
Jesus knew all along that He would miraculously
provide for the multitudes. However, it
states here that what Jesus was doing in asking Philip about what they should
do was ‘to test him.’ Jesus
wanted to know if Philip had learned anything from seeing Him perform the many
miracles that He had already performed.
Had Philip learned to look to the Lord for his provision and help in
every situation? Had he learned that
nothing shall be impossible for the Lord to perform? Had he learned that Jesus is moved with
compassion and will meet every need that we have if we will but bring that need
to him (Philippians 4:19, “19 And my God will supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”) ?
4.4.1. By the way,
O’ Christian, is it not the Lord’s way to teach us something about Himself and His
ways and then not too long afterward arrange an opportunity for us to reveal
whether or not we have learned the lesson He has to teach us or not? Then, until we learn that lesson we keep
having to be put in similar situations until we finally apply in our life the
lesson that the Lord has taught us.
Often times we Christians have to learn the same lessons over and over
and over again. Sometimes when we think
we have mastered in our life the application of some lesson from the Lord we
fail yet again much later and have to yet again relearn that lesson. Through all of our failures though the Lord
remains 100% faithful to us.
4.5.
With cold calculation Philip states that even 200
denarii (a silver Roman coin the equivalent in Jesus’ day to a day’s wages)
could not buy enough food for this entire crowd of 5,000 men. Philip is thinking that if they were to buy
just enough food for each person here to have one small fillet of fish and a
tiny piece of bread this would cost the wages of 200 men. It is obvious from his response that Philip
didn’t think for a minute to look to Heaven’s resources to provide for the
peoples’ needs, rather he was looking only to the physical world and human
resources to meet this need. Thus, on
this day he failed the test the Lord put before Him.
4.6.
Jesus is coninually seeking to teach His disciples
that they need to look to God always and in all things to provide everything
that they need. Nothing is too difficult
for the Lord to do! The disciples would
need this lesson for the rigorous and impossible task later given to them of
preaching the gospel to all of creation.
4.7.
We as
Christians need to be redirected away from looking to the material world and
the wisdom and resources of men. The
first place we should look for resources should be to heaven. Our God is infinite and omnipotent, in
control of all of the physical world, and He is aware of our every need. Jesus says in the gospel of Luke that even
the hairs of our head are all numbered.
4.8.
Every task performed in the operation of the church
should be approached prayerfully, looking to heaven for guidance, effectual
working through the Holy Spirit, and providence. Unfortunately, the church has looked so often
to man’s resources instead of simply looking to heaven for all of God’s
infinite resources. Its no wonder that
the church in
4.9.
The church today for the most part has lost its power,
and through embracing humanistic based concepts the very existence of
Christianity is in jeopardy unless the church repents and gets back to looking
to heaven’s resources, and to the word of God for truth.
5.
VS
6:8-9 - “One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him,
‘There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are
these for so many people?’” - Andrew,
Simon Peter’s brother, tells Jesus that he has found a young lad who as 5
barley loaves and 2 fish
5.1.
Andrew seemed on this day to have just a glimpse of
Jesus multiplying the meager resources that this young lad had to feed the
5,000 people, yet he seems almost to have mentioned what the lad had with a bit
of sarcasm, since it seemed completely absurd to him to consider that Jesus
could or would perform such a miracle.
However, Jesus chose to use the little that Andrew had, in faith and in
substance, to feed this vast multitude miraculously.
5.2.
In the scriptures we see that it was often the case
that the Lord used meager resources that were presented by His people to Him
when He performed His miraculous wonders :
5.2.1. In 1 Sam.
17:50, young David had only a sling and a small smooth stone which when
submitted to the Lord were used by Him to slay the Philistine giant.
5.2.2. In Exod.
15:25, when the children of
5.2.3. In 2 Kings
6:6 when the prophets were building a house for themselves and cutting down
trees for this an axe head fell into a pond and Elisha threw a stick into a
pond and the Lord used that stick to cause the axe head to float so that it
could be retrieved.
5.2.4. In Judges 7
it was clay pitchers, torches and trumpets that Gideon used when the Lord
delivered
5.3.
In all cases, the means which was the Lord used wasn’t
what brought about great deliverance for
5.4.
Whenever we Christians come to God with the little
that we have, and ask God to use it to bless others with it, God does far
beyond what we could have thought possible.
This is such a key in ministry. God is not looking for men, women, or
children with ability, He is looking for people who are simply available for
Him to use them. And, use them
He does, as the men and women of God in history past so often remind us.
6.
VS
6:10 - “Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down’. Now there was much grass in the place. so the men sat down, in number about five
thousand.” - Jesus has
the disciples make the people sit down in the grass, and there were 5,000 men
numbered with them
6.1.
If there
were 5,000 men present on this day it is not unreasonable to assume that with
women and children that this crowd could have consisted of upwards of 20,000
people total.
6.2.
Mark records that Jesus had the people sit down in
groups of a hundred and fifty. God is a
God of order and all things are to be done decently and in order (1 Cor.
