08.03.09 John 6:1-15 (NASB)
Sermon Audio File: John 6:1-15
Going Deeper: Study Guide
Lessons From Five Loaves And Two Fish
As chapter 6 begins it leaves behind the events of the previous chapters, and leads into what is the climax of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is back in Galilee, and when he began His ministry in this region it was a public ministry. Jesus at that time sought out the people proclaiming the gospel to all those who would listen. Some of these people received Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. In these early days the Jews were cynical about Jesus. That unbelief eventually grew into open hostility, and with the clear assertions that Jesus made - that He was God, a murderous hatred erupted. Meanwhile the people gave Jesus mixed reviews - some were born again, yet others remained fluid in their understanding and unbelief. It would go without saying that whoever it was, the people were quite fascinated by this miracle man - a carpenter named Jesus (Mk. 6:3).
As the opposition from the religious establishment intensified and the reaction from the crowds remained uncommitted, Jesus would begin to withdraw from a primarily public ministry to one that was private. On top of this was the attention generated by the 12 disciples who came back from going through out Herod’s territory - stirring the jealousy of Herod Antipas. At this point John the Baptist had been buried, but Herod believed that Jesus could be the Baptist returned from the dead. So he was worried to say the least and could have imposed some form of retaliation against Jesus.
In light of Jesus’ humanity - He grew tired from the demands and opposition of the religious leaders, the fickleness of God’s people, and the immaturity of His disciples. This was on top of the back breaking schedule of teaching, question answering, and miracles that He performed.
Another important aspect of His withdrawal was that Jesus could spend more time with His disciples preparing them for what was to come - in terms of His death, and the disciples future trials in laying the foundations of Christ’s church. Was Jesus afraid to face His own death and want to spare His own life? No. Jesus was resolute as to what the will of the Father was. No one could take Jesus’ life unless He allowed it to take place - and at the appointed time. We will discover this reality later in the gospel - Jn. 10:18 - No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. He also withdrew because Jesus wanted to avoid unnecessary and premature confrontation with the Jews. And He also withdrew so that He could be alone with the Father. For our Scripture today we find this written:
6:1 After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2 A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. 5 Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?" 6 This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. 7 Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little." 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 9 "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?" 10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. 12 When they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost." 13 So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Apart from Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, today’s miracle is the only one that is recorded in all four gospels. This speaks to the importance of this 4th sign. In light of this I am going to include information in this sermon which is a harmony of the 4 gospels. Therefore some of the conclusions and references that I am going to present are not derived solely from today’s text (you can find most of the Scripture references through our blogsite). As we understand, our gospel’s theme is to know that Jesus is God and that He offers eternal life - the theme continues. But the key applicational idea is TRUST - trust in a powerful God.
Today’s passage is generally referred to as ‘The Feeding of the 5000.’ There are differing theories of how the feeding takes place, but the only reality that is acceptable is that this is a genuine miracle - after all John, in verse 14, records that this was a "miraculous sign that Jesus did."
1. THE PRELUDE TO A MIRACLE (v.1-4)
v.1 The prelude to a miracle takes place - After these things - that is sometime following the events of chapter 5. Depending on what the unnamed festival was, in chapter 5, this event could have taken place anywhere from 6months to 1 year later. The setting is changed also - away from the bustling city of Jerusalem, to the wide open spaces of Galilee in the north. As our story breaks, Jesus at this time is already on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. At Jesus’ time the people already referred to it as the Sea of Galilee; but it was formerly named the Sea of Tiberius after the Emperor in about AD 20-22.
The demands of ministry was getting so busy that Jesus and the apostles ‘did not even have a chance to eat’ (Mk. 6:31). As a result Jesus and the apostles left the crowds to get rest in a quiet place (Mk. 6:32). They jumped into a boat and crossed over to the other side of the lake, which is the north eastern shores of the Sea, to a town named Bethsaida (Lk. 9:10). This was much more of a private place.
v.2 There was A large crowd that were following Jesus, since many heard about His arrival. The original text fills us in that there was a continuous pattern of the crowd following Jesus wherever He went; and a continuous demonstration of miracles. Jesus had compassion upon the people and healed many (Matt. 14:14). He even took the opportunity to teach them (Mk. 6:34). Even though our gospel records 8 signs, there were many more that are recorded in the other gospels.
