Signs 4: Feeding the 5000

Good morning to those of you who are here in the room and those who are online today, and welcome to our Family Worship service here at Eastern Hills Baptist Church. I’m Bill Connors, and I’m the senior pastor here, and it’s a blessing to be together this morning to worship the Lord together. Thank you, praise band, for leading us in our musical praise and worship time this morning.

This might come as a shock to you, but I’m not going to make any announcements. We’re going to jump right in to our study this morning.

Opening

We’re in our fourth message in our series called “Signs”, where we are looking at the seven signs recorded in the Gospel of John that point to Jesus’ identity as God and Messiah. So far, we have looked at the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned the water into wine; the healing of the official’s son in Capernaum; and the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda (Thanks, Joe, for preaching a great message on that passage last week while I was gone). This morning, we are going to consider the only miracle (besides the resurrection itself) that is recorded in all four Gospel accounts: the feeding of the 5000 by the Sea of Galilee. This miracle is recorded in Matthew 14, Mark 6, and Luke 9. John’s account of this miraculous sign is found in John chapter 6. As we are able, let’s stand in honor of God’s holy Word as we read verses 1-15 of that chapter.

John 6:1–15 CSB

1 After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2 A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. 3 Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. 5 So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” 6 He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have 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 are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

PRAYER (including primary election and Cerrillos Community Church and Pastor Eric Tiger, ministering to the Native American people of Cerrillos)

This is a great passage, isn’t it? For many of us, this passage is really familiar. We’ve heard it and read it so much that it might have started to lose its wonder for us. This is an absolutely incredible display of Jesus’ power and authority. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to think that if I saw Jesus take 5 small loaves and a couple of small fish and feed 20 people with them, I would be amazed and shocked.

But the crowd of people following Jesus that day was 5,000 men, besides women and children according to Matthew. So there could have been 15,000 or 20,000 people there that day. Jesus was teaching His disciples and the people, but as evening approached, there was no food, and the place was remote. Andrew was able to rustle up a young boy’s lunch of 5 small barley loaves (the poor man’s grain at the time) and 2 small fish. Jesus gave thanks and blessed the meager meal, broke them, and had them distributed by His disciples. Everyone ate, and 12 baskets full of leftovers were collected when it was all said and done. This was truly miraculous.

Certainly, for the Jewish people who were there, they were reminded of the miracles of Elisha in 2 Kings 4, where the widow’s little jar of oil was used to fill container after container, never running out. And where later in that same chapter, God multiplied 20 barley loaves to feed 100 men:

2 Kings 4:42–44 CSB

42 A man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with his sack full of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first bread of the harvest. Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.” 43 But Elisha’s attendant asked, “What? Am I to set this before a hundred men?” “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said, “for this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat, and they will have some left over.’ ” 44 So he set it before them, and as the Lord had promised, they ate and had some left over.

But 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish feeding 15,000-20,000 people? Incredible!

This wasn’t the first time that Jesus had done something amazing. Just like the leader from Capernaum that we considered back in chapter 4 (the second sign), the people had either seen or heard of the miraculous things that Jesus did. Verse 2 even says that this is exactly why the crowd was following Him.

John 6:2 (CSB)

2 A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick.

For perhaps 20,000 people to go and follow Jesus out into the wilderness shows how popular He had become. And why had He become so popular? Because of the incredible things that He did. At first blush in this passage, especially if we just stop at verse 14, the people really seem to get it. Miracle happens, they declare that Jesus is a prophet. But the truth is that they understood the miracle in one sense, but didn’t really grasp what it truly meant:

1) The people understood the miracle, but misinterpreted its meaning.

The people certainly understood Jesus’ miracles themselves: These signs were exceedingly practical in nature: rescuing a groom from a social disaster; healing a child; delivering a man from 38 years of paralysis. Now, they’ve received full bellies without cost from a very small supply of food. They understood the nature of the miracle. And they even thought they correctly interpreted its meaning:

John 6:14 CSB

14 When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

For the people there that day, this miracle recalled to mind something from Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 18:15 CSB

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

Deuteronomy 18:18 CSB

18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

To be honest, they weren’t too far off. This entire narrative brings recollection of Moses to mind, especially when we add the next sign of Jesus walking on the water (which we will look at in two weeks) and the passage telling about the next day: their response to the miraculous feeding.

