The Feeding of the Multitude
(This is a sermon transcript, and may contain small inaccuracies.)
Bertrand Russell, the 19th century British atheist, philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate, was once asked what he would say if he found himself standing before God on the Judgment Day, and God asked him, why didn't you believe in Me? Russell, without blinking an eye, blurted out his response. And I quote, “I will look God in the eye and tell Him that He did not give me enough evidence, not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence.”
What is interesting about Russell's response is his sheer audacity and arrogance to think that he can look God in the eyes. “God is like the sun”, –Chesterton asserted– “You cannot look at it, but without it, you cannot look at anything else.” Russell's admission that he chose to be an atheist because he couldn't get enough evidence to the contrary is the most unjustifiable and unfounded position.
John, here in this Gospel, is giving us evidence. He's giving us what he calls signs. Signs of the existence, the deity, the God-ness of Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son.
And as we've seen from the previous chapter, John chapter 5, and in spite of the evidence, unequivocal evidence, which was obvious everywhere, the religious leaders rejected Christ. They rejected the Messiah. In fact, they determined that he was the most extreme blasphemer because he claimed to be God, and he exposed and attacked their man-made system, their spiritual pride and arrogance.
So, they decided they want to kill Him. They tried to kill Him. They never denied the miracles.
You remember, they denied the miracle Worker. Never rejecting what he did, they rejected Him. This is the stubbornness of the human heart. They were, as John 5:40 tells us, unwilling to come to Him, that they may have life. This is the deceptiveness of false religion.
So when we come to chapter 6, we're going to see the same pattern, unfortunately, tragically. The same pattern exactly as it was in John 5. You remember, in John 5, there was a miracle. The man at the Pool of Bethesda, the miracle was followed by a discourse on the deity of Christ, the teamwork between Father and Son, that the Son is co-equal, co-eternal with the Father.
Well, that really, discourse was followed by rejection, and rejection was followed by the plan to kill Jesus. Same thing here in this chapter, as we will see together. Absolutely the same thing. It starts with a sign, the feeding of the crowd, followed by a discourse, followed by rejection and stubborn unbelief, followed by the desire to kill Jesus, which is how chapter 7 opens up.
In this chapter, we're going to see Jesus perform two more astounding miracles. We already watched Him make clear water blush, turning water into wine, heal a boy from 30 km away, and make a lame man walk, pick up his mat and walk. Today he will feed 5,000 men plus women and children. And then, walk on water. If Jesus can do these things, imagine what He could do in your life and mine. Your impossibilities and mine. What's on your list of impossibilities? Really, impossibilities depend on our perspective.
Example, to a child, many things seem impossible like long division or a game of chess, but from an adult's perspective, they are handled with relative ease. We need to understand the impossible from two viewpoints, the human and the divine. The divine, well, Jeremiah makes this statement, Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You.” And ten verses later, God confirms it. Jeremiah 32:27, “Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” The answer is, of course, not.
Luke 18:27, “But He said, “These things are impossible with people are possible with God.”” There's no question that we serve a God who specializes in the spectacular, who majors in the miraculous, and who operates in the omnipotence. But I would also point out that He is also, as we will see, Lord of the little.
He's a God who moves in big ways, awesome ways, but He's also a God who's able to take the small, the tiny, the insignificant things of this world and use them for His glory. And as we will see together, beloved, little is more than enough in His hand.
I love what Spurgeon said concerning this miracle. He says that this miracle is in all four gospels so that we won't forget how much the Lord can do with little things that are yielded to Him. How much the Lord can do with little things that are yielded to Him. So let's look at this miracle together.
There's so much here and today we will get to really unfold this message, the miracle by the grace of God and we'll leave the bulk of the application, the message. So we'll look at the meaning. There'll be application intermingled but the bulk of the application will have to wait until next Lord's Day. So you have to come back.
Let's look at the miracle together, the meaning. And let's begin with the pertinent setting.
The pertinent setting, the first four verses. Verse one, “After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias).” From chapter five, the Sea now shifted now north again from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee. Up to this point, John has been recording events that took place before, prior to the Galileean ministry of Jesus. This is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Now in this chapter, John in this Gospel intersects with the other synoptic Gospels.
In fact, the feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle performed by Jesus that is recorded in all four Gospels; if you don't count the resurrection of Jesus. Now it is important to note that Matthew, in his parallel account, Matthew 14 and verse 21, uses the Greek word for man, ‘andres’, counting how many people were there, that distinguishes a man from a woman, that distinguishes a husband from a wife, that distinguishes a man from children. And so it is not the generic term, ‘anthropos’, man, which is a word that includes women and children as well, but rather ‘andres’, that is masculine adults. So, Matthew 14:21 says “there were about five thousand” – ‘andres’ – “men who ate, besides women and children”. And so a reasonable estimate then we can really surmise that at least there would have been that day between 15,000 people to 25,000 people.
So the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle performed by Jesus that is recorded in all four Gospels. Only John, however, fills out the full theological implications of this miracle, of the feeding of the five thousand men plus women and children, because only John records the Bread of Life sermon.
Now think about it. How many of the other miracles that Jesus did were accompanied by or followed by profound sermons that pointed attention to the true theological meaning of what He was doing. And you see that often here in the Gospel of John, really. Certainly this is an example of that. Here Jesus feeds the multitudes, and then he elevates their eyes to something far, far more significant than bread and fish.
So Jerusalem is left behind. The Sea of Galilee now laps at our feet. The Sea of Galilee is really a... I mean, it's not really a sea. It's really a medium-sized lake. It's about 20 kilometers long from north to south. And at the north, its widest part is about 11 kilometers wide. It's called the Sea of Galilee, Galilee after the region. The other name was Chinareth after its shape, which was the name for the heart-shaped lyre, an instrument like a harp. So you can picture it sort of like a triangle. John notes here that later date became known as also the Sea of Tiberius. Tiberius was a key city on the western shore. It was founded about AD 20 by Herod Antipas, who was the son of Herod the Great.
Now John drops us down in the middle of this event, the feeding of the 5,000 plus women and children, without a lot of backgrounds, and perhaps he assumes that you know some of the background from the other Gospels. So let me set this up for us, because I think that background is really very helpful for us.
The other gospels tell us that Jesus had been just prior to this teaching and healing all over the region of Galilee, and that tremendous ministry of Jesus raised a cyclone of speculation about Him and His ministry. Is He the Messiah or is He not?Could it be? In fact, Herod Antipas himself, the son of Herod the Great, who was ruling over Galilee, he was a Roman supported ruler of that area, recently, you remember, beheaded John the Baptist, and he's got a bit of a guilty conscience for that, and so he's thrown into a panic when he hears what Jesus is doing, all the miraculous deeds that he was performing, believing maybe Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead. And in Luke 9:9, we have recorded for us that Herod kept trying urgently to see Jesus. He was so nervous.
So there's great excitement going on. Now, further excitement is caused also when Jesus commissions and sends out the 12 on this preaching and healing tour all through the villages and towns of Galilee. So it's not only Jesus now doing these things, and He has granted His disciples, specifically for that season, power to do the same works that He's doing in His name. And Luke 9:2 says, he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And now the disciples had returned, and they are thrilled at what God had done through them.
But at the same time, as thrilled as they may have been, they were equally exhausted by the assignment. Their ministry had created such an interest, says Mark 6:31, that the crowds were pressing in on them in such a way that they didn't have anything to eat. They were tired and weary and hungry.
So Jesus wisely organizes a retreat to rest and recuperate. Mark 6:32 says ‘And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.” Now, the secluded place, we find out here in John's Gospel away from Capernaum. Capernaum is the main town on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. And basically, the Sea of Galilee looks like, as I mentioned, a triangle to simplify it. The broad part are the top and the apex, the pointy part is at the bottom. If you have a map in front of you, you can see that.
So, Capernaum, if you look at the map at the back of your Bible, if you have a real Bible, is on that north shore. So, they're going to go from the north shore to the top base of the triangle over to the east shore. And so, they go to the secluded place away from Capernaum. It's what we would call today, that area, we call it the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights.
