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INTRODUCTION:
reminiscent of Moses
Jesus crosses a sea (v.
1), he is followed by a multitude that has witnessed signs performed by him (v.
2), goes up a mountain (v.
3), and then feeds the multitude with miraculous bread (v.
11).
TIME AND HISTORICAL RELEVANCE
The reference to the Passover in verse 4 gives an indicator of duration.
A year has passed since the cleansing of the temple (2:13f.).
During this time Jesus has ministered largely in and around Galilee
Herod Antipas founded a city on the west shore and called it Tiberias, after the Roman emperor Tiberius Cesar.
Gradually the name Tiberias was transferred to the Sea of Galilee.
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only sign, other than the cross and resurrection, to appear in all four gospels, indicating it’s importance in the minds of the early Christians witness.
SITUATION
A great crowd of people had begun following Jesus, not so much because they wanted to obey him, but, like those described in 2:23-25, because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.
The Galileans were a distinct type of peasant people living close to the soil and laboring hard for a wage.
The primary issues for them were the down-to-earth matters of food and the means of making a living.
(sound familiar to most people in our culture today?)
The disciples had just returned from a highly successful preaching tour and are also in need of rest.
Jesus takes them to the hills to the east of the sea of Galilee, the area known today as the Golan Heights.
The crowd got wind of the whereabouts of Jesus and like the a magnet went to where he was sitting among his disciples.
The fact that it was passover is highly significant in being able to interpret chapter 16. (from the miracle to the discourse, from Jesus to Moses, and above all from bread to flesh).
NOTE: The Jewish passover celebrates the Exodus from Egypt.
The celebration was the slaughter of a lamb in each household which then was eaten.
In this Gospel Jesus is the Lamb of God.
THE PROBLEM and THE SOLUTION
The passing of time raises the question of food and provides Jesus with an opportunity to test the disciples.
The primary issues for them were the down-to-earth matters of food and the means of making a living.
(sound familiar to most people in our culture today?)
Jesus still surveys the needy situation with compassion.
Andrew offers up a boys lunchable which as he points out is no more than crumbs compared to the vast number of people.
(only John refers to them as barely loaves which would have been the inexpensive bread for the poorer classes, 5,000 males not to include women and children which would have probably well exceeded 20,000 people.)
Jesus very nonchalantly begins to seat the enormous crowd in preparation for the meal.
Jesus gave thanks, took the bread, broke the bread, and distributed the bread.
(If Jesus used the common form of Jewish thanksgiving, he blessed God, he thanked God, he does not bless the food.
The verb rendered for thanks is eucharistesas, or the term eucharist which many Christians refer to as the Lords Supper.)
All are satisfied; all had enough to eat.
(this is the abundant provision of the Lord who declares, ‘My people will be filled with my bounty’ ()
BIG IDEA: Our bodies could live better without food than our Souls without the Power of Christ.
1st sign Tests Cautious Conditional Faith
The Skeptical Faith of the World
1. Jesus Power is always bigger than your FAITH.
Notice that Jesus is not rattled at all by the situation that is going on around him.
when we wrestle with our own doubts and fears we should remind ourselves of this one truth:
ILLUSTRATION: 20 Years 700 victims of abuse by their Pastors.
No wonder our view of authority in our lives have been Jaded.
We are skeptical and weary at best.
Where Faith Begins
George Muller.
Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 4.
Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible.
There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible.
Faith begins where man's power ends.
Its not the strength of our faith that matters it’s the person.
(Remember at the beginning of John when Jesus called Nathanael who was so amazed that Jesus know who he was, and Jesus said if that impresses you, you haven’t seen anything yet.)
When we give it all to Jesus he will do the rest.
(Begin with what you have but be sure to give it all to Him.)
ILLUSTRATION: People are building bunkers in New Zeland to ride out the apocalypse.
We live in one of the most fearful and anxiety ridden generations.
People are building bunkers in New Zeland to ride out the apocalypse.
We live in one of the most fearful and anxiety ridden generations.
PESSIMISM MUST NEVER BE OUR DEFAULT POSITION
Many people today are looking for a healer and provider, or someone to take all of their problems away.
Very few are looking for a Savior and Lord.
Why?
ILLUSTRATION:
Our Lord was never impressed with the great crowds.
He knows that their motives were not pure and that most of them followed Him in order to watch His miracles of healing.
People today are happy with the same diet, give them food and entertainment and they are happy.
Rome set aside 93 days each year for public games at the government expense.
The filling of what Jesus has to offer always satisfies.
Just l like the Samaritan woman who came to the well to draw water to meet a physical need she received a much greater filling that she could have even imagined.
Jesus is never surprised at our lack of faith
Jesus already knew what He would do.
We are the only ones who are surprised when we fail to have enough faith.
Seeing and Saw - Considering whether something you saw or perceived really happened.
Jesus does nothing by chance or accident.
Just like Jesus knew that Peter would deny him, he knew that Judas would sell him out.
He knew that the disciples would face persecution and eventually be martyred for their faith, he knew Zacheus was going to be in the tree asking Jesus to come visit his house.
THE WORLD MAKES A PUNY GOD
2.
Jesus said look at me.... () Come to me () Jesus promises to work when our faith is as small as a mustard seed ()
When we look to this world as our God for the filling it offers we have a puny God that is devoid of any real power in our lives.
Even our faith itself is a gift of God, as Paul says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” ().
Our entire life of trusting Christ is itself by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ ().
In The Triumph of Faith in a Believer’s Life, the great 19th-century preacher Charles Spurgeon said:
Our life is found in “looking unto Jesus” (), not in looking to our own faith.
By faith all things become possible to us, yet the power is not in the faith but in the God in whom faith relies.
[emphasis added]
English Standard Version (ESV)
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
THE PASSOVER IMPLICATIONS: There was a sense of national pride going on at this time.
(illustration Texas and it’s Proud tradition)
WHAT IS THIS MIRACLE A SIGN OF?
A sign that the new age has begun in which God will provide for His people.
(The bread of Life, the passover Lamb is now present, the bread of heaven has come down to earth.)
Jesus presents himself as the bread of life, the one who satisfies the hunger of the human heart.
A demonstration of his prodigal provision towards those who put their trust in him.
(Faith always precedes our belief)
Sadly, our response to the Lord’s testing is too often the same as Philip’s.
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