John 6:22–35 CSB

22 The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat. They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone. 23 Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.” 28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked. 29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.” 30 “What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” 32 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

Notice in the whole passage how it has echoes of Moses:

Moses led a great crowd in the wilderness; Jesus had a great crowd (not quite as large) in the wilderness;

Moses led the people at the time of the Passover; Jesus was leading the people at the time of the Passover;

In Moses’ time, God fed the people with miraculous bread, in fact as much as they wanted each day; Jesus fed the people with as much bread and fish as they wanted;

The context of the passage from Deuteronomy was in fact Moses; and now they were applying it to Jesus;

Moses walked through the sea; Jesus walked on the sea;

Moses had been approved by God to lead the people; Jesus had God’s seal of approval on Him.

Manna from Moses’ time was “bread from heaven;” but Jesus now said that the true bread from heaven had been given by the Father, Jesus Himself: the bread of life.

They interpreted the miracle as being that one like Moses had come. But instead, Jesus’ miraculous sign showed that He was greater than Moses. He didn’t just come to satisfy physical hunger, but to deliver the people from spiritual starvation. The people who ate manna got hungry again. Since Jesus is the bread of life, the one who comes to Him will never hunger again, because He meets their spiritual hunger with Himself. This is because He is not only the Bread of Life, but He is also the Living Water and the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world through His substitutionary death.

His death paid the price for sin, my sin and your sin, so that we can be right with God again. And Jesus rose from the grave, beating death. And He said that the only thing that God wants from us is our trusting faith. That’s how we’re made right with Him: we surrender to Him in faith, turning from our sin, trusting Him to save us because He is both our Savior and Lord. This is the hope of the Gospel.

But they misinterpreted this sign and the hope that accompanied it. The people were so excited about what they perceived to be the arrival of one like Moses that they wanted to force Jesus to become their political king right then and there.

John 6:15 CSB

15 Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

But Jesus didn’t do the sign so that they would make Him their earthly king. He did it to prove that He was the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth, and the Christ, the Messiah. He didn’t come to merely fix Israel’s political state. He came to provide the means to fix everyone’s spiritual state. So knowing what they were thinking, Jesus withdrew up onto a mountain by himself until nightfall.

Remember in the first week, I said that it’s important that we interpret Jesus’ signs correctly: they always point to His identity as Messiah and God. This is how they should have interpreted Jesus’ mighty work. We’re going to mostly be looking at the responses the next day for the rest of our message this morning.

2) The people didn’t want to follow Jesus: they just wanted Jesus to provide for their wants.

Example of Danny Kelley (don’t say the last name). When I lived in Silver City, Danny moved in when I was probably in the 8th grade. He was a couple of years younger than I was. But he had some really cool stuff. He had a pool table. He had an actual pinball machine. The thing was (and I take no pleasure in saying this) that I wasn’t really interested in hanging out with Danny himself (we didn’t really have much in common), but I really liked the things that hanging out with Danny got me. So I would hang out with him, but usually only on my terms, which almost always included being at his house.

I admit it, it wasn’t nice. Was I the only person who had a friend like this?

The reality for the people who were fed at this miraculous sign was that they really didn’t want Jesus Himself, they wanted what He could give them. They had hung around the night before long enough to know that Jesus had gone off by Himself and that His disciples had left in the boat. They probably expected to find Jesus on the shore at some point the next day. When they didn’t find Him, they went searching for Him, finding Him over near or in Capernaum. Oddly enough, even though they had made incredible declarations the day before, the reference to Him as prophet or king are both gone, replaced with “rabbi:”

John 6:25 CSB

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus isn’t messing around. He sees right through them to the truth of why they were pursuing Him: they want more free food.

John 6:26 CSB

26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

The problem with the people was that they wanted to be around Jesus, but they wanted to be around Jesus on their terms. They wanted the free food, the blessings that Jesus brought with Him, but they didn’t actually want Him. Jesus even tried to get them to understand, but they still couldn’t stop thinking about their stomachs:

John 6:27–28 CSB

27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.” 28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.

Jesus warned them not to be focused on the temporal, but the eternal, saying that they should pursue Him (the Son of Man), and that they would be provided with eternal life. They STILL don’t get it, asking how they can do that: “What can we do to perform the works of God?” In other words, “how can we get to where we can do what you can do?”

