Feeding the Multitude

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 6 and hold your place at verse 1.

John chapter 6 and hold your place at verse 1.

I want to begin with what might be considered somewhat of a surprising statement, but I promise to bring clarity very, very quickly.

Jesus did not feed 5 ,000 people with five loaves and two fish.

I'll say it again and you heard me correct. Jesus did not feed 5 ,000 people with five loaves and two fish.

The text says that there were 5 ,000 men.

They did not count the women and they did not count the children, which means if every man had a woman and every woman maybe had a couple of children, that Jesus fed potentially up to and over 20 ,000 people on that mountain.

And He didn't do it with five loaves and two fish because someone might imagine that that would be some type of infinitesimally small division problem.

Let's see how small we can cut this up and we can get 20 ,000 pieces of bread out of this five loaves.

No, He didn't feed them with five loaves and two fish. He multiplied the bread and He multiplied the fish so that it wasn't just five loaves.

It was so many loaves that as we are going to see that they collected 12 baskets full of fragments when it was all over.

So when we say the feeding of the 5 ,000, we are actually speaking in terms of minimal thought.

It wasn't 5 ,000 people. It wasn't just five loaves and two fish. It was the multiplication of bread and fish for a multitude.

And today we are going to study John's account of this wonderful miracle.

We're going to try to see the theological as well as the contextual significance of John's portion of, or this portion of John's narrative in the

Gospel. So let's stand together and read. We're going to read 15 verses beginning with verse 1 and the text says,

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the

Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following Him because they saw the signs that He was doing on the sick.

Jesus went up on the mountain and there He sat down with His disciples. Now the

Passover, the Feast of the Jews, was at hand. 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?

He said this to test Him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered

Him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?

Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

Jesus then took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated, so also the fish, as much as they wanted.

And when they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.

So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

When the people saw the sign that He had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself.

Let's pray. Our Father and our

God, as we gather here on the Lord's Day to read the Lord's Word and to be moved by the

Lord's Spirit, I pray, O God, that the preaching of the Word would be used by You to do what only it can do, and that is to change hearts, change lives, change minds.

And Lord, I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice. Lord, for the believers, that they would be drawn to closer conformity to the

Lord Jesus Christ and a greater love for Him through the preaching of Your Word. And Lord, for those who do not yet know the

Lord, that they would be saved through the preaching of the Gospel.

And Lord, I do pray for myself. I pray that You would fill me with Your Spirit.

I pray that You would keep me from error. I pray that You would use the preaching of Your Word, as I've already said, for the ministry to Your people.

But most of all, Lord, I pray that You would be glorified. For Your Word tells us that You are to be glorified in everything that we do, and especially in this time of study.

I pray that we would not only hear the Word, but that we would love the

Word and want to do the Word, as we're going to see in this chapter, O God, a chapter that begins with Jesus at what might be considered a high point of His popularity, ends in almost utter desertion.

And so, Lord, it will be easy for us to understand that this reminds us that many people want the blessings of God without the being of God.

So may it be, O God, that we would love You and want You, not just Your blessings.

In Jesus' name, Amen. One of the hallmarks of Reformed theology is the doctrine of total depravity.

The doctrine of total depravity says that no one, apart from the work of the

Holy Spirit on the heart, would want to come to Christ, because we are so opposed to Christ in our sinful nature.

And yet, there are people who would argue, but I know a lot of people who want Christ. I know a lot of people who want

God. I know a lot of people who want to come to the Savior. And here is my answer, and I hope you hear this, this is sort of a

Theology 101 kind of thing. Everybody wants what only

God can provide, but they want it without God. Everybody wants the heaven and blessing of God, but they don't want the obedience and righteousness that are required to stand before the

Savior. And this chapter that we have arrived at today is in fact the greatest testimony to this truth in all of the

Bible. In fact, what we're going to see as we work our way through this chapter, and I have no idea how long it's going to take us to get through John chapter 6, it's a long chapter.

And it's so full of information and doctrine and theology.

In fact, some of the foundational teachings for Reformed Theology derive from Jesus' discourse that He gives in this chapter.

But what we're going to see is we're going to see in this chapter that Jesus begins His ministry, or excuse me,

Jesus begins this chapter at a high point in the popularity of His ministry. He is going to feed the multitudes, and the multitudes are, having received that blessing, going to want to declare

Him king. I mean, who wouldn't want to have a king that can feed you from nothing?

Who can produce food out of the air, and who can feed you to the full at merely

His command? Who wouldn't want a king with such a blessed ability to feed you?

And yet, at the end of this chapter, what we are going to see, is it says that many of those who followed after Him will walk away, and they will not follow

Him anymore. And why? Is it because of the miracle? No, the miracle made them want to be there.

In fact, Jesus is going to say that. He says, You don't believe me because of my words, you believe me because you ate and got full off the bread that I made.

Like, that's why you're here. You want the blessing of God, but you don't want the being of God.