14:33,40), thus Jesus told His disciples to seat the people in groups of a
hundred and fifty.
6.3.
God in His providence had provided a big grassy area
for this day and this very large group to be able to sit comfortably, thus
Jesus tells His disciples to have the people sit.
6.4.
There is symbolism in the fact that the Lord had the
people sit for it is only when we sit that we are able to receive from the
Lord. We as God’s people have to stop
working and stop moving and sit before Him before we can come to learn from
Him. Also, in Ephesians 2:5-6 Paul tells
us as Christians that we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, “5 even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated
us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
6.5.
We have
seen already in our study of John that the number 5 symbolizes grace, and it is
5,000 men plus many women and children who experience God’s grace firsthand on
this day.
7.
VS
6:11-14 - “Jesus therefore took the loaves; and having given thanks, He distributed to
those who were seated; likewise also of
the fish as much as they wanted. And
when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover
fragments that nothing may be lost’. And
so they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the
barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten. When therefore the people saw the sign which
He had performed, they said, ‘This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come
into the world’.” - Jesus
blesses the loaves and the fish and distributes them to those who are seated
and when everyone is filled He has the disciples gather up the leftover
fragments and there were 12 baskets left over
7.1.
The
liberal theologians of our day teach that Jesus didn’t really miraculously
multiply these loaves and fish but rather when the multitude saw the generosity
of this young lad who was willing to share his loaves and fish that each one of
them pulled out their own fish and bread which they had been hiding somewhere
in their tunics and began to share with each other. However, to believe and teach this is to
dishonor our Lord and fail to see what the scriptures clearly teach concerning
our Lord and His glory and power to provide all that we will ever need.
7.2.
Mark records that Jesus gave the fish and the bread to
the disciples, who then gave the pieces to the multitude to eat. This seems to me to be a symbol of how the
church operates. Jesus blesses His us
His ministers, and from that abundance, we then minister to others.
7.3.
Notice
here that Jesus’ disciples may not have great faith and hadn’t yet learned the
lesson of looking to heaven’s resources, however they were obedient to Jesus
here when commanded to have the people to sit down and then when told to
distribute to the people the fish and bread which Jesus multiplied. All of heaven’s blessings come to us through
the channel of obedience. Trust and obey
is what a Christian must learn to do.
7.4.
Jesus had already appointed His twelve apostles, since
all of the gospel writers agree that they picked up twelve baskets full of the
pieces. This would also correlate with
the chronological order most admit for the other gospels as they relate how and
when Jesus appointed these men.
7.5.
Notice here that each one in this vast crowd of people
ate until he/she was ‘filled.’
When God blesses His people He overflows His blessings to them. God abundantly blesses His servants when they
look for Him to provide. There may not
be great financial blessings, for God also seeks to keep us in a humble
position, but spiritually speaking we receive an abundance of spiritual
blessings when we look to Him to provide.
Peter wrote about how that we Christians are stewards of the “manifold
grace of God” we have received: 1
Peter 4:10, “10 As each one has received a special gift,
employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
7.6.
Jesus tells the disciples to pick up the fragments
that none may be lost, and this seems to be done primarily for the purpose of displaying
for all to see the greatness of this miracle, and to emphasize the depths and
quality of heaven’s resources. The fact
that 12 baskets full of fragments were picked up by the disciples brought home
personally to each disciple the lesson of Jesus’ power and glory.
7.7.
Some people have said that Jesus told them to pick up
the fragments in order to discipline the disciples never to be wasteful and
thus poor stewards of heaven’s provision, and this is an important lesson for
all to learn!
7.8.
At the www.gracethroughtruth.com website
they list the following symbolism found in this story of the feeding of the
5,000 by Jesus: “And so in these
miraculous feedings, we see the gospel story told in a truly practical manner.
By giving us His Son, our God brings life to all His people Jew and Gentile,
completely satisfying our spiritual hunger and sustaining us through the power
of His Word. Interesting that bread is a carbohydrate, a type of food that
instantly energizes us, while fish, being protein gives us staying power.”
8.
CONCLUSIONS:
8.1.
As we
consider this story and how to apply it to our lives, I would ask you to
remember to look to heaven’s resources to meet your needs, not look on the
horizontal plane and to the wisdom and resources of man. Jesus promises to meet all of our needs when
we place Him first in our lives (Matthew 6:33, “33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you.”), are you going to trust Jesus fully and take Him at His word?
8.2.
Remember that heaven’s blessings are received via the
channel of obedience. As you trust in
the Lord to provide for you be sure to also be obedient to all that He states
in His word.
8.3.
Before you act or decide take a second to think about
what you know about how the Lord has shown Himself faithful and powerful on
your behalf in the past. Don’t forget
the great things that the Lord has done.
8.4.
Never be
like Pharaoh of Egypt who in Exod. 7-9 saw the incredible workings of the
Lord’s hand in the many plagues wrought through Moses and Aaron who asked him
to allow the Israelites to go and sacrifice to their God, yet in spite of all
he saw he hardened his heart towards the Lord and refused to fear the Lord.