When The Multitudes Were Fed 2-23-25 AM
I. The setting (John 6:1-4).
a. John says that Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which would have been the western side.
b. There is a note that says “which is the Sea of Tiberias.”
i. Remember that John was written 35-40 years after the other gospel accounts.
ii. Tiberias was a city built by Herod Antipas to honor Tiberius Caesar.
iii. The Sea of Galilee came to be known as the Sea of Tiberias after the other accounts had been written but before John was inspired to write.
c. Jesus was seeking an escape from the crowds it seems, which is why we read He went up into a mountain.
i. This doesn’t mean a mountain like we think.
ii. It means an elevated place, probably in what we know of as the Golan Heights.
d. David Lipe, based on a look at all four accounts, gives some reasons why Jesus was doing this:
i. He needed time to mourn John the Immerser’s death (Matt. 14:12-13).
ii. He wanted rest for Himself and the disciples (Mk. 6:31).
iii. He wanted to avoid Herod (Lu. 9:9).
e. The people followed Jesus to this place because of the miracles Jesus had been performing.
i. Remember that John only tells us of seven miracles.
ii. There are multitudes more of them and these people had been seeing Jesus perform them, so they kept following Jesus to see more.
f. We read in verse 4 why there were so many at the time.
i. The time of the Passover feast was near.
ii. There would have been Jews from all over the world coming to Jerusalem for the feast.
iii. Some had seen Jesus and began to follow Him, while others heard of it and came to see for themselves.
II. The test (John 6:5-9).
a. Thousands of people have followed Jesus.
b. They are on their way to Jerusalem, but took a detour to follow Jesus.
i. They had planned for this to go straight to Jerusalem.
ii. They didn’t have Yeti coolers to keep food fresh back then.
iii. Their food supply would have been dwindling.
c. The other accounts tell us that Jesus was concerned with their lack of food.
d. The other accounts don’t tell us about the interaction with Philip.
i. Jesus asked Philip where could bread be bought so the multitude could eat.
ii. Philip was from that area and it made sense to ask him.
e. John tells us that Jesus already knew what He was going to do, but asked Philip to test him.
f. Philip goes into math mode.
i. Much like the guy I mentioned in the introduction did trying to figure out how much manna God provided Israel.
ii. It got to be too big a number for Philip so he said that half a year’s wages wouldn’t buy enough for each to have just a little taste.
g. Philip failed the test.
h. Andrew is now on the spot and brings to Jesus five loaves and two fishes that a young man was willing to share.
i. The word for lad can mean a little child.
ii. In the Septuagint, it was used to describe Joseph when he was seventeen.
iii. So we don’t know exactly how old this young man was.
iv. We do know that he was willing to share what He had.
i. If Andrew had stopped right there with the presenting of the food to Jesus, it would have been a great show of faith.
j. Instead, he went on to say, “…but what are they among so many?”
i. It’s as if he was saying that this boy has something but there’s not much we can do with it.
ii. One writer stated, “Andrew’s point in drawing attention to the loaves and fish was that such a small amount was incredibly inadequate for the needs of so many people.”
iii. So, we wonder why Andrew bothered to bring it to Jesus in the first place.
k. In a way, both men failed the test.
i. One said it would be impossible to feed them.
ii. The other at least brought something to Jesus but still felt it couldn’t be done.
III. The miracle (John 6:10-13).
a. Jesus tells the disciples to get the men to sit down.
i. Newer translations have the people to sit down.
ii. Mark tells us they sat in groups of hundreds and fifties (Mk. 6:39-40).
b. Jesus then prayed over each item of food, the bread and then the fish.
i. The bread would have been made of barley, which was the poor person’s food.
ii. The fish would have been small fish, like the size of a sardine.
c. F.F. Bruce gives a common prayer said by the Jews of that time: Blessed art thou, o Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth.
d. The prayer of Jesus may have been something similar to that.
e. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all state that the disciples distributed the food to the multitudes.
f. I’ve always wondered how this miracle was done.
i. Did Jesus pray and then put the food in baskets and the baskets got passed around and never emptied?
ii. Did the disciples keep coming back to Jesus to make trip after trip?
g. However it was done, all the people had plenty to eat – the NAS has “as much as they wanted.”
h. Jesus told the disciples to gather all the leftovers up so there would be no waste.
i. We read that they gathered twelve baskets full.
i. We don’t really know how big these baskets were.
ii. But if you guesstimate that they would hold two gallons, you have 24 gallons of food gathered.
j. We aren’t told, but it would be a safe guess that Jesus made sure the poorest of the people got this food.
k. Also, it is not hard to imagine that Jesus made sure the boy who provided the food benefitted from the leftovers.
l. Think about what Jesus did here.
i. 5,000 men were there.
ii. Matthew’s account mentions there were also women and children.
iii. (CLICK) We don’t know a total but we do know there were well more than the 5,000 men.
iv. Jesus provided all of these people more food than they could eat.
v. Jesus again shows His power over His creation.
IV. The result (John 6:14).
a. The people realized that a great miracle had been performed.
b. Remember the purpose for John writing down these miracles (John 20:30-31).
c. These people saw this miracle and believed.
d. They said that Jesus was the prophet that was to come into the world.
i. Which prophet is that?
ii. The Jews knew the words of Moses long ago (De. 18:15).
e. They had been looking for this prophet and realized that He had now come in the form of Jesus.
f. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
i. Sadly, the next verse tells us what they wanted to do.
ii. They wanted to make their Messiah an earthly king.
iii. Because of that, Jesus had to leave.
g. This miracle of Jesus created faith in those that saw it.
V. Application for us.
a. As I mentioned in the beginning, there are a number of lessons for us today.
b. God can take what little we have to offer and make something great.
i. It does not matter what we have, if we give it to God, it can be made great.
ii. It may be our time, our money, or our physical effort; God can do big things with it.
iii. We probably don’t think we have much to offer, but like God did with Gideon’s 300, He can win victories with very little.
c. Faith requires action.
i. The disciples thought it was impossible to feed that many.
ii. Jesus showed them that God would provide if some action was made.
iii. The little meal of a young man was all that God needed.
iv. If we believe God, we need to step out in faith, in whatever area it is.
d. Compassion leads to great things.
i. Mark’s account says that Jesus was moved with compassion for the people.
ii. Jesus was a need and His compassion moved Him to meet that need.
iii. We need to have compassion on those around us and then doors may open up for us to share the gospel.
e. God provides more than enough.
i. Those five loaves and two fish led to twelve baskets of leftovers.
ii. We need to trust in the generosity of God.
iii. As givers, we need to believe that God will take care of us when we give as we should.
f. Jesus is the true provider.
i. We mentioned earlier that this event led to Jesus calling Himself the Bread of Life.
ii. Jesus provides all we spiritually need in this life.
iii. He truly is the way, the truth, and the life.