Because when Jesus fills them with bread and fish, they're happy.

But when Jesus preaches to them the word of God, they reject it. Beloved, may it not be that we be those who are willing to receive the blessings of God without the being of God.

For that is the lesson of John 6, is that every man is willing to receive

God's blessings as long as it's on their terms. But as soon as Christ begins to say things to them that are hard to hear, no one can come to me unless the

Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him on the last day. Unless a man eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, he has no place with me.

And when Jesus says these hard things, and we will come to an understanding of them when we get to them, I promise you that.

But when Jesus says these hard things, it says they would not hear it. They would not hear it.

And at the end, when they depart, Jesus looks at the twelve who are standing there befuddled.

Everybody's gone. And Jesus says, are you going to leave too? And by God's grace, they say, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of life, which is the right answer. Can't leave, can't go anywhere, who would we go to?

So by God's grace, not everyone left. But Jesus did begin the church diminishment movement.

Back in the 90's, there was a big push for what was known as church growth movement.

The church growth movement. How can we get our churches bigger and bigger? How can we create the mega church?

And boy, did they. Now they got churches with multiple campuses. Now they got churches with people who can't barely fit in the room.

Filling a church was not something

Christ often did. Christ often had the church get smaller at the preaching of His word.

Because they didn't want to hear what He had to say. Because they didn't want to hear the truth. And the reality is,

I'm not saying that big churches are necessarily bad, and I'm not saying every church that has a large building or a large parking lot is doing it wrong.

Please don't think that that's my point. But my point is this, Christ emulated the preaching of the truth that offended men.

And if you've never left this church offended, I want to apologize to you. Because you should leave having been cut by the word of God from time to time.

Now the word of God is also a balm. The word of God heals our cuts. And you shouldn't come in and get beat up like an everlast punching bag every

Sunday. That wouldn't be right either. But if the word of God doesn't challenge us, if the word of God does not offend us, if the word of God does not cut us from time to time and leave us yearning for the grace of God, then the word of God has not been preached.

In John chapter 6, Jesus preaches the word of God. And many of the people will not hear it.

Many of the people will not hear it. So, that's the context of this chapter.

And leading into John chapter 6, we know that John has already recounted several miracles.

And this is actually miracle number 4. As I've mentioned a few times in John's gospel, he outlines 7 specific miracles.

Beginning with the water being turned to wine, he says this was the first miracle Jesus did at Canaan and Galilee.

Then, the healing of the nobleman's son. Now, understand, these are not the only miracles Jesus did.

But for some reason, John is outlining these 7 miracles as a specific way of giving structure to his writing.

He starts with turning the water into wine. He then moves to the healing of the nobleman's son.

He then moves to the healing at the Pool of Bethesda. That was the last chapter. And I know we took some time off at Christmas.

Brother Mike preached. And I preached the State of the Union, State of the Church message. And so, it's been a little while since we've been in John.

But if you remember John chapter 5, John chapter 5 is actually structured very similar to John chapter 6.

Because John chapter 5 begins with a miracle. A miracle of healing the man at the Pool of Bethesda.

And then the Pharisees come to Jesus and they attack Jesus for doing that on the Sabbath. And so,

Jesus responds with this long discourse. Defending his messiahship. Defending his authority to do those things.

Defending who he is. That he is, in fact, the son of God who came with the authority to judge.

That God has given him the authority to judge. And it ends with them wanting to kill him. It ends with them wanting to kill him.

Well, John chapter 6 is very similar. It actually begins with 2 miracles. This is miracle 4 and 5.

Miracle 4 is the feeding of the 5 ,000. Miracle 5 is the walking on water. Which happens right after this.

So we're going to study that next week. And then we're going to see 6 and 7 are the healing of the blind man.

And the raising of Lazarus from the dead. That's 6 and 7. And then, of course, the resurrection is the great final miracle.

Number 8, if you will. But this chapter begins with 2 miracles. Then a long discourse from Jesus.

And then at the beginning of chapter 7 we see they want to kill him again. So it's very similar in structure to John chapter 5.

Now, when we look at this particular miracle. The miracle that begins

John chapter 6. Which is the feeding of the multitude. One of the things that I want to point out to you.

Is that this is the most consistent of...

Excuse me. Rather, it is the only miracle outside of the resurrection that is in all 4 gospels.

The feeding of the 5 ,000 is the only miracle that's contained in all 4 gospels other than the resurrection.

And we're not told why that is. And we can conjecture some to kind of come to a conclusion. Why would this miracle be included in all 4 gospels?

And there's all kinds of reasons that scholars come up with. And I think it's simple enough to simply say. This miracle would have been seen by and experienced by the most amount of people.

This miracle would have been seen by and experienced by, as I said, up to 20 ,000 people or more.

This was one of those things that everybody knew about it. Nobody doubted it. This happened and everyone in the community would have heard about this.