Steep hills on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. Now, the Sea of Galilee, as I said, is not that big. It's not that large. And from Capernaum, from the hills there on the north, you could actually see the boat going all the way across the lake to the other side. So, you could track it visually from Capernaum all the way to the Golan Heights. And according to the Gospel of Mark, that's exactly what the people did.
These crowds were pressing in on Jesus and the disciples from the hillside. They could see where the boat is going, and they just wanted to be with Him. So, in fact, what they did then is, they ran along the northern shore, past Bethsaida, which is on the northeast corner, and then down the eastern side of the lake to meet Jesus and the disciples when they disembark.
Well, so much for rest and recuperation, so much for this retreat. And Jesus, we know from the Gospel accounts, moved by compassion, moved by compassion for the crowd, set aside exhaustion and spent the day doing what? Teaching and healing the breathless, leg-weary crowds who had run all the way to meet Him.
He sees the crowds, and we may think this is an intrusion, and yet Luke 9:11 tells us He was “welcoming them”. Beautiful word, “welcoming them”, full rich word. This is the heart of God the Son, to welcome people and their complex spiritual need, to meet them with the truth.
He had compassion. Mark 6:34 says “He was moved with” – esplanchnisthē– is the Greek word “compassion”. Literally, it means stomach, bowels. To be moved inwardly, to yearn with tender mercy and affection, pity, empathy, all of that.
As He saw them, He felt deep down in the depth of His bowels, in the depth of His stomach, down in the very depth of His being, He felt pity for them. It means that our Lord was touched at the very depth of his being. And this word really expresses intense emotions. Jesus felt deep compassion. His heart was in this. This was not mere duty.
And don't miss the second half of verse 2, where John tells us the reason the crowd was following Him. And Jesus was moved with compassion in spite of this, by the way. Look at what we read in the second part of verse 2. They followed Him what?
“they were following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was doing on those who were sick.”
These people weren't overall, they weren't following Jesus because they recognize Him as the son of God who could save them from their sins. No, no. Some were fascinated just seeing the fireworks, the miracles. Others needed miraculous healing themselves and for their loved ones, but overall the reasons for following Jesus were misguided and superficial. And we've seen this before, right?
End the chapter 2, you remember. What drew them was not the kingdom of God. What drew them was not salvation so desperately needed by sinners. It was not repentance. It was not sound doctrine. It was not true understanding of sin. It was not longing for the guilt to be lifted off of their conscience. It was not for forgiveness. It was not the hope of escaping judgment or escaping hell.
What drew them was, they saw the healings, miracles. Let me be quick to underscore that in verse 2, the verbs are largely imperfect, exactly as they're translated in the LSB, expressing durative action in past time. So you could see the multitudes on the move out towards him because they were seeing the miracles which He was doing on those who were sick.
And so picture this, so here were constant miracles being performed by Jesus and a constant stream of people going out to him there and gathering around about Him. Verse 3, then Jesus went up on a mountain and there “He was sitting down with His disciples” – and John adds a most important time reference, he says in verse 4, – “Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews was near.” I take that to be significant because the Passover, among the many things that it signified, was the fact that He was the true bread of life.
He was the bread of life. He was the true bread of God. Now in this context and in the message that follows, the Lord Jesus will speak about the fact that He is the true bread out of heaven, down in verse 32. He will speak of the bread of God in verse. 33. And then in verse 51, He will say, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. So here He is at the time of the Passover feast.
The thought of that is on the minds of everyone. And He's going to speak of Himself as the manna, as the One who fulfills the manna, giving men more than that which they ate when they ate the mitzvah of the unleavened bread at the Passover meal. And so all of this is very significant. Our Lord is performing this miracle, feeding these multitudes, the people at the time of the Passover.
Well let's press on and look at the probing question in verses 5 and 6. From the pertinent setting to the probing question, verse 5, “Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “where should we buy bread so that these people may eat?”” And looking at the parallel accounts of the synoptic Gospels, I gather that our Lord's question to Philip probably was asked just after He arrived in this secluded spot.
And that's when He said, where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
Because He wanted to test Philip. And later on, after the healing and teaching, He says some of the other things. Matthew 14:14 tells us He spent the day healing the sick and really healing the sick. Luke 9:11 says He spent the day speaking to them concerning the kingdom of God and salvation. And Mark says He did this because He was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
So, His heart goes out to the crowd. It goes out to them because of their suffering in this physical world, the broken world. It goes out to them because of their desperate spiritual condition, their sheep without a shepherd. So he heals them. He preaches salvation and the kingdom. And He's doing all of this all throughout the day.
And as the day begins to draw to an end, it's late afternoon, the disciples according to Mark 6:35 come to Him and say, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late”. ‘Erēmos topos’. Desolate. A lonely place. Sometimes this word ‘Erēmos can be translated desert, but in this case, it's not really a reference to a desert. Not a desert because we know from the text they're sitting on grass. Grass doesn't grow in the desert, and so they say we're in nowhere. That's the idea here. It's a desolate place.
We're nowhere. In the middle of nowhere, we went up on the mountain and to get away, the crowd came up to find us, and here we are in nowhere. This is desolation. We're far away from any town, city, or place where all of these people can find food. I think there's something we should just note here before we go on. Will you please notice in verse 5 that it is our Lord who takes the initiative? Our Lord takes the initiative in talking.
It's just one of the many signs that it is God who moves to provide for us. And furthermore, when He takes the initiative and says to Philip, where should we buy bread so that these people may eat? He seems to have a certain knowledge. He has an absolute knowledge of the fact that his own resources were ample for the needs. And he knew it all along. Just an indication of the self-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the question raises another question, and that is, but why did He ask Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? Verse 6, this was, “He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was going to do.”
Well, first of all, in this instance, Philip was the obvious person to ask. Why? Well, he came from the nearby town of Bethsaida, according to John 1:44. Furthermore, there's a truth that we must recognize if we're ever to be blessed by God, and that question to Philip was designed to draw attention to it.
It's simply this, mark it down, beloved, that in order to appreciate the ability of Jesus Christ, we have to come to understand our total complete inability. In order for us to appreciate the ability of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have to come to understand our own inadequacy, inability. It's impossible for us to truly appreciate the Lord Jesus as a Savior until we have come to understand that we are sinners, dead sinners, and that we stand under the judgement of God.
Every single one of us by nature, we stand under the judgement of God that we're guilty, we're condemned, and that if a transformation does not take place outside of ourselves, if we are not born again, born from above, we have no hope. And so one of the things that the Spirit of God does in the hearts of sinners is to convince them of sin, righteousness, and judgement. And one of the things in the lives of the saints of God that He must do is to bring them to such a sense of their inability that they cling to Him and to His ability for their sanctification. “For without Me you could do nothing”.
So that's what he would like for Philip to understand. Philip, where should we buy bread so that these people may eat? 20-25,000 people? What is Jesus doing? Well, he's conveying an impossible situation. Absolutely impossible. Think about it. They're in this ‘Erēmos place, this desolate place, no resources, nowhere to go and buy bread for this many people. It was an absolutely impossible situation. Immediate food for 20,000 plus people? I mean, are you kidding me? How is that possible? And He's not really looking for help from Philip by asking this question. He's not looking for some ideas or suggestions.
What is he doing? “This He was saying to test him,” – verse – “for He Himself knew what He was going to do”. He knows. He always knows. He doesn't know it all. What was the test? Simply put, the test was to find out how much faith Philip had.
“For He was saying this to test him”. “For” – a term of explanation. What is John explaining?
For He himself knew what He was going to do. Jesus “knew” – ‘ēdei’ is the verb in the Greek text. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, He would miraculously create food for the thousands. But he wanted Philip to take this as an opportunity to look at the sufficiency of Jesus rather than the insufficiency of the supply.
That brings us to the paltry or pitiful response. Verses 7 through 9. Now at this point, having asked the question of Philip, it would have been great. Amazing, marvelous if Philip had responded, Lord, I've seen you turn the water into wine. Lord, I've watched you heal the royal official's son from a distance 30 kilometres away. Lord, I saw you heal the man who had been unable to walk for 38 years at the Pool of Bethesda. I've watched you perform dozens and dozens of miracles and dozens, surely you can provide bread for this hungry multitude even as God provided manna in the wilderness. How did he respond?
