The Bread of Life Feeding Others
Miracles of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsJesus feeding the 5,000 and how that communicates His glory and encourages belief.
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The task at hand.
The task at hand.
The older I get, the more I work off of a list. I have a list of what I need to do weekly at the church; and a list of what I need to do at home. I’m mostly in charge of the former, but Linda, my wife has dual access to the latter.
And my lists are important to me. They remind me of what needs to get done; the things I need to accomplish; they help me focus. And on those lists may be names of folks I need to call on; lessons I need to study for; and tasks that need completed.
Jesus did not have lists upon which He was dependent, but He did operate with an agenda; a mission. And that mission was to do the work of the Father, which culminated with going to the cross. The work He did bore witness to His identity as the Messiah.
Jesus encouraged a vertical relationship before a horizontal relationship. That's the only way to understand who Christ is. John 5:36
“...the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”
One of those works, which the Father gave Him to do was the sign of being “the Bread of Life” or “the true Manna that comes down from heaven.” Our story takes up in John 6, where Jesus and the disciples set out for the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberius. This is right before the Passover.
Jesus’ popularity was growing and He drew a crowd wherever He went. There were many who followed Him, but for the wrong reason. They were not seeking the glory of God, but to be personally satisfied with food or healing or help. Jesus said in John 5:44
44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
Nevertheless, Jesus never turned anyone away. Death was everyday occurence, and medicine was primitive, this One who could heal at the touch was well known and His teaching was profound. Since their beginning, they were taught that God would send His Anointed One to heal and to preach and to reign. So they followed Jesus.
What we see in this passage is the following:
verses 1–3 a transition from His teaching on life and judgment through Him;
verses 4–6 the situation at hand; a large crowd was following Him.
verses 7–9 the plight that the disciples encountered at Jesus’ request: there was no food for the hungry crowd.
Verses 10–13 the solution provided by Jesus the Messiah; a miraculous multiplication of a few loaves and fishes.
Verses 14–15 the reaction, which is one of belief.
Our Lord observes the size of the crowd, 5,000 men, which if you counted women and children, there would easily be 10,000; some scholars estimate that the gathering would’ve been close to 20,000. And He knows that they need something to eat.
It’s the time of the Passover. There are three Passovers that are mentioned in the gospel of John. One is mentioned in 2:11 and another is mentioned in 11:55, right before Jesus heads to Jerusalem, and prepares to go to the cross. The apostle John mentions the Passover, according to FF Bruce:
“…not only to fix the time of year, at which the incident took place; he probably thought the Passover season was particularly appropriate both for the incident, and for the discourse, which arose out of it.“ (F.F. Bruce, The Gospel and Epistles of John, 143).
There were a lot of people in transit. People from all over the area we’re making their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And because Jesus was growing in fame, he drew large crowds. They knew that he was a miracle worker. They are on the northeast coast of the sea of Galilee. a crowd such as this would walk around the sea, which would be several miles. They are tired and hungry. Jesus asks a question in John 6:5
“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?’”
Houston, we have a problem.
Houston, we have a problem.
The question he asks is a bit unreasonable. There is no place to purchase food for such a large crowd.
Phillip would have no idea how to feed a gathering this size. And they only had a few loaves and a few fish. So small were the fish that they were like a relish spread that one used with the bread for a makeshift lunch. It was enough for a boy’s lunch. Not enough to feed nearly 10,000 people. But the scripture says that Jesus knew what he was going to do. He asks Phillip in order to test him. John 6:6
6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
D.A. Carson notes that this is the only miracle during Jesus ministry that is recorded in all four gospels. It is likely that John knew of Mark‘s account. He was familiar with his telling of the story. The differences are minor and, as Carson, elaborates,
“…can usually be explained in terms of the themes, John wishes to emphasize.” (D.A. Carson, The Gospel According To John, 267).Christ had the ability to draw faith out of his followers. Jesus knew what he was going to do. Phillip answered in John 6:7
7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”
200 denarii is eight months wages according to the NIV; no one had that amount of money; and that would not even do the trick.
Andrew reports on the food that they did have access to. John 6:9
9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”
Again, a bit of an impossibility to feed a crowd this size. Only enough food to feed a youngster.
Help is here.
Help is here.
But Jesus is not limited by circumstances, just as God the Father is not. So He instructs that the people should sit down. The reference to green grass would also indicate that time of year this was, before the hot season when that coverage would be brown. And what He is about to do would be great and would indicate something greater.
Jesus would offer thanks to God, then dispense the bread and fish to such the extent that everyone had something to eat.
Interesting also is how this feeding corresponds with Jesus declaration it’s the bread of life in John 6:33 and John 6:51
33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
And He continues...
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
This bread must be eaten if people are to have eternal life. Although God gave the manna in the wilderness, Jesus is the real bread of life and the Passover lamb, which is the reality of which the Old Testament examples are a foreshadowing of the Passover was a national holiday for Palestinian Jews. There was much nationalistic zeal. We see this and how the crowd wanted to forcibly make Jesus king. Was this one from Nazareth the king promised in the old testament by which the Jews would finally overcome their enemies?
Where do you get your food?
Where do you get your food?
One of the applications of this passage is the following. Our faith is always being tested.
Are you daily coming before the Lord?
Are you trusting him to feed you, not material food necessarily, but spiritual food?
And if not, where are you feeding from? Others? Status? materialism? Appearance? Other relationships?
On an earlier occasions, Jesus uttered the words to the woman at the well, who got her identity from the men she had been with. John 4:13-14
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The world’s bread leaves you starving; all its wells frequently run dry and leave you wanting. But if you’re coming daily to Christ, who is the bread of life and the living water, we will always be satisfied.
Do you have a faith that acknowledges that Jesus can do anything? That your problems are small work for him. When you believe that your issues are small work for Jesus, you can overcome them quicker. You can put them in perspective sooner.
Jalen Hurts is the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles. He is an example of what a young man of Christian faith is. He says his devotion to Christ influences all that he does.
“That’s something that I’ve just matured in and realized – that God is everything and He’s worthy of praise,” Hurts told CBS Sports. “You have to put Him in the center of everything that you do. And that’s what I believe. … I’ve been blessed to grow, learn things, and just mature. And I know God has been there the whole entire way.”
“… I keep God at the center of everything,” he said. “I give Him all the praise. I lean on Him all the time. And I know that everything unfolds the way it’s supposed to.
… I just want to set the right example, and I want to be remembered [as] someone who made a difference. You know – that’s an everyday thing. It’s something that I think about every day.” (Eagles QB Jalen Hurts Keeps Eyes on Christ: ‘God Is Everything, and He’s Worthy of Praise’ - Think Red Ink)
I have to say that during the course of the fundraising effort for our renovation project, I thought, for sure that we would have to make major cuts and significant adjustments. But as it turns out, many of you came through very generously. And, we have a project that is very comparable to what was originally proposed. Praise God!
But will you trust God to do great things in the life of this church? And will you do so with the sacrifice of your comforts? Your wants? Are you willing to welcome people from the outside and share the love of Christ with them?
The Results Speak for Themselves
The Results Speak for Themselves
The results were amazing. Everyone ate to their fill and there were 12 baskets of leftover fragments! The crowd was so affected that they wanted to take Jesus and make him king right then and there!
One commentator notes that 5000 men would be the size of a small army. But Jesus repeatedly said that his kingdom was not of this world, and the kingdom of God was within you. And so maybe that is why he escaped their plan; because it was not God’s plan.