In fact, it's not the only time that it happened. In Matthew's gospel and in Mark's gospel.

We find out that Jesus actually did it again a few chapters later. Where he fed 4 ,000 people with 7 loaves and a few fish.

He doesn't give us the number of fish, but he does it again. And John's gospel at the end of the gospel.

It says if all the miracles that Jesus did were written down. All the books of the world would not be able to contain all that he did.

So it's possible that he fed people even more than this. So this miracle is something that all 4 gospel writers want us to know about.

They want to tell us about it because in fact this miracle was one of the hallmarks of Jesus' ministry.

He fed people. He made sure that their needs, their physical needs were met.

Now a moment ago I got a little ahead of myself. I said this is one of the most consistent miracles. What do I mean by that?

This is one of the most consistent miracles because when you read the 4 gospels. You'll notice at times that there are, the way narratives come about.

There are some inconsistencies. Not contradictions. Please understand I'm not saying the Bible contradicts itself. But if you've ever read the 4 resurrection narratives back to back.

You'll notice there's some parts of the story that are hard to understand. And you have to harmonize the story.

You know one says the angels were outside. Another says the angel was inside. One says there were 2 angels. You know so we have to kind of come to a conclusion about how the resurrection happened.

Right? But with the feeding of the 5 ,000 there's so much consistency in the narrative.

As I was studying this week and I was reading all 4 gospel narratives. I just noticed that one, all of them mention 5 ,000 men not including women and children.

So the number is consistent. All of them mention that it's 5 loaves and 2 fish.

So the numbers there are consistent. All of them mention that Jesus blessed and distributed through his apostles.

And the apostles were the ones who were handing out the food. And that becomes important later and I'll explain why. And all of them say that there were 12 baskets full of fragments left over.

So the numbers of these miracles very consistent. This story is well known.

This story was well regarded by the people. And they understood it.

They knew it. And if someone would have given an inconsistent testimony it would have been easy to debunk.

So it's clear that all of the gospels are giving us the same event. All of the gospels are telling us this event happened.

There are some differences. We're going to talk in a moment about the context. But before we get there just understand the differences are in regard to what leads up to it.

And again it's not differences. It's just understanding context. But what we're going to see is this actually took place at a time when

Jesus' disciples were supposed to be resting. This took place at a time where Jesus had withdrawn himself.

And he was taking his disciples away because they needed a time of respite.

A time away. But Jesus couldn't get a time of rest. Jesus couldn't get away. The multitudes followed him. Wherever he went the people found him.

And so we're going to see how Matthew and Mark and Luke actually give us some of the indication as to why that is.

Now Matthew, Mark, and Luke's gospel all give us this story of the feeding of the 5 ,000.

But John's gospel gives us more information. So there's consistency but there's also some distinctions.

John's gospel tells us that it happens near Passover. None of the other gospels mention that.

John's gospel tells us that Jesus asks Philip a specific question and he asks to test him.

None of the other gospels mention that. John's gospel mentions there was a little boy.

Well it doesn't say little. It just says there was a boy. We don't know how old the boy was. But there was a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish.

This is the only gospel that tells us it came from a young boy. This is the only gospel that tells us

Andrew brought the little boy to Christ. I keep saying little boy. In my mind he's little.

Just stick with me. I'm not being dogmatic on that. It's just in my mind I imagine a young boy.

But the thing in John's gospel, and I alluded to it earlier but I want to mention it now. The thing in John's gospel that makes this narrative so important and so unique to John is that this gospel, this story, this miracle is followed by what we call the bread of life discourse.

The bread of life discourse. And the bread of life discourse which begins in verse 26 and goes all the way to verse 59 is one of the most debated, one of the most controversial, but yet still one of the most important of Jesus' discourses to the people because he is challenging them on why they are really following him.

Why are you really here? What really has brought you to listen to me?

And as I said earlier, is it because you got full on the bread? Or is it because you actually believe in who

I am? And John is the only gospel that records this whole discourse for us.

And we see the connection point between the miracle and the discourse.

Jesus feeds them physical bread. Then Jesus reminds them of Moses who gave them bread from heaven.

And he says, I gave you bread which is actually also bread from heaven if you think about it because even though he's multiplying the fish and the bread, where's that fish and bread coming from?

It's being created, right? It's not falling from heaven like the manna, but it's also,

I like what MacArthur said, these are fish that never swam, right? These are fish that are created for eating.

This is bread that wasn't baked in an oven, but it was bread that was created ready to eat.

This is a creation miracle. And Jesus says, you've been given this bread, this miraculous bread, and Moses gave you bread from heaven, but I have come down as the true bread.

I am the bread of life, Jesus says.

So the bread that he gives them to eat physically is pointing to the greater bread that he himself is.

I am the bread of life. If any man does not eat of me, he has no place with me.

Jesus is connecting all of this to the wonderful truth of what it means to trust in him.