The presence of Jesus caused such an interest that there were people that arrived to the place Jesus landed his boat (Mk. 6:33). In light of what has taken place in Jesus’ ministry the majority of the crowd came to be an audience of thrill seekers looking to be wowed by more - signs - yet some did go in the hopes of being healed. Those looking for healing were the weak…those without strength. What we witness here is the great compassion of Jesus. Despite Jesus’ exhaustion the depths of the human need around Him, the pain, anguish, confusion, and spiritual lostness of the people - deeply moved the Lord. In Jesus’ earthly life He too suffered and experienced the trials that any man would encounter.
We see Jesus reaching out to those God loves - His fallen creation - without prejudice for gender, race, age, social status, financial position, believer or unbeliever - people just like us - God loves. In Jesus we see in all its fullness - the compassionate heart of a gracious and merciful God.
Jesus knew in His omniscient mind that these people were superficial, self centered thrill seekers - He knew that they refused to understand, they rejected belief in Him, and yet they were the reason He would ultimately suffer an excruciating death - so Jesus ministered to them….. Jesus showed love to them. Jesus love you. Underlying this heart of compassion is the clear and present danger of eternal damnation. Jesus knew that the reality of a life spent apart with Him was real. Jesus knew that in the love of God there also co-exists the reality of justice - that God is a just God. The truth of the matter is that there is hell - a place of torment for those who reject God by not receiving Christ as Lord and Saviour. Jesus healed the body, yet ultimately - the greatest concern was the healing of the sin ravaged soul. A person healed physically by Jesus could suffer again from something else. Yet when Jesus heals our sin stained soul, we will never face the penalty and domination of sin ever again. We are freed from eternal damnation unto eternal life, through Christ.
v.3 Jesus goes up on a particular mountain, yet unspecified by John as to the name, and Jesus sat down with His disciples. At this point….
v.4 John gives his readers a time reference for all these events - it was close to the Passover, the feast of the Jews. This reference also gives lending support of why there were particularly larger numbers of people following Jesus this time around. The large crowds were attributed to the masses of people that were in transit to the annual Passover. It appears that Jesus would not attend this coming Passover since there was strong opposition to Him in Jerusalem (cf. 7:1).
The prelude to a miracle leads us to the next section of our passage which is…
2. THE PERPLEXITY OF THE DISCIPLES (v.5-9)
v.5-6 It was now getting late in the day, late afternoon (Lk.9:12). When Jesus lifts up His eyes, He takes note of the large crowd of people coming His direction up the side of the mountain. The disciples wanted Jesus to send the people away into the nearby towns to by food and find a place to stay - since they were in a remote place (Lk. 9:12). Jesus turns to Philip - to ask a question. Philip was naturally a good choice out of the disciples to ask since he was a native of the near by town of Bethsaida, like Andrew and Peter. But beyond the logical choice was the real reason Jesus asks Philip - Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat? - this question was a test. Jesus was miles ahead of Philip - he didn’t have to ask anyone for any advice. Jesus already knew what He was intending to do.
v.7 This is how Philip answers - follow along with me in verse 7 - Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little. This amount - two hundred denarii was not a large sum of money, but it was probably still more than the disciples had collectively. The denarii was a Roman coin, which was the equivalent of one days wages (cf. Matt. 20:2). Let us do a modern day Vancouver BC calculation - the current general level worker gets $8.00 an hour minimum wage. The average person works about 40 hours, 5 days a week. A days work is 8 hours. 8 hours x $8.00 = $36.00 a day. I saw regular french bread for sale for 97cents (round that to $1.00 a loaf). So a days wage would buy 36 loaves of supermarket french bread. Take this number - 36 loaves x 200 (Two hundred denarii = 200 days of work) = 7200 loaves of bread.