Oh, verse 7, Philip answered and said to Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little”. He started calculating. He took his calculator and he's like adding things up, pen and paper or whatever. But he calculated without Christ. That's the problem. He did the numbers without considering the Lord's power, and he concluded with business-like efficiency.
Eight months salary of a working man, two hundred denarii is not sufficient for each one to receive a little. And if you were to factor in, just to just to give you an idea, if you were to factor in the average salary in Toronto today, right, it's almost about forty thousand dollars that would make for eight months. Eight months.
Notice, notice Philip doesn't really answer the question. The question is, where should we buy bread so that these people may eat? He's too busy calculating to remember the true source of the solution to the problem.
In Matthew's account, the Lord Jesus will say with reference to the food, bring it to Me, bring it to Me. In other words, He is the source. It doesn't make any difference how many thousands of dollars it might take. He is able to multiply. In fact, He is able to create, for He is the all creating Son of God himself, as we will see.
But Philip is too busy calculating to remember the true source. The true source is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. The problem was, they didn't have 200 denarii and even if they did, it wasn't enough. And even if they had more, there weren't enough supermarkets just down the road that had enough bread on hand to feed 20,000 people plus.
But how often, beloved, we throw up our hands and conclude that we can't do something for the Lord because we calculate based on our inadequate resources. Remember what Paul says? Who's adequate for these things?
Later on that day, as the day was far spent, the reason is because our Lord kept teaching and kept preaching and explaining and expounding, and their souls have been fed so richly by the ministry of the truth of the Word of God coming out of the lips of the Word incarnate. Mark tells us that the disciples suggested that Jesus send the people away in Mark 6:35 and 36. You know what their solution was? Get rid of the problem. They're not our problem. They're hungry, send them away.
But Jesus knew that the hungry people would faint on the way if somebody did not feed them. It was evening according to Matthew 14:15, and there was no time to travel. But the disciples have neglected to look to the Lord Himself.
And before we move on, beloved, let me ask each and every one of us a few questions. before we press on. Do you ever look at the situations that you face in life, and perhaps that you are facing right now, and become afraid and full of doubt, because you neglect to look to the Lord Himself? Do you look at a lost family member and wonder if they will ever be saved, and you find yourself in despair because you neglect to look to the Lord Himself?
Do you ever look at the condition of the world and become afraid, wondering how, how it will all turn out? And fear fills your heart to the point of paralysis simply because you neglect to look to the Lord.
What I'm really asking is this. Do you ever have fears? Do you ever have fears? We all do. Including the man after God's own heart who said whenever I am afraid, but he doesn't stop there. He says, I will trust in You. We all do. Being afraid of the unknown is part of living in this fallen, broken world. Having doubts and concerns is something that we all deal with.
The problem arises when we become like the disciples. They were in the presence of the Lord of Glory, but they didn't believe that He could handle the situation. To their eyes, it looked impossible.
They were not coming to Jesus in faith, they were coming to Him in fear. They were saying in so many words, Lord, this problem is beyond us and we think it's greater than You are. We don't think You can handle it, then You better send these people away, or we're all going to be in trouble. Just send them away.
Listen, beloved, you may have never said those words, but you and I have acted in the same manner. We fret and worry, become anxious over our problems, we're filled with doubts, and we neglect to look to the Lord. Instead of coming to Jesus with a heart that says, Lord, I believe in You, I know this is a big problem to me, but it's nothing to You, O Lord. You're watching over my ways. You tell me to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayers and supplications with thanksgiving to let my request be made known to you. And here I am, Lord, I'm bringing my request. This is a huge problem to me. But it's nothing to You.
We carry our problems around and allow them to drain the spiritual life, the spiritual sap right out of us. Because we fail to look to the Lord. Oh, beloved, may we come to Jesus and look to Jesus and trust in Jesus, our compassionate Savior who is full of mercy and tender compassion, even to people who are following Him for the wrong reason.
Well, one of His disciples, “Andrew,” –verse 8 – “Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”
Now, why does he pop out of nowhere, Andrew? Well, according to Mark's account, 6:38, Jesus commands the disciples to go into the crowd and find out what they could take. Go search the crowd, see what might be available. You put them all together. This is again intended to underscore further that they have very, very little, and to underscore the enormous size of the obstacle. Everything, by the way, about Andrew's statement emphasizes inadequacy.
The Greek term for boy, ‘paidarion’, is double diminutive. He was a little boy, not just a boy, a little boy. In terms of provision, little children were of no use at all.
I mean, imagine 20,000 people plus. His barley loaves were common to the Mediterranean diet, though considered inferior to wheat bread. There were little hard flat loaves, and they're not very large at all.
In fact, also, we know something about the fish, the Greek word used for fish, ‘Opsaria’, also the diminutive form of the word ‘Opsaria’, meaning little fish. There were tiny fish, little, small, seasoned sardine-like fish, included for the sake of flavor, and that was, after all, a small boy's lunch, so there was not much to work with here, very little. Andrew's comment, but what are these for so many people seems to reflect his embarrassment to bring this pitiful, tiny lunch to Jesus.
His statements, his comment, Andrew's comment really accentuates the obvious inadequacy. What are these for so many people? But beloved, beloved, mark it down. A little is a lot if God is in it, because He's able to multiply what we have. A little is a lot if God is in it, because He's able to multiply what we have. Whatever little you may have of time, of energy, whatever it is, you place it in His hand and see God at work.
His grace is sufficient. That leads us to the powerful sign. The powerful sign, verse
10-11. “Jesus said, “Have the people sit down”. Now there was much grass in the place”, – so they sat down on the grass –“So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.” Plus women and children. Mark 6:39-40 says, “they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties”. So 50 here, 50 there, and 100 here, 100 there, 100 there, here, there, you know, little aisles in between, everything's organised. In fact, the word translated groups means in rows like vegetables in a garden. That's what it means. Jesus has the people sit down in orderly fashion, in rows. He's the God of order. That's one of the applications. Next time.
This is near Passover, so it's the end of March, beginning of April, springtime, grass still green, and what a magnificent miracle of grace abounding over unbelief, and the accompaniment of the miracle is really interesting. We're told here, as I mentioned, the Lord required everybody to sit down. He said, now, everybody sit down.
I can imagine that there were many questions at that point. Why are we sitting down? Why are we told to sit down? Why do we have to sit down? Oh, well, you're going to be fed. What? We're gonna be fed? Yes, we're going to be fed. How? Oh, there's a little boy over here. He has five little barley loaves and two little fish. And so, this is the vast multitude, sitting down, waiting to eat, and all they have is what? A little boy's lunch.
And then in verse 11, this has to be, this has to be, the most understated act of creation ever. This is like, you know, when you read in Genesis, and He made the stars also. Jesus then took the loaves, “Jesus then took the loaves,” – verse 11 – “and having given thanks”, Mark tells us in 6:41, “looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves.” And looking up toward heaven to acknowledge where all food comes from.
That's why in 1 Timothy 4: 4, we're told all things are to be received with thanksgiving. Now we do that, don't we? We follow that pattern, thanking the Lord for our daily food. This does not infuse the food with special blessing. When we say, Lord, bless this food to our body, it's not like it infuses it with special blessing. This is just to say, thank you, God, for providing for this food. We bless the Lord, the Giver of food and the Giver of all things. Psalm 103: 1-2, “Bless Yahweh, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless Yahweh, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits.”
And one of those benefits is daily food. Verse 11, “Jesus took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated; likewise also the fish as much as they wanted”. Just like that. Just like that. Just like that! This is all you can eat buffet.
You know what's interesting? Those liberal scholars, they mounted their usual absurd attack on this miracle, hoping to eradicate and trivialise the supernatural power of Christ. They would say, actually, there were no multiplication of bread or fish because we know that miracles are impossible. Actually, what happened, they say, what happened this day, they say, is Jesus showed the crowd this little boy and his willingness to share his lunch, even though it wasn't nearly enough to go around, and they were so shamed by this lad's generosity, everyone pulled out their lunches that they've been hiding under their cloak, suddenly there was enough for everybody. If that sounds like nonsense to you, it does to me too, because it is nonsense. They say these people followed Jesus the next day back across the lake because they wanted Him to teach them more about this sharing spirit.