If we do not trust in the Lord, if we do not, in that sense, eat of him, receive him, as John 1 says, so as many as received him, to him they gave power to become children of God.

If we do not receive him, then all of the physical blessings of life will come to nothing.

It must be a spiritual change. It must be a spiritual life -giving nourishment from the

Lord. Okay. So all of that from chapter 6 to bring us back to verse 1, and let's begin to walk through the narrative here.

Let's walk through. I've given it four points.

My outline is this. First, we have the context, which is verses 1 to 4.

We have the concern, which is verses 5 through 9. The commands, verses 10 to 13.

And the consequence is verses 14 and 15. Let's look first at the context, verses 1 to 4.

It says, after this, now the phrase after this, we're not, we need to understand something important.

The last chapter, Jesus was in Jerusalem, and he was there for a feast, but it doesn't tell us what feast it was.

But we're about to learn that the feast of Passover is coming. So if Jesus was in Jerusalem for the last

Passover, that means a year has passed. Remember, John's not too concerned with chronology, and there are many things that happen in the life of Jesus that the other gospels give us, his

Galilean ministry, that John doesn't tell us about, that John doesn't tell us about. So when it says after this, it's not immediately following this.

If he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, this is a year later. If he was there for the feast of Tabernacles, this would be about six months later.

So we don't know how long it is, but it's after this in the sense of this is the next thing that I'm going to write about, not the very next thing that happened in Jesus' life.

There are many things that happened in between during his Galilean ministry. So it says, after this,

Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is also the

Sea of Tiberias. Now, John is the only gospel writer to refer to the

Sea of Galilee as the Sea of Tiberias, but that makes sense because John sometimes offers this clarification because of his

Gentile audience. You'll notice, if you read John's gospel, you'll notice he'll often give some type of a

Jewish statement, and then he'll say, and in Greek, or for the Gentiles, this. He'll say something like that.

So the Sea of Tiberias was what would have been understood in its Roman name.

And John is offering that clarification for his Gentile audience. And Luke also calls it something else.

Luke calls it the Lake of Gennesaret. So we have multiple names for the same body of water.

It says, after this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

So the crowd is following him. But verse 3 says, Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.

Now, the thing that John doesn't mention is that Jesus is here in this place because he's trying to get away from the crowds.

He's trying to give an opportunity for a time of rest. Matthew's gospel tells us that what happened right before this is the death of John the

Baptist. Mark's gospel tells us that Jesus had sent out the twelve to preach and they had just returned from preaching, and John the

Baptist had just died. So, why is Jesus trying to get away?

Well, it says in Mark's gospel that he was trying to get away for a time of rest. In fact, I'll read it to you very quickly.

In Mark's gospel, it says, the apostles returned, meaning they returned from their preaching, to Jesus and told him what they had done and taught.

And he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

And they went away in a boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now, many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

So, Jesus is taking his disciples away. He's taking his disciples away, one, because they had just got back from a preaching mission.

He's taking them away probably for a time of rest. And I would even say possibly a time of debriefing.

Let's talk about what happened. Let's talk about what you learned. What happened when you were out ministering? But also consider this.

Jesus' forerunner had just died. John the Baptist had just been killed in the palace of Herod there, in the dungeon of Herod, for the purpose of what?

Preaching the truth. Who is John to Jesus? Well, he's his forerunner. He's also his family member.

And so, Jesus, the text doesn't say it, but we can assume here,

Jesus is drawing away not only for a time of rest, but possibly even for a time of mourning for John.

I mean, is it possible that Jesus didn't care that John died?

No. This is the man who loved Jesus, and Jesus loved him. This is the man who had said,

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the man who meant so much to the people, and he had now been murdered for preaching the truth.

And so, Jesus is drawing back with his disciples. He's drawing back for a time of rest, for a time of recuperation, for a time of debriefing, but the people wouldn't let him rest.

The people outran him to where he was going. Luke's gospel tells us he was going to Bethsaida. That was the area he was going to.

You've got to look at all four gospels to kind of get the whole story. They're going to the area of Bethsaida. They're drawing away from the major areas.

They're going out to this area, and the people know where he's going, so they outrun him to get there.

And did Jesus turn them away? No, even though the disciples sort of said that.

If you read, I don't remember which gospel it is. I have to look at it, but one of the gospels, they said, Tell the people to go.

Tell the people to go find themselves a place to stay and something to eat. And what does

Jesus say? You give them something to eat. You give them something to eat.

They've come here for ministry. Minister to them. Now, in the other gospels, that's where the question of how much, how many come up.

But in John's gospel, we get a little clarification. We find out in John's gospel that it's actually

Jesus who instigates the question. And he instigates the question with Philip.

But we'll see that in a moment. So we're here in verse 4. It says, Now Passover, the

Feast of the Jews, was at hand. I have to mention this. Again, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself.

In verse 4, when it says, Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews, was at hand, that actually indicates the time of year that it was.