It really is hard to come to a modern day equivalent, but the 7200 loaves that we approximated - brings our attention to the fact that Philip was really emphasizing that the situation was without hope. Even if they had the money it would still not be enough to feed the great crowd, even if it was a small portion for each person. What Philip is really saying is that we have a impossible situation on our hands. It is highly likely that these people we probably more hungry than usual, due to the trip to get to Jesus.
Jesus was testing Philip to see where his perplexity would lead. Jesus was hoping that Philip would have turned to Him as the resource instead of earthly resources. In the presence of the great crowds Philip lost sight of the greatness of Jesus’ power. Philip’s perplexity took his eyes off of Jesus and the miracle that he could do - and he responds with a skepticism. Philip’s faith was put to the test. Wouldn’t it seem natural that after being with Jesus for so long, that Philip would just turn to Jesus for the solution? Philip is like a man standing at Shannon Falls in Squamish - asking ‘where can I get a drink?’
v.8-9 Andrew now jumps into the conversation. Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother, and this relational reference speaks about his secondary importance as far as the disciples go. Andrew brings to the attention of Jesus and the other disciples - a partial solution. He said, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people? It seems likely that Andrew was trying to find out if the people themselves had enough food to either sustain themselves or more hopefully the entire crowd. The results of his research was that He brings to Jesus a lad - a boy, most likely a little boy. He had with him five barley loaves. Barley flour was an inferior product in those days - it produced a course texture of bread. This little guy had five loaves of cheap bread, and He also had two fish. All these seemingly insignificant details points us to the possibility that this little fella was poor. In Andrew’s words, he also highlighted the desperation of the moment - ‘there are so many people here, there is no way we can feed them all with this kids lunch.’
Once again a test exists. The perplexity of Andrew reveals that his focus was on earthly things and not heavenly things. The disciples could not see beyond their own resources. The miraculous did not enter into their minds. If someone would ask them if Jesus could do miracles they would have quickly answered - YES. But this time, they looked to their own insufficiency without looking to Jesus’ all sufficiency. Most of us have been Christians for a long time. And we would probably think that if we were in this situation, we would simply ask Jesus for help. We would be tempted to think that we would just turn to Jesus and say you can do it. But the reality is that - way too many times we are face to face with the God of all, and yet we are spiritually blind. We know it - but it seems that we don’t have a clue.
We know Jesus turned water into wine; we know that He healed the royal official’s son; we know that He healed the man by the pool; we even know what the outcome of today’s passage is …..yet how many times in our Christian walk - probably even this week, have we faced a crisis, a turn in circumstances, a trial - and all we look at is the seemingly overwhelming and un-scaleable situation…. and turn to our own resources…. We have failed to consider the power of our Lord.
Up to this point the disciples were with the Lord for two years. They were eating with Him, were able to ask Him questions, they learned from Him, they saw Him demonstrate His power - yet they were dull…dull to the spiritual presence and power that should have been so obvious. They failed the test and this was not the first time. The Lord now teaches the lesson through….
3. THE PERFORMED MIRACLE (v.10-13)
v.10 Jesus now begins to do what He was intending to do. The main focus of our passage is about to begin - Jesus’ power. Jesus prevails over the spiritual dullness of the disciples, and the performed miracle is about to take place. The people had been standing for a while so that they could see and hear Jesus. He asks the disciples to get the people to sit down - literally recline, or sit back, which was not an uncommon posture for eating in those times. John notes - that there was much grass where they were situated. So to recline was possible . It was green grass so it may indicate that this was in the spring time (Mk. 6:39). This is what the scene would have looked like - there on the mountainside were thousands of people gathered without any order - in one large crowd. The disciples at Jesus’ instruction have the people sit in rows like a garden bed, arranged in groups of 50’s and 100’s (Mk. 6:40). The mosaic of the peoples clothes could be likened to the neatly arranged flower gardens of BC’c parliament buildings, in the spring. This garden bed pattern, allowed the disciples to move through and distribute the food rapidly and efficiently.