They don’t care to have Jesus. They just care to have Jesus’ power. And isn’t this what has been happening with us since the Fall? In our Fall in the Garden of Eden, we decided that relationship with God wasn’t so important if we could just take His place and become God ourselves. And so we went against our design and our purpose and sinned. As Joe talked about last week, we’re all radically broken, deceived and discouraged and despairing, because of our sinfulness. And Jesus holds the answer to that brokenness: the joy of having peace with God through faith in Him.

So Jesus’ answer to the issue is simple: the only “work” is to trust Jesus, surrendering to Him as Lord and Savior. It’s wanting Jesus, not just what Jesus can give us:

John 6:29 CSB

29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”

And this takes us to our big point of application, which I’m just going to put in the form of a question this morning:

3) Are we any different?

Unfortunately, we humans are a fickle lot. Amazing things can get our attention, but if you want to keep our attention, you’d better keep the amazing things coming. It’s kind of a part of our psychology. We always want newer! Bigger! Better! For those of you about my age, do you remember how amazing the special effects were in the original Star Wars? They were mind-blowing! And I can’t remember who I was talking to recently, but they said that they went back and watched Star Wars, and they thoughts the effects looked cheesy. They were cutting edge incredible then, but now, we look at them and are unimpressed.

The people had followed Jesus because of the miraculous things that He had done in the first place. Then He showed them that He was greater than Moses by miraculously feeding thousands and thousands with a tiny amount of food. Then He said what they needed was to place their faith in Him. The signs He had done were still not enough. They wanted newer, bigger, better!

John 6:30–31 CSB

30 “What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Seriously?!? They want ANOTHER sign? And the sign they want is manna: the miraculous bread from heaven. Jesus debunks that request by again pointing out that someone better than Moses was there:

John 6:32–33 CSB

32 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

He is it. But they still don’t understand. “Better bread than manna?” they ask, “We’d like that forever, please!”

John 6:34 CSB

34 Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

They have missed it completely. And sadly, so often we’re the same way. Jesus calls us into relationship with Him, but we expect that the relationship is only going to go the way we think it should go: our way. We act as if God must obey us instead of the other way around. We live as though Jesus gives us suggestions for how to live a life that honors Him instead of commands. We behave as though in the war of the flesh against the Spirit we actually want the flesh to win. We suppose that the church, the body and bride of Christ, is something that simply exists for our personal blessing and enjoyment, instead of us existing to make the church complete as we serve within her.

But the fact is that the relationship Jesus wants with us is deeper than that, and it’s on His terms, not ours. He’s the Lord, we are the subject. He is the Master, we are the servant. And He calls us to take on His life, to belong to Him, to identify with Him completely. But they, and we, can’t handle the message, and so we walk away.

John 6:60–61 CSB

60 Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?” 61 Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you?

John 6:66 CSB

66 From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.

I’ve been in ministry a long time. For those of you who don’t know, I was the youth pastor here for nearly 20 years before being called as senior pastor. One of the things that most breaks my heart is to have former students, teens that I walked with and invested in and did all I could to point to Jesus turn away. I’m not putting myself in Jesus’ shoes, because He mourns that way more than I do.

But this challenge is for all of us, because many of us do this to different degrees and in different ways. We think that because we belong to Jesus, everything should go our way. And we struggle when it doesn’t. We think that since we’re saved, somehow God is obligated to bless us, even if we consciously choose to live in sin. We think that because we know Jesus, we are somehow owed something temporal just like the Jews did that day.

But Jesus didn’t come to fulfill our ideas of what we deserve. He came to fulfill the debt of death that we owe because of our sin. And the only thing that drove Him there was love for His creation—us. Our right response—the only right response—is to bow down before Him in surrender and submission, not demanding our rights or wants, but desiring to obey Him for His glory for the rest of our lives. I know that there are many ways in this regard that I need to repent of.

Closing

The crux of the passage is really verse 35. Jesus identifies Himself clearly as the bread of life, the only one who can truly satisfy our spiritual need forever.

John 6:35 CSB

35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

Are you spiritually hungry? Come to Jesus.

Invitation

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

No Wednesday Activities besides VBS this week

Bless Every Home

Bible reading

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Philippians 4:12–13 CSB

12 I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. 13 I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

We can trust Christ in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. So go and tell others about what Christ has done for you and for them!