It would have been springtime. In a moment, we're going to see it says there was a lot of grass in the area at the time. Probably because of that time of year, it would have been nice, green, lush grass.

The people could sit down in it. But also, it tells us another thing about the fact that these people who are going are probably part of that movement that's going towards Jerusalem for Passover.

Remember, all the people from the different areas, Galilee and all the surrounding regions, they went to Jerusalem for Passover.

So this crowd has heard about Jesus. They've seen Jesus' miracles.

They know He's healing people. And they've got on their mind this Passover meal that's about to take place, which would bring to mind

Moses, would bring to mind deliverance, would bring to mind the miracles and all of the things that happened in Egypt.

And all of this is happening, and now they're here at Jesus' feet. Jesus is teaching them.

He's ministering to them. Mark's Gospel says He has compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

They were like sheep without a shepherd. And so all of these things take place that bring about this point where verse 5 says, 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?

This is the concern. He looks at Philip. Where are we going to buy bread? Now again, when you look at a hundred people, what we have here, you know, give or take.

We do a meal here every couple of months. We have a Sunday afternoon meal. We have a Wednesday night meal every couple of months.

Brother Gary, it's kind of a lot to put together, right? Putting together a meal.

You've got to get people involved. You've got to get people to bring food. That's for a hundred people. Imagine that 5 ,000.

Nope, 20 ,000. You'd laugh, right? Amen. If I said there's 20 ,000,

I mean if we were at the Jacksonville Jaguar Stadium, how many does the stadium hold? 30, what is it?

55 ,000. Okay, so let's say a third of the stadium is full. Let's say a third of the stadium, maybe a half of the stadium is full.

And I went to you, Gary, and I said, Gary, where are we going to buy bread to feed all these people? He's already quit. I'd have to go to Dale.

But notice what the text says. The text says, he said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

He's testing Philip. Now, I've wrestled with this. Mike and I talked about this on the phone, actually, because we were talking about the text.

And I said, I wonder really what, when it says he was testing him, we know he's testing his faith, but, like, what is the test, right?

I mean, we can assume some things, but we have to because it doesn't say exactly. So the assumption is he's testing his faith, but what does he want the answer to be?

Because the answer that he gets is not the answer he wants. Because when he looks at Philip, and some people say, well, why did he choose

Philip? Why Philip of everyone? And some people say, well, Philip is from Bethsaida.

And the other gospel says that's where they're at. That's where Luke says they are. So he would have known the surrounding area and known where you could go to buy food, right?

Like if I said to somebody from Jacksonville, hey, where's a good place around here to get something to eat, right? If you're from the area, you're going to know.

So he's looking at Philip. But the thing is, Simon and Andrew were also from there, too. Because if you go back to John 1, it says

Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Simon and Andrew. This is their hometown, right?

Why didn't he ask Simon? Why didn't he ask Andrew? We don't know. We just know he points out Philip. And Philip's probably like, you're asking me?

Where are we going to buy food to feed all these people? Now, it tells us he put him to the test, because he knew what he was going to do.

What would have been the right answer to the test? The only right answer I can imagine would be,

Lord, you know. We talked about that, right? You're the only one who can know.

I can't give you a place to go buy food for 20 ,000 people. I can't give you a stadium -size meal ticket.

I can't give that to you. I don't know. The right answer would have been, Lord, I've seen you do so many things.

I've seen you turn water into wine. He was there when that happened. I've seen you give a lame man the ability to dance or to leap like a deer.

I've seen you do so many things. And again, if this is a year after what happened in the last one, he's seen all kinds of other things.

At this point, he's probably seen Jesus raise the dead. The answer would be,

Lord, you can do anything. Just tell us what to do. But instead,

Philip responds with what he knows they can't do.

Look at what he says in verse 7. Philip answered, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.

Now, a denarius was a day's wage. So the plural denarii, 200 denarii, would have been about eight months' worth of wages.

And he says, hey, Jesus, you're asking me where we can go and buy food?

We don't even have enough money to buy the food. And even if we had eight months' worth of wages, we couldn't go and buy enough food for each of them to have even a bite.

What are you talking about? So in that sense, rather than simply saying,

Lord, you know the answer. Lord, you can do anything. Lord, you can take a stone and turn it into a piece of bread.

Lord, you are the one who can give us food from nothing. Instead of that, he just says, he looks at his limitation.

Lord, we can't do it. Nothing we can do. Nothing can be done.

Oh, how often are we like Philip, when only the

Lord is the answer, and yet we look everywhere else for the answer, and we try to limit the

Lord based on what we know we can't do. Eight months' worth of money wouldn't pay for this.

Okay. One of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?

Now, one of the things that's mentioned in the other Gospels that's not mentioned here is Jesus did say for them to look out and see what was available.

Right? So this is Andrew possibly responding to that. Look at what's available. Okay. We found one little boy.