John also includes the detail that those who were counted were men. In total there were about or approximately five thousand - men. Only the men were counted and if we were to count the women and children there could easily be 15 - 25,000 people. This is one big hungry crowd.
v.11 Jesus takes the loaves, and having given thanks - that is that Jesus ‘said grace’ for the food - He gave thanks to God for it. Having done this, the disciples began and distributed the barley loaves. Everyone seated were able to have as much as they wanted. The same thing takes place with the two fish. It appears that the miraculous multiplication of the food took place continuously as the disciples were walking through the crowd, until everyone had enough.
v.12 This was a substantial meal that satisfied everyone that was there - as much as they wanted to eat. The people were completely full they were satisfied - maybe even stuffed.
A lot of consumers today are talking about organic food. It seems that the trend these days in some restaurants is that you have a choice between regular chicken (mass produced) and free range chicken (organic). If we step back for a moment and think about this miracle - we realize that Jesus divinely created this food. This means that the bread and fish were perfect in its composition - better than organic - it was untainted by the effects of sin upon this earth. So the bread and fish must have been the best tasting food that these people have ever eaten in their lives. At the end of the meal, the disciples are given the command to collect the leftover fragments of food. These were not little scraps or crumbs, but they were actual pieces of bread that were left over. Jesus didn’t want any of this food to be lost - or wasted, which was going to be eaten by the disciples and shared with Jesus. Jesus produced the perfect amount of food for the occasion.
v.13 Following Jesus’ order the disciples gathered the leftovers. They were able to fill twelve baskets with the barley bread which had not been eaten by all the people. The baskets used were of a heavy material, something much more rigid and strong, possibly a wicker basket. With the miracle complete the disciples had learned something about TRUSTING their teacher and His power. The disciples faith wavered but in the end it was bolstered, and caused them to mature just a little bit more.
v.14 The people were full and their minds turned from their stomachs to their thoughts. They considered what had just happened and understood this to be a miracle - a sign. But now the actions of the crowd reveal their perverted minds, and we witness….
4. THE PURPOSE OF THE PEOPLE (v.14-15)
Once again John uses the word sign, in this gospel to refer to Jesus’ miracles, is to direct the readers attention to God. The people began to say that Jesus was the Prophet that God had promised from the days of the OT as in Deuteronomy 18:15 - The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. The people in interpreting the fulfillment of the OT Scriptures was correct. Yet it was energized by the wrong motives - the people were self seeking and therefore Jesus became the answer to their physical and superficial interests.
v.15 These interests lay largely upon the Jewish hopes for political freedom from the yoke of the Roman empire. They sought a powerful and influential person who would be from their own people. After all Jesus stood up to the religious elite, and He had supernatural abilities. They figured that Jesus was just the right One to fulfill those shoes, and they tried to take Him by force to make Him king. Just like other occasions, Jesus did not conform to the pressures that people placed upon Him. There was popular demand, but Jesus was not seeking popularity. At this time, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and make their way back across the Sea to another village named Bethsaida on the west side of the Sea, near Capernaum (Mk.6:45). Jesus began to dismiss the people (Mk. 6:45). And Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone to pray by Himself (Mk. 6:46).
In the past maybe we have come to look at this passage as another miracle of Jesus. Yet by taking a second look - a deeper look, and drawing out the details of the text perhaps we can see this as more than just another story - more than just another miracle. God places it in His Word to teach us something. If we submit our self to the Word of God and look deeper, beyond the surface of this passage we can discover some really meaningful application for our own life. Some of these are the LESSONS FROM FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISH which are printed into the back of your bulletin.
The biggest lesson, as I mentioned already is this - way too many times we are face to face with the God of all, and yet we are spiritually blind. We know Jesus is with us, but perhaps we don’t give Him much of our attention. Let us ask God to help us with our spiritual short sightedness - so that every part of our life can bring glory to our Lord - that is the reason that we have been saved by Christ. Let us consider if we have not, His power and resources by humbly realizing in repentance, that we often fail to TRUST God. Jesus has paid the penalty for sin on our behalf, therefore He will help us to see Him more and to fully put our trust in God.
(For a full explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - click here - http://www.doihaveeternallife.blogspot.com/)
.
.
.