You see, the spirit of sharing was a real miracle this day, they say. Well that's good socialism, but it's bad Bible interpretation. Clearly multiplication is the only interpretation possible.
So everybody sits down, there's anticipation, and the Lord Jesus takes the food that has been brought to Him, five little barley loaves, two fish, He lifts His voice toward heaven, gives a word of thanks, and then He began to distribute the food.
Mark 6:41 and following explains that the distribution was through his disciples. We read there, “He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves. And he kept giving, he kept giving them to the disciples to set before them” – the people –, “and He divided up the two fish among them all”.
Is this not stunning? Astounding? We can even say bizarre, really. In a good way, in an awesome way. He's got 20-25,000 people, He's got five little flat bread in His hand, and He's thanking the Lord for this wonderful meal that they're about to partake.
Now, understand something. This is little bread made from barley that was never planted. And these are fish that never swam. These are fresh dead fish, never alive. This is like eating in the Garden of Eden. These are bread and fish untainted by the curse. This is just an incredible miracle.
I love what Pastor MacArthur said at this point. And I quote, “With no fanfare, no voice from heaven, no lightning, no thunder, He distributed to those who were seeded. He just kept passing out crackers and fish. He was creating it. These were crackers that never came from grain, that never grew, that never were in the dirt. Those were fish that never swam.
He created them. Those are the best crackers anybody ever ate. Those are unfallen crackers, uncursed crackers.”
Now, that leads us to the plentiful surplus. The plentiful surplus, verses 12 and 13.
“And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost”. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten”.
So they all ate. They all ate to the satisfaction of their heart. Everybody ate and it says they were filled. ‘Eneplēsthēsan’ is the Greek word. They were fully satisfied. This was the best meal anybody ever had. And they had maxed out. They were full. They were satisfied. They've never tasted anything like this before. This is food from the hands of the sovereign, omnipotent Creator of the universe. This was, I mean, this was perfect bread and perfect fish. Five loaves, two fish.
And what they collected after everyone was satisfied were twelve baskets full. The disciples got far more than anyone else there that day. The basket here, ‘kofinos’, is the Greek word.
It just refers to a little travelling food basket, just a little travelling food basket, bag, that you carry around with you, you put your lunch in it. When it was all done, I mean, amazing. The precision of the whole thing is absolutely staggering.
Why there are 12 baskets left? Because there are how many apostles? The precision is literally shocking. How can you process that? How? He knows how much to create so that everyone eats and is fully satisfied on the best fish, best bread they've ever had, and there is 12 baskets exactly left. The precision of it, the complexity of it, is consistent with God's providence. How He uses an infinite number of contingent things and always, always, always achieves His perfect, precise end. Always.
Behold our God, Beloved. This is our Lord who orders the whole universe with perfect precision. Well, as generous as He was, as much as He provided and showed Himself to be Jehovah Jireh, what were they really seeing? They were seeing divine power, creation power, divine compassion, demonstrated in the physical world as a symbol of what He wanted to do in their spiritual lives. They were seeing divine control, no waste, meeting every need.
No wonder we read in verse 14, “Therefore, when the people saw the sign which He had done, they were saying, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come in the world.””
And I want us to see at this point the perverted attempt. The Jews, at least, knew their Old Testament prophecy. And so in one sense, their interpretation was spot on, for Jesus was indeed the One about whom Moses had prophesied back in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. However, they were looking for a political leader, not a suffering servant. They were looking for a physical savior, a conqueror, not a suffering Savior. And so their interpretation was completely off.
So here the people saw the bread sign and said, truly – ‘alēthōs’-- truly, Jesus was the Prophet, the definite article, the Prophet, indicates the specific Prophet, the one prophesied by Moses. He is the Messiah, whereas after walking on water and stilling the storm, the twelve disciples worshipped Him, saying, you are ‘alēthōs’, certainly, truly, God's Son. The crowd saw the Prophet, but missed the Son, and the reason He came.
And so they wanted to seize Jesus and make Him king over them. I mean, in their mind, like, we've seen the sign, it's astounding, the bread and the fish miracle, and it wasn't done with smoke and mirrors, it was with this One as King, I mean, who could feed multitudes with five miniature loaves and two skinny fish. I mean, we could start a whole revolution right now, and we don't have to fear things like dwindling supplies, which is the logistical nightmare for every army of resistance, right?
FF. Bruce comments, and I quote, “These 5,000 men would have constituted a ready-made guerilla force to anyone willing to become their leaders”, their leader.
In verse 15, he says, he suggests that a leader was just what they were looking for, “So Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself”. In their mind, Jesus has supernatural power. He does miracles of healing, endless supply of food. And this is the king that we want to overthrow the yoke of Rome, the Roman Empire. I mean, if you have someone who does miracles like this, feed 20,000 plus people, frankly, I mean, He's unstoppable militarily. They wanted a king who would be a means to their nationalistic ends, defeat Rome and taxation, restore Jewish pride, and Jesus can do all of this.
They don't want Him for Him, tragically. They don't want Him for Him. They want Him for what He can do. And you know, as we bring this to an end, that's how a lot of people want God's abundance, want His provision. Sadly, they want Him to bless their business. They want Him to bless their marriage. They want Him to make their business successful. But they don't want Him for Him. They don't want Him for Him.
They want Him for what He can do. Only, bless my business, make my money successfully and continually. They want Him for what He could do. Give me a job, keep me employed, give me a raise, provide more money, more health, not because I want Him, and He's my provider as I do my work. No, no. They want the provision, the security, the success, the lifestyle, the material comfort and prosperity, and He's the means toward that end.
And so, Jesus becomes simply a Christian version of what people have done for thousands of years. Good luck charms, magical amulets, spells of blessing, spirits and ancestors and gods invoked to give me wealth and comfort and health. And there are enough professing Christians who brought that over, sadly, tragically, into Christianity.
Some people give into the offering just to make sure they get good luck on their business because they're really worried. If I don't give, I'd have bad luck. Or, who knows what will happen if I don't give. I need to pay my “god-bill” every month. The lives swirl around the fears, their fears about meals and money and food and finances. And really, the whole spiritual realm is just a kind of superstitious side for getting that. There's a word for that, beloved. There's a word for that, carnal. Just concern for the physical, the fleshly.
But as to who this God is, what He is like, they really haven't even considered the question. Not interested. Not interested. Notice Jesus' response to this exploitation of his provision. What does He do? And this is really telling. Verse 15, it says, “withdrew”. He withdrew. He withdraws. Jesus, mark it down, beloved, Jesus will not be used that way.
He's not a gene in a bottle for those who want Him so. Those whose god is their belly will find Jesus will not be their secondary god, god to support their idolatry. He withdraws.
You see, beloved, abundance, provision, is not for those who would abuse it. It's for those who are grateful because they love God and they love Him truly from the heart.
The other Gospel writers say that he sent his disciples into the boat. He told them to go across the other side of the lake, dismissed the crowd, went into the mountain. Jesus isn't willing to exclusively be a temporal provider. He's not willing to do that. He's not willing to be additive in your life or mine. And it's astonishing to think about it. If He wanted to be Messiah, this would have been his moment if He was just a man with an ambition. But He would not allow them to push Him to become the kind of king that they wanted. And that's the way it is today sadly. The Jesus of the health and wealth prosperity preachers is the false Jesus.
It is a false gospel because the true Jesus isn't there. He's not. He withdrew. He left. He will not be treated in that way. He withdrew into a mountain alone. This was an incredible opportunity for them to affirm that He is the son of God. He is the Messiah. And for them to say, Teach us, teach us the truth of God. We need to be born again. And He will do that. And He will do that later in the chapter where He will teach them. He will give them that great discourse on Himself as the bread of life, the bread of heaven, drawing off that experience in the feeding of the multitude. He will talk about eternal riches and heaven and salvation, and they will tragically reject it. They will reject it.