I keep saying it. He could have been 20 years old. He would still have been a boyish boy.

We got this kid, and this kid brought lunch. Perhaps he was forward thinking.

He knew he was going to get hungry for the day, and he brought five barley loaves. By the way,

John is the only Gospel that mentions that these are barley loaves.

And I'll talk about why in a moment, but for now, just keep that in your mind. He says he's got five barley loaves and two fish.

Now, scholars say these fish would have probably been pickled fish because that would have been what would have kept them from spoiling, and this would have been food that could be traveled with.

So you've got two pickled fish and five barley loaves.

Barley was the food typically was more considered a poorer food.

Barley loaves were typically the food of the poorer class. So this is a very humble meal.

Two pieces of pickled fish and five loaves of barley. And Andrew doesn't come.

I just want you to notice from the text. Andrew doesn't come up and say, Here Jesus, multiply this.

Because, you know, it would be easy to think Andrew is the hero of the story, because he's the one who brings the little boy to Jesus.

But it doesn't say why he brought it to Jesus, but what it does say is this. It says when he brings it up to Jesus, what does he say?

Here's a little boy, five loaves and two fish, but what are they to so many?

What are they to so many? So even he, even Andrew, even though he was wise enough to bring the boy to Jesus, even though he's wise enough to present something to Jesus, his answer is it's still not enough.

Phillips, we don't have enough money. Andrews, we don't have enough provisions. We just don't have enough.

And this is where going to the other Gospels we see the connection where they say please send them away. We don't have enough.

Just send them away. Let them deal with their own problems. We don't have enough for us.

Certainly we don't have enough for all of them. Now, verse 10.

Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place.

Remember I said it was around springtime. So the men sat down, about 5 ,000 in number, and the other

Gospels specifically say 5 ,000 men, not including women and children. So this is, again, referencing that.

Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.

So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.

Now, these are the commands of Christ. He took the loaves, he prayed a blessing on them, gave thanks for them, and he distributed them.

The other Gospels clearly say he distributed them through the hands of the apostles. He didn't hand them out himself, but he handed them to the apostles.

The apostles handed them out. And the people ate until they were full.

Now, this miracle is being experienced in real time by a massive crowd.

When we talk about the miracle of the resurrection, some of you know this, when we talk about the apologetic defense of the resurrection, one of the things we'll often talk about is that Jesus was seen by over 500 people when he was raised from the dead.

And we say there's good evidence for the raising of Christ from the dead, not only because of the many factors that surround the resurrection of Christ, but one of the things that gives us great evidence is the eyewitnesses.

500 eyewitnesses to the raising of Christ is pretty good evidence that he was alive after he went in the tomb.

And we say that's one of the reasons why we can feel confident because not only were there eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Christ, but those eyewitnesses, actually many of them went to their death proclaiming the resurrection of Christ.

It's a wonderful apologetic for the resurrection of Christ. But understand this, that's nothing compared to how many people ate that day.

500 people seeing Jesus alive is wonderful and blessed and I'm not discounting that in any way, but what

I am saying is this, this miracle trumps that tenfold just for the men. This miracle was experienced by more people than any other act of Jesus that we know of at any one time.

And I point that out because this is one of the miracles that modern liberal scholars attack most viciously.

And you say, what do you mean by most viciously? They'll say it didn't happen and they'll come up with all kinds of ways to explain it.

I've mentioned this in a previous sermon so I won't spend too much time on it, but there's one scholar who argues that Jesus didn't feed 5000 people or 5000 men, a multitude of people.

Jesus didn't do that by multiplying fish and bread. What Jesus did was

Jesus encouraged the people who brought food to share with the people who didn't bring food.

And what you have is the great miracle of sharing. It's the great communist

Jesus, who wants the people who have to share with the people who don't, because when those who have share with those who don't, we go from rugged individualism to collectivism.

A few of you got that reference. Yeah, grown indeed.

Beloved, read the text again. Number one, there's nothing in the text that says this was a miracle of sharing.

And number two, it doesn't say there was just enough to go around. That's what happens when you share.

When you share, there's just enough to go around because if I bring enough for my family and I decide to invite

Brother Mike's and Brother Andy's family to come eat with me and I start distributing to them, well now what I had for my six is now going to be distributed up among ten and now it's going to be less.

This is not a miracle of sharing because at the end there was more. Guess what? Five loaves and two fish don't fill twelve baskets.

At the end of this miracle, it wasn't less, it was more. Because it was a miracle of creation and provision, not a miracle of mere sharing.

Now sharing is good, sharing is wonderful. Please share. Please have everything you own with an open hand and be willing to help your neighbor and love your neighbor.

Those are wonderful truths but that's not what this is about. But there's an even worse explanation that I have heard a liberal scholar give.

And this explanation goes like this. It said that Jesus knew this was going to happen.

He knew there was going to be a crowd following Him so weeks ahead of time,

He and the disciples had packed a cave full of bread and pickled fish so that at the moment's notice,

He could stand with His arms out and the men behind Him would come and they would feed the bread through His sleeves and they would be passed out like David Copperfield with something up His sleeve.

That's not just wrong, that's blasphemy. Because that says our

Lord and Savior was a deceiver. That says He lied. He had a cave full of food and He's going to distribute it out through His sleeves like a magician.

Jesus Christ was no mere prestidigitator. By the way, that word means magician.

I used to be one so I love those fancy words. Jesus Christ was not an illusionist.

He was not a sleight of hand expert. Jesus Christ took the bread and He blessed it and He handed it to them and they looked away and they looked back and He had more.

And they looked away and He came back and they had more. And He began to hand it to them and every time He handed it to them they looked back and He had more.

Where is it coming from? It's coming from nowhere. It's ex nihilo.

Ex nihilo means out of nothing. Christ is producing fish who have never swam so that they could eat and bread that was never baked so that they could eat and He's doing it by the mere power of His being the

Son of God. This is the miracle and it's not a miracle of sharing and it's certainly not an act of illusion.

This is Jesus demonstrating Himself to be the very Son of the living God. Himself God in the flesh.

And the people knew it. The people knew it. Verse 13 says, They gathered up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

And when the people saw the sign that He had done they said, This is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.

Now, I asked Mike earlier to read from 2 Kings and I know that throws off our schedule but the good thing is we'll get right back on track next week for Jeremiah.

But I asked Mike to read 2 Kings earlier because I do believe that there is at least in the minds of the people a tie to what is happening here to what had happened under the prophets.

Remember what Mike said? Miracles were never normal. Miracles were never normal. If miracles happened all the time then miracles wouldn't be miracles.

Miracles is a suspension of the natural. Miracles is an intervention by God into the natural and He's causing this thing that shouldn't happen to happen.

Water doesn't stand up. But the Bible says, When Moses parted the waters it stood as a heap on both sides and the people walked through on dry land.

Water doesn't stand up. If I lifted water up and dropped it it splashes, it falls.

It doesn't stand up. But the water stood up as a heap between on both sides as the people walked through between.

That's a miracle. And as Mike said in that story in 2 Kings we have the miracles of Elisha over and over and over doing these miracles and one of the miracles was there was a group of soldiers.

Now it was a much smaller group and much more bread. It was 100 soldiers and 20 pieces of bread.

Still not much. I did a little math. And I went and I said, Well what would this be like? Each man maybe get a bite.

Maybe get a bite of that bread. Because we're not talking loaves of bread. This ain't the giant pack that you get from, you know, what is it?

Sunbeam? Right? The giant sunbeam. No, no, no. These are loaves of bread. There's 20 of them to distribute between 100 men.

And the man doesn't even want to give it to them. If you go back and read the 2nd Kings passage this ain't enough. And Elisha says,

You feed it to them and they're going to be full and there'll be leftovers. You feed it to them. They're going to get full and there's going to be leftovers.

So we see this miracle in miniature compared to what Jesus does with 20 ,000.

Elijah did. And so Jesus is calling back their attention again. And by the way, that was barley bread.

That's why I said I was going to mention that earlier. The barley bread is what is mentioned there and I think that might be why

John is pointing out the type of bread that Jesus is here multiplying. Reminding them of the miracle.

Reminding them that Jesus in fact is the prophet who was to come. Jesus is the one who all of the

Old Testament was pointing to. Moses said there's going to be a prophet who rises up among you who is like me.

Follow him. Listen to him. And all of the rest of the prophets pointed forward to Jesus Christ. And all of the miracles they did were just a small picture of what

Jesus would do when he came on the scene. Did they do the things that Jesus did? Yes, but not like Jesus did.

Jesus came and he was the prophet. He was the priest. He was the king.

And that's why the people see him and they say, we've got to make this guy king. We've got to make this guy our sovereign because he can feed us at a moment's notice.

So the consequence, as I said, it's in verse 14. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this indeed is the prophet who is coming to the world and perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king,

Jesus withdrew again to a mountain by himself. Now, we're going to see that's leading immediately into next week because next week we're going to see the men get in the boat to go across the sea.

Jesus isn't with them and the people know that. And then they get to the boat on the other side and Jesus is with them.

And they said, how did you get here? Well, he gets there by walking on the water. So this is the story, the narrative, the remembering of the feeding of the 5 ,000.

And this miracle holds a two -fold reminder for us. One, it reminds us of the heart of our

Savior. He actually did care about the people. He cared about their need and he was willing to meet their physical needs.

He had compassion on them according to Mark's gospel. But it also shows his power in creation.

He had the ability not only to care, but to create and provide for them their needs.

But it also shows us something, and this is where I'm going to end, it shows us something about practical ministry.

As a pastor, my life surrounds the ministry.

In one way or another, we're always doing something ministry -related. And there's a lot of lessons about ministry that we could draw from this.