Jesus does not acquiesce to the whims and fancies of these individuals. He comes to no man on that man's term. People cannot manipulate Him for their own selfish ends. He doesn't promise unregenerate people what unregenerate people want. He will not be a quick fix for felt needs. He will not be the one who just gives you temporal satisfaction.
You want to “come after Me, you must deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and come after me”. You come to Me on My own terms, not your own terms.
And if you market him that way, you're on your own. And that's what you hear all around. Through the health and wealth and prosperity, preachers and others. That's what they do. They market Him that way. And they're on their own. Why? Because he's not there. People do not come to Christ on their own terms. They come to Christ on His own terms. And for what He demands. He calls on sinners to mourn for their sin. To be broken, penitent. Acknowledge him as sovereign Lord, Master. Be obedient to Him, live for Him.
Live to please him. Maybe even die for Him. Serve Him as His slave, a willing slave for a benevolent Master. And when He gave that message, in the rest of the chapter, as we will see when we get there, Lord willing, they were gone as fast as they could. They bailed out.
Jesus always drives the superficial crowd away with the hard demands of the Gospel.
What about you today? Are you one of those superficial followers of Christ? Is that why you're here?
Maybe that's what brought you here this morning. This very moment, this very hour, the Gospel is presented to you. The Good News of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, God the Son. He must be the object of your faith. You must put your faith exclusively in Him. You must put your trust in Him. You must believe upon Him. He is God's final revelation. He is the heir of all things, this Jesus of the Bible.
He is the creator of the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the exact imprint of God's nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power. He and He alone made purification for our sins. He sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is God enthroned forever with the scepter of our brightness. He is worshiped by the angels. His rule will have no end.
This is the one who took on a human flesh, died for us in our place, condemned, was buried and rose victorious on the third day, defeated death and sin and the dominion of sin. And He was crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering. And He is the Author and the perfecter of faith and the founder of our salvation.
And He destroyed the One who had the power of death, the devil. And He delivered us from the bondage of fear. He is the merciful and faithful high Priest. And He is the One who made propitiation for our sins. He is sympathetic because of His own trials. And He never sinned.
Pure, harmless, undefiled. And He became the source of eternal salvation. He appears in the presence of God on our behalf as our advocate, our high Priest. And He will come back to take His people home. And He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Believe on Him and you will be saved.
Come to him and put your trust in Him. And He will save all of those who come to Him by faith. He is able to save to the uttermost. This is the Jesus of Scripture. Turn to Him and be saved today.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for Your glorious Son. We behold Him. What a magnificent, awesome Savior He is. He is the Savior of sinners. He is the Lord, the Creator of the universe, who spoke the world out of the womb of nothing. He is the radiance of the glory of God.
We say with John the Apostle, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became Flesh”. We thank You that we have an omnipotent Savior. God, we pray this morning, for anyone who may be in this place, who is a superficial follower of Christ, just like this crowd, O Lord, that You would open their eyes, and that You would draw them to You, that they will come all the way to Christ, that they would believe and be saved. And for us, Your people, Lord, we pray, that we are reminded today, afresh, that ours is a God who is able, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is able, to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power at work in us. Help us to come to Him and look to Him in the face of our impossibilities and inadequacies, as we seek to live for You, knowing that our God is able. Help us to trust You. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
What is interesting about Russell's response is his sheer audacity and arrogance to think that he can look God in the eyes. “God is like the sun”, –Chesterton asserted– “You cannot look at it, but without it, you cannot look at anything else.” Russell's admission that he chose to be an atheist because he couldn't get enough evidence to the contrary is the most unjustifiable and unfounded position.
John, here in this Gospel, is giving us evidence. He's giving us what he calls signs. Signs of the existence, the deity, the God-ness of Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son.
And as we've seen from the previous chapter, John chapter 5, and in spite of the evidence, unequivocal evidence, which was obvious everywhere, the religious leaders rejected Christ. They rejected the Messiah. In fact, they determined that he was the most extreme blasphemer because he claimed to be God, and he exposed and attacked their man-made system, their spiritual pride and arrogance.
So, they decided they want to kill Him. They tried to kill Him. They never denied the miracles.
You remember, they denied the miracle Worker. Never rejecting what he did, they rejected Him. This is the stubbornness of the human heart. They were, as John 5:40 tells us, unwilling to come to Him, that they may have life. This is the deceptiveness of false religion.
So when we come to chapter 6, we're going to see the same pattern, unfortunately, tragically. The same pattern exactly as it was in John 5. You remember, in John 5, there was a miracle. The man at the Pool of Bethesda, the miracle was followed by a discourse on the deity of Christ, the teamwork between Father and Son, that the Son is co-equal, co-eternal with the Father.
Well, that really, discourse was followed by rejection, and rejection was followed by the plan to kill Jesus. Same thing here in this chapter, as we will see together. Absolutely the same thing. It starts with a sign, the feeding of the crowd, followed by a discourse, followed by rejection and stubborn unbelief, followed by the desire to kill Jesus, which is how chapter 7 opens up.
In this chapter, we're going to see Jesus perform two more astounding miracles. We already watched Him make clear water blush, turning water into wine, heal a boy from 30 km away, and make a lame man walk, pick up his mat and walk. Today he will feed 5,000 men plus women and children. And then, walk on water. If Jesus can do these things, imagine what He could do in your life and mine. Your impossibilities and mine. What's on your list of impossibilities? Really, impossibilities depend on our perspective.
Example, to a child, many things seem impossible like long division or a game of chess, but from an adult's perspective, they are handled with relative ease. We need to understand the impossible from two viewpoints, the human and the divine. The divine, well, Jeremiah makes this statement, Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You.” And ten verses later, God confirms it. Jeremiah 32:27, “Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” The answer is, of course, not.
Luke 18:27, “But He said, “These things are impossible with people are possible with God.”” There's no question that we serve a God who specializes in the spectacular, who majors in the miraculous, and who operates in the omnipotence. But I would also point out that He is also, as we will see, Lord of the little.
He's a God who moves in big ways, awesome ways, but He's also a God who's able to take the small, the tiny, the insignificant things of this world and use them for His glory. And as we will see together, beloved, little is more than enough in His hand.
I love what Spurgeon said concerning this miracle. He says that this miracle is in all four gospels so that we won't forget how much the Lord can do with little things that are yielded to Him. How much the Lord can do with little things that are yielded to Him. So let's look at this miracle together.
There's so much here and today we will get to really unfold this message, the miracle by the grace of God and we'll leave the bulk of the application, the message. So we'll look at the meaning. There'll be application intermingled but the bulk of the application will have to wait until next Lord's Day. So you have to come back.
Let's look at the miracle together, the meaning. And let's begin with the pertinent setting.
The pertinent setting, the first four verses. Verse one, “After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias).” From chapter five, the Sea now shifted now north again from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee. Up to this point, John has been recording events that took place before, prior to the Galileean ministry of Jesus. This is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Now in this chapter, John in this Gospel intersects with the other synoptic Gospels.
In fact, the feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle performed by Jesus that is recorded in all four Gospels; if you don't count the resurrection of Jesus. Now it is important to note that Matthew, in his parallel account, Matthew 14 and verse 21, uses the Greek word for man, ‘andres’, counting how many people were there, that distinguishes a man from a woman, that distinguishes a husband from a wife, that distinguishes a man from children. And so it is not the generic term, ‘anthropos’, man, which is a word that includes women and children as well, but rather ‘andres’, that is masculine adults. So, Matthew 14:21 says “there were about five thousand” – ‘andres’ – “men who ate, besides women and children”. And so a reasonable estimate then we can really surmise that at least there would have been that day between 15,000 people to 25,000 people.
So the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle performed by Jesus that is recorded in all four Gospels. Only John, however, fills out the full theological implications of this miracle, of the feeding of the five thousand men plus women and children, because only John records the Bread of Life sermon.
Now think about it. How many of the other miracles that Jesus did were accompanied by or followed by profound sermons that pointed attention to the true theological meaning of what He was doing. And you see that often here in the Gospel of John, really. Certainly this is an example of that. Here Jesus feeds the multitudes, and then he elevates their eyes to something far, far more significant than bread and fish.
So Jerusalem is left behind. The Sea of Galilee now laps at our feet. The Sea of Galilee is really a... I mean, it's not really a sea. It's really a medium-sized lake. It's about 20 kilometers long from north to south. And at the north, its widest part is about 11 kilometers wide. It's called the Sea of Galilee, Galilee after the region. The other name was Chinareth after its shape, which was the name for the heart-shaped lyre, an instrument like a harp. So you can picture it sort of like a triangle. John notes here that later date became known as also the Sea of Tiberius. Tiberius was a key city on the western shore. It was founded about AD 20 by Herod Antipas, who was the son of Herod the Great.
Now John drops us down in the middle of this event, the feeding of the 5,000 plus women and children, without a lot of backgrounds, and perhaps he assumes that you know some of the background from the other Gospels. So let me set this up for us, because I think that background is really very helpful for us.
The other gospels tell us that Jesus had been just prior to this teaching and healing all over the region of Galilee, and that tremendous ministry of Jesus raised a cyclone of speculation about Him and His ministry. Is He the Messiah or is He not?Could it be? In fact, Herod Antipas himself, the son of Herod the Great, who was ruling over Galilee, he was a Roman supported ruler of that area, recently, you remember, beheaded John the Baptist, and he's got a bit of a guilty conscience for that, and so he's thrown into a panic when he hears what Jesus is doing, all the miraculous deeds that he was performing, believing maybe Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead. And in Luke 9:9, we have recorded for us that Herod kept trying urgently to see Jesus. He was so nervous.
So there's great excitement going on. Now, further excitement is caused also when Jesus commissions and sends out the 12 on this preaching and healing tour all through the villages and towns of Galilee. So it's not only Jesus now doing these things, and He has granted His disciples, specifically for that season, power to do the same works that He's doing in His name. And Luke 9:2 says, he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And now the disciples had returned, and they are thrilled at what God had done through them.
But at the same time, as thrilled as they may have been, they were equally exhausted by the assignment. Their ministry had created such an interest, says Mark 6:31, that the crowds were pressing in on them in such a way that they didn't have anything to eat. They were tired and weary and hungry.
So Jesus wisely organizes a retreat to rest and recuperate. Mark 6:32 says ‘And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.” Now, the secluded place, we find out here in John's Gospel away from Capernaum. Capernaum is the main town on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. And basically, the Sea of Galilee looks like, as I mentioned, a triangle to simplify it. The broad part are the top and the apex, the pointy part is at the bottom. If you have a map in front of you, you can see that.
So, Capernaum, if you look at the map at the back of your Bible, if you have a real Bible, is on that north shore. So, they're going to go from the north shore to the top base of the triangle over to the east shore. And so, they go to the secluded place away from Capernaum. It's what we would call today, that area, we call it the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights.
Steep hills on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. Now, the Sea of Galilee, as I said, is not that big. It's not that large. And from Capernaum, from the hills there on the north, you could actually see the boat going all the way across the lake to the other side. So, you could track it visually from Capernaum all the way to the Golan Heights. And according to the Gospel of Mark, that's exactly what the people did.
These crowds were pressing in on Jesus and the disciples from the hillside. They could see where the boat is going, and they just wanted to be with Him. So, in fact, what they did then is, they ran along the northern shore, past Bethsaida, which is on the northeast corner, and then down the eastern side of the lake to meet Jesus and the disciples when they disembark.
Well, so much for rest and recuperation, so much for this retreat. And Jesus, we know from the Gospel accounts, moved by compassion, moved by compassion for the crowd, set aside exhaustion and spent the day doing what? Teaching and healing the breathless, leg-weary crowds who had run all the way to meet Him.
He sees the crowds, and we may think this is an intrusion, and yet Luke 9:11 tells us He was “welcoming them”. Beautiful word, “welcoming them”, full rich word. This is the heart of God the Son, to welcome people and their complex spiritual need, to meet them with the truth.
He had compassion. Mark 6:34 says “He was moved with” – esplanchnisthē– is the Greek word “compassion”. Literally, it means stomach, bowels. To be moved inwardly, to yearn with tender mercy and affection, pity, empathy, all of that.
As He saw them, He felt deep down in the depth of His bowels, in the depth of His stomach, down in the very depth of His being, He felt pity for them. It means that our Lord was touched at the very depth of his being. And this word really expresses intense emotions. Jesus felt deep compassion. His heart was in this. This was not mere duty.
And don't miss the second half of verse 2, where John tells us the reason the crowd was following Him. And Jesus was moved with compassion in spite of this, by the way. Look at what we read in the second part of verse 2. They followed Him what?
“they were following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was doing on those who were sick.”
These people weren't overall, they weren't following Jesus because they recognize Him as the son of God who could save them from their sins. No, no. Some were fascinated just seeing the fireworks, the miracles. Others needed miraculous healing themselves and for their loved ones, but overall the reasons for following Jesus were misguided and superficial. And we've seen this before, right?
End the chapter 2, you remember. What drew them was not the kingdom of God. What drew them was not salvation so desperately needed by sinners. It was not repentance. It was not sound doctrine. It was not true understanding of sin. It was not longing for the guilt to be lifted off of their conscience. It was not for forgiveness. It was not the hope of escaping judgment or escaping hell.
What drew them was, they saw the healings, miracles. Let me be quick to underscore that in verse 2, the verbs are largely imperfect, exactly as they're translated in the LSB, expressing durative action in past time. So you could see the multitudes on the move out towards him because they were seeing the miracles which He was doing on those who were sick.
And so picture this, so here were constant miracles being performed by Jesus and a constant stream of people going out to him there and gathering around about Him. Verse 3, then Jesus went up on a mountain and there “He was sitting down with His disciples” – and John adds a most important time reference, he says in verse 4, – “Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews was near.” I take that to be significant because the Passover, among the many things that it signified, was the fact that He was the true bread of life.
He was the bread of life. He was the true bread of God. Now in this context and in the message that follows, the Lord Jesus will speak about the fact that He is the true bread out of heaven, down in verse 32. He will speak of the bread of God in verse. 33. And then in verse 51, He will say, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. So here He is at the time of the Passover feast.
The thought of that is on the minds of everyone. And He's going to speak of Himself as the manna, as the One who fulfills the manna, giving men more than that which they ate when they ate the mitzvah of the unleavened bread at the Passover meal. And so all of this is very significant. Our Lord is performing this miracle, feeding these multitudes, the people at the time of the Passover.
Well let's press on and look at the probing question in verses 5 and 6. From the pertinent setting to the probing question, verse 5, “Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “where should we buy bread so that these people may eat?”” And looking at the parallel accounts of the synoptic Gospels, I gather that our Lord's question to Philip probably was asked just after He arrived in this secluded spot.
And that's when He said, where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
Because He wanted to test Philip. And later on, after the healing and teaching, He says some of the other things. Matthew 14:14 tells us He spent the day healing the sick and really healing the sick. Luke 9:11 says He spent the day speaking to them concerning the kingdom of God and salvation. And Mark says He did this because He was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
So, His heart goes out to the crowd. It goes out to them because of their suffering in this physical world, the broken world. It goes out to them because of their desperate spiritual condition, their sheep without a shepherd. So he heals them. He preaches salvation and the kingdom. And He's doing all of this all throughout the day.
And as the day begins to draw to an end, it's late afternoon, the disciples according to Mark 6:35 come to Him and say, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late”. ‘Erēmos topos’. Desolate. A lonely place. Sometimes this word ‘Erēmos can be translated desert, but in this case, it's not really a reference to a desert. Not a desert because we know from the text they're sitting on grass. Grass doesn't grow in the desert, and so they say we're in nowhere. That's the idea here. It's a desolate place.
We're nowhere. In the middle of nowhere, we went up on the mountain and to get away, the crowd came up to find us, and here we are in nowhere. This is desolation. We're far away from any town, city, or place where all of these people can find food. I think there's something we should just note here before we go on. Will you please notice in verse 5 that it is our Lord who takes the initiative? Our Lord takes the initiative in talking.
It's just one of the many signs that it is God who moves to provide for us. And furthermore, when He takes the initiative and says to Philip, where should we buy bread so that these people may eat? He seems to have a certain knowledge. He has an absolute knowledge of the fact that his own resources were ample for the needs. And he knew it all along. Just an indication of the self-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the question raises another question, and that is, but why did He ask Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? Verse 6, this was, “He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was going to do.”
Well, first of all, in this instance, Philip was the obvious person to ask. Why? Well, he came from the nearby town of Bethsaida, according to John 1:44. Furthermore, there's a truth that we must recognize if we're ever to be blessed by God, and that question to Philip was designed to draw attention to it.
It's simply this, mark it down, beloved, that in order to appreciate the ability of Jesus Christ, we have to come to understand our total complete inability. In order for us to appreciate the ability of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have to come to understand our own inadequacy, inability. It's impossible for us to truly appreciate the Lord Jesus as a Savior until we have come to understand that we are sinners, dead sinners, and that we stand under the judgement of God.
Every single one of us by nature, we stand under the judgement of God that we're guilty, we're condemned, and that if a transformation does not take place outside of ourselves, if we are not born again, born from above, we have no hope. And so one of the things that the Spirit of God does in the hearts of sinners is to convince them of sin, righteousness, and judgement. And one of the things in the lives of the saints of God that He must do is to bring them to such a sense of their inability that they cling to Him and to His ability for their sanctification. “For without Me you could do nothing”.
So that's what he would like for Philip to understand. Philip, where should we buy bread so that these people may eat? 20-25,000 people? What is Jesus doing? Well, he's conveying an impossible situation. Absolutely impossible. Think about it. They're in this ‘Erēmos place, this desolate place, no resources, nowhere to go and buy bread for this many people. It was an absolutely impossible situation. Immediate food for 20,000 plus people? I mean, are you kidding me? How is that possible? And He's not really looking for help from Philip by asking this question. He's not looking for some ideas or suggestions.
What is he doing? “This He was saying to test him,” – verse – “for He Himself knew what He was going to do”. He knows. He always knows. He doesn't know it all. What was the test? Simply put, the test was to find out how much faith Philip had.
“For He was saying this to test him”. “For” – a term of explanation. What is John explaining?
For He himself knew what He was going to do. Jesus “knew” – ‘ēdei’ is the verb in the Greek text. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, He would miraculously create food for the thousands. But he wanted Philip to take this as an opportunity to look at the sufficiency of Jesus rather than the insufficiency of the supply.
That brings us to the paltry or pitiful response. Verses 7 through 9. Now at this point, having asked the question of Philip, it would have been great. Amazing, marvelous if Philip had responded, Lord, I've seen you turn the water into wine. Lord, I've watched you heal the royal official's son from a distance 30 kilometres away. Lord, I saw you heal the man who had been unable to walk for 38 years at the Pool of Bethesda. I've watched you perform dozens and dozens of miracles and dozens, surely you can provide bread for this hungry multitude even as God provided manna in the wilderness. How did he respond?
Oh, verse 7, Philip answered and said to Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little”. He started calculating. He took his calculator and he's like adding things up, pen and paper or whatever. But he calculated without Christ. That's the problem. He did the numbers without considering the Lord's power, and he concluded with business-like efficiency.
Eight months salary of a working man, two hundred denarii is not sufficient for each one to receive a little. And if you were to factor in, just to just to give you an idea, if you were to factor in the average salary in Toronto today, right, it's almost about forty thousand dollars that would make for eight months. Eight months.
Notice, notice Philip doesn't really answer the question. The question is, where should we buy bread so that these people may eat? He's too busy calculating to remember the true source of the solution to the problem.
In Matthew's account, the Lord Jesus will say with reference to the food, bring it to Me, bring it to Me. In other words, He is the source. It doesn't make any difference how many thousands of dollars it might take. He is able to multiply. In fact, He is able to create, for He is the all creating Son of God himself, as we will see.
But Philip is too busy calculating to remember the true source. The true source is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. The problem was, they didn't have 200 denarii and even if they did, it wasn't enough. And even if they had more, there weren't enough supermarkets just down the road that had enough bread on hand to feed 20,000 people plus.
But how often, beloved, we throw up our hands and conclude that we can't do something for the Lord because we calculate based on our inadequate resources. Remember what Paul says? Who's adequate for these things?
Later on that day, as the day was far spent, the reason is because our Lord kept teaching and kept preaching and explaining and expounding, and their souls have been fed so richly by the ministry of the truth of the Word of God coming out of the lips of the Word incarnate. Mark tells us that the disciples suggested that Jesus send the people away in Mark 6:35 and 36. You know what their solution was? Get rid of the problem. They're not our problem. They're hungry, send them away.
But Jesus knew that the hungry people would faint on the way if somebody did not feed them. It was evening according to Matthew 14:15, and there was no time to travel. But the disciples have neglected to look to the Lord Himself.
And before we move on, beloved, let me ask each and every one of us a few questions. before we press on. Do you ever look at the situations that you face in life, and perhaps that you are facing right now, and become afraid and full of doubt, because you neglect to look to the Lord Himself? Do you look at a lost family member and wonder if they will ever be saved, and you find yourself in despair because you neglect to look to the Lord Himself?
Do you ever look at the condition of the world and become afraid, wondering how, how it will all turn out? And fear fills your heart to the point of paralysis simply because you neglect to look to the Lord.
What I'm really asking is this. Do you ever have fears? Do you ever have fears? We all do. Including the man after God's own heart who said whenever I am afraid, but he doesn't stop there. He says, I will trust in You. We all do. Being afraid of the unknown is part of living in this fallen, broken world. Having doubts and concerns is something that we all deal with.
The problem arises when we become like the disciples. They were in the presence of the Lord of Glory, but they didn't believe that He could handle the situation. To their eyes, it looked impossible.
They were not coming to Jesus in faith, they were coming to Him in fear. They were saying in so many words, Lord, this problem is beyond us and we think it's greater than You are. We don't think You can handle it, then You better send these people away, or we're all going to be in trouble. Just send them away.
Listen, beloved, you may have never said those words, but you and I have acted in the same manner. We fret and worry, become anxious over our problems, we're filled with doubts, and we neglect to look to the Lord. Instead of coming to Jesus with a heart that says, Lord, I believe in You, I know this is a big problem to me, but it's nothing to You, O Lord. You're watching over my ways. You tell me to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayers and supplications with thanksgiving to let my request be made known to you. And here I am, Lord, I'm bringing my request. This is a huge problem to me. But it's nothing to You.
We carry our problems around and allow them to drain the spiritual life, the spiritual sap right out of us. Because we fail to look to the Lord. Oh, beloved, may we come to Jesus and look to Jesus and trust in Jesus, our compassionate Savior who is full of mercy and tender compassion, even to people who are following Him for the wrong reason.
Well, one of His disciples, “Andrew,” –verse 8 – “Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”
Now, why does he pop out of nowhere, Andrew? Well, according to Mark's account, 6:38, Jesus commands the disciples to go into the crowd and find out what they could take. Go search the crowd, see what might be available. You put them all together. This is again intended to underscore further that they have very, very little, and to underscore the enormous size of the obstacle. Everything, by the way, about Andrew's statement emphasizes inadequacy.
The Greek term for boy, ‘paidarion’, is double diminutive. He was a little boy, not just a boy, a little boy. In terms of provision, little children were of no use at all.
I mean, imagine 20,000 people plus. His barley loaves were common to the Mediterranean diet, though considered inferior to wheat bread. There were little hard flat loaves, and they're not very large at all.
In fact, also, we know something about the fish, the Greek word used for fish, ‘Opsaria’, also the diminutive form of the word ‘Opsaria’, meaning little fish. There were tiny fish, little, small, seasoned sardine-like fish, included for the sake of flavor, and that was, after all, a small boy's lunch, so there was not much to work with here, very little. Andrew's comment, but what are these for so many people seems to reflect his embarrassment to bring this pitiful, tiny lunch to Jesus.
His statements, his comment, Andrew's comment really accentuates the obvious inadequacy. What are these for so many people? But beloved, beloved, mark it down. A little is a lot if God is in it, because He's able to multiply what we have. A little is a lot if God is in it, because He's able to multiply what we have. Whatever little you may have of time, of energy, whatever it is, you place it in His hand and see God at work.
His grace is sufficient. That leads us to the powerful sign. The powerful sign, verse
10-11. “Jesus said, “Have the people sit down”. Now there was much grass in the place”, – so they sat down on the grass –“So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.” Plus women and children. Mark 6:39-40 says, “they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties”. So 50 here, 50 there, and 100 here, 100 there, 100 there, here, there, you know, little aisles in between, everything's organised. In fact, the word translated groups means in rows like vegetables in a garden. That's what it means. Jesus has the people sit down in orderly fashion, in rows. He's the God of order. That's one of the applications. Next time.
This is near Passover, so it's the end of March, beginning of April, springtime, grass still green, and what a magnificent miracle of grace abounding over unbelief, and the accompaniment of the miracle is really interesting. We're told here, as I mentioned, the Lord required everybody to sit down. He said, now, everybody sit down.
I can imagine that there were many questions at that point. Why are we sitting down? Why are we told to sit down? Why do we have to sit down? Oh, well, you're going to be fed. What? We're gonna be fed? Yes, we're going to be fed. How? Oh, there's a little boy over here. He has five little barley loaves and two little fish. And so, this is the vast multitude, sitting down, waiting to eat, and all they have is what? A little boy's lunch.
And then in verse 11, this has to be, this has to be, the most understated act of creation ever. This is like, you know, when you read in Genesis, and He made the stars also. Jesus then took the loaves, “Jesus then took the loaves,” – verse 11 – “and having given thanks”, Mark tells us in 6:41, “looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves.” And looking up toward heaven to acknowledge where all food comes from.
That's why in 1 Timothy 4: 4, we're told all things are to be received with thanksgiving. Now we do that, don't we? We follow that pattern, thanking the Lord for our daily food. This does not infuse the food with special blessing. When we say, Lord, bless this food to our body, it's not like it infuses it with special blessing. This is just to say, thank you, God, for providing for this food. We bless the Lord, the Giver of food and the Giver of all things. Psalm 103: 1-2, “Bless Yahweh, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless Yahweh, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits.”
And one of those benefits is daily food. Verse 11, “Jesus took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated; likewise also the fish as much as they wanted”. Just like that. Just like that. Just like that! This is all you can eat buffet.
You know what's interesting? Those liberal scholars, they mounted their usual absurd attack on this miracle, hoping to eradicate and trivialise the supernatural power of Christ. They would say, actually, there were no multiplication of bread or fish because we know that miracles are impossible. Actually, what happened, they say, what happened this day, they say, is Jesus showed the crowd this little boy and his willingness to share his lunch, even though it wasn't nearly enough to go around, and they were so shamed by this lad's generosity, everyone pulled out their lunches that they've been hiding under their cloak, suddenly there was enough for everybody. If that sounds like nonsense to you, it does to me too, because it is nonsense. They say these people followed Jesus the next day back across the lake because they wanted Him to teach them more about this sharing spirit.
You see, the spirit of sharing was a real miracle this day, they say. Well that's good socialism, but it's bad Bible interpretation. Clearly multiplication is the only interpretation possible.
So everybody sits down, there's anticipation, and the Lord Jesus takes the food that has been brought to Him, five little barley loaves, two fish, He lifts His voice toward heaven, gives a word of thanks, and then He began to distribute the food.
Mark 6:41 and following explains that the distribution was through his disciples. We read there, “He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves. And he kept giving, he kept giving them to the disciples to set before them” – the people –, “and He divided up the two fish among them all”.
Is this not stunning? Astounding? We can even say bizarre, really. In a good way, in an awesome way. He's got 20-25,000 people, He's got five little flat bread in His hand, and He's thanking the Lord for this wonderful meal that they're about to partake.
Now, understand something. This is little bread made from barley that was never planted. And these are fish that never swam. These are fresh dead fish, never alive. This is like eating in the Garden of Eden. These are bread and fish untainted by the curse. This is just an incredible miracle.
I love what Pastor MacArthur said at this point. And I quote, “With no fanfare, no voice from heaven, no lightning, no thunder, He distributed to those who were seeded. He just kept passing out crackers and fish. He was creating it. These were crackers that never came from grain, that never grew, that never were in the dirt. Those were fish that never swam.
He created them. Those are the best crackers anybody ever ate. Those are unfallen crackers, uncursed crackers.”
Now, that leads us to the plentiful surplus. The plentiful surplus, verses 12 and 13.
“And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost”. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten”.
So they all ate. They all ate to the satisfaction of their heart. Everybody ate and it says they were filled. ‘Eneplēsthēsan’ is the Greek word. They were fully satisfied. This was the best meal anybody ever had. And they had maxed out. They were full. They were satisfied. They've never tasted anything like this before. This is food from the hands of the sovereign, omnipotent Creator of the universe. This was, I mean, this was perfect bread and perfect fish. Five loaves, two fish.
And what they collected after everyone was satisfied were twelve baskets full. The disciples got far more than anyone else there that day. The basket here, ‘kofinos’, is the Greek word.
It just refers to a little travelling food basket, just a little travelling food basket, bag, that you carry around with you, you put your lunch in it. When it was all done, I mean, amazing. The precision of the whole thing is absolutely staggering.
Why there are 12 baskets left? Because there are how many apostles? The precision is literally shocking. How can you process that? How? He knows how much to create so that everyone eats and is fully satisfied on the best fish, best bread they've ever had, and there is 12 baskets exactly left. The precision of it, the complexity of it, is consistent with God's providence. How He uses an infinite number of contingent things and always, always, always achieves His perfect, precise end. Always.
Behold our God, Beloved. This is our Lord who orders the whole universe with perfect precision. Well, as generous as He was, as much as He provided and showed Himself to be Jehovah Jireh, what were they really seeing? They were seeing divine power, creation power, divine compassion, demonstrated in the physical world as a symbol of what He wanted to do in their spiritual lives. They were seeing divine control, no waste, meeting every need.
No wonder we read in verse 14, “Therefore, when the people saw the sign which He had done, they were saying, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come in the world.””
And I want us to see at this point the perverted attempt. The Jews, at least, knew their Old Testament prophecy. And so in one sense, their interpretation was spot on, for Jesus was indeed the One about whom Moses had prophesied back in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. However, they were looking for a political leader, not a suffering servant. They were looking for a physical savior, a conqueror, not a suffering Savior. And so their interpretation was completely off.
So here the people saw the bread sign and said, truly – ‘alēthōs’-- truly, Jesus was the Prophet, the definite article, the Prophet, indicates the specific Prophet, the one prophesied by Moses. He is the Messiah, whereas after walking on water and stilling the storm, the twelve disciples worshipped Him, saying, you are ‘alēthōs’, certainly, truly, God's Son. The crowd saw the Prophet, but missed the Son, and the reason He came.
And so they wanted to seize Jesus and make Him king over them. I mean, in their mind, like, we've seen the sign, it's astounding, the bread and the fish miracle, and it wasn't done with smoke and mirrors, it was with this One as King, I mean, who could feed multitudes with five miniature loaves and two skinny fish. I mean, we could start a whole revolution right now, and we don't have to fear things like dwindling supplies, which is the logistical nightmare for every army of resistance, right?
FF. Bruce comments, and I quote, “These 5,000 men would have constituted a ready-made guerilla force to anyone willing to become their leaders”, their leader.
In verse 15, he says, he suggests that a leader was just what they were looking for, “So Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself”. In their mind, Jesus has supernatural power. He does miracles of healing, endless supply of food. And this is the king that we want to overthrow the yoke of Rome, the Roman Empire. I mean, if you have someone who does miracles like this, feed 20,000 plus people, frankly, I mean, He's unstoppable militarily. They wanted a king who would be a means to their nationalistic ends, defeat Rome and taxation, restore Jewish pride, and Jesus can do all of this.
They don't want Him for Him, tragically. They don't want Him for Him. They want Him for what He can do. And you know, as we bring this to an end, that's how a lot of people want God's abundance, want His provision. Sadly, they want Him to bless