In fact, this could be a whole other sermon, but I don't want it to be because I want to move on in the text. But I want you to think about the things that we see in this text that we should never forget.

Because by the way, ministry is not done by the pastors, the elders. Ministry is done by all of us. The Bible says that the job of the pastors, the job of the elders is to do what?

To equip the saints for what? The work of ministry. When somebody says, who are the ministers?

Y 'all. We're the elders equipping you for ministry. And we all minister one to another.

Five things from this text to take away today. Number one, ministry never ceases.

Ministry never ceases. One of the things my children learn from an early age is that daddy can often be called away.

And that's okay. Because ministry never ceases. People don't go to the hospital at your convenience.

People don't break their arms or have car accidents or get diagnosed with diseases when you want it to happen.

Because you never want it to happen. And people don't have needs just in the times where it's convenient to fill those needs.

So if I could encourage you now as we're moving into 2026 and our first sermon of 2026, understand this, the ministry of the church never ceases.

And even though we just took a couple of weeks where we were a little less busy because we were dealing, well y 'all were,

I was rebuilding a kitchen. But for those who took some time off around Christmas time and we're off for karate, we're off for our

Wednesday night, understand that it's nice to take breaks. And that's what Jesus was doing with his disciples. He was taking a break, going into that time of respite.

But ministry never stops because the ministry of the gospel never stops. Number two, ministry must be organized.

Again, I said this could be a sermon so I'll make this quick. Ministry must be organized. When Jesus, you read the other gospels, he says sit them down in groups of 50 and groups of 100 and you take this food and you distribute it to them.

It's a very simple thing that we see in the text but it's that Jesus is actually organizing this feeding of the 5 ,000.

You don't feed 20 ,000 people willy -nilly. You don't feed 100 people willy -nilly.

Ministry has to be organized. This is why when people say I hate organized religion, I say well would you prefer disorganized?

There has to be some organization. People say why do you have a church constitution? Because we have to know how are we going to spend money?

How are we going to buy things? How are we going to keep track of things? How are we going to make sure that what we do is on the up and up? It's got to be organized.

Acts chapter 6 when Jesus, when the apostles chose the first, the proto -deacons. Why did they do that?

Because ministry had to be organized. There had to be men who could help them do what needed to be done. Number three, ministry is dependent upon Christ's power.

Philip and Andrew both expressed their lack.

We don't have enough money. Even if we had eight months worth of money, we couldn't do it. All we have is five loaves and two fish.

What is that to so many? Beloved, we have meager rations, but Christ has a storehouse.

We have little, but in the hands of Christ it can be much. Christ can do so much more with what we have if we will trust

Him with it. If we will trust Him with it. Number four, the ministry of Christ goes from His hands through our hands.

This isn't in John's gospel, but it's in the other gospels. The bread went from the hands of Christ to the hands of His disciples and to the hands of the people.

And that's what we are to be. We are to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world. We are to be the hands and feet of Christ to one another.

How are you ministering to your brothers and sisters? How are you being the hands and feet of Christ in this church?

And lastly, number five, it must be according to His timing.

It must be according to His timing. When the people came up and said, we're going to make you king, guess what?

One, He's already king. He's not been coronated, He wasn't seated at the right hand of the Father, but He's king in the sense that He is the

Son of God. He is heir to the throne, but they want to make Him king before His time.

And so Jesus departed from them. We must be patient and trust in the

Lord's timing, especially in regard to ministry. An impatient ministry is a ministry that runs into foolishness.

We must trust that the Lord's timing is better than ours and that He is going to bring about His will in His time.

So those are some thoughts about ministry from this text. Most importantly, of course, is that Jesus Christ Himself gave them the bread to eat, but He will point to Himself in the next few verses as the actual bread, the bread of life.

Many of you have experienced the blessings of God, but do you know Christ as your spiritual bread?

Is He the bread come down from heaven that fills your soul? In a moment we're going to eat the bread and drink of the cup and it's going to remind us of His body and His blood.

Have you received Jesus Christ as your Savior? If you have, feast upon Him today and enjoy the blessing of Him as your

Savior. But if you have not, I want to remind you that there is no other bread that satisfies.

There is no other sustaining provision from God than the

Lord Jesus Christ. If you are looking to anything else, turn from it, repent of it, and trust in Christ.

Let us pray. Father, I thank

You for the many blessings that come in studying this text and there's so much more that could have been said.

And yet, Lord, we are reminded of this miracle that was seen by more than any that we know, recorded in all four

Gospels, and a reminder that Jesus Christ has a heart of compassion and a power of the

Creator and is willing to demonstrate His love for us and caring for our needs.

But He calls us not just to trust in His blessings, but to trust in His Word. May it be today,

Lord, that we truly trust in the Word of Christ. Amen. When we come to the

Lord's table, we are not remembering an idea or a symbol. We are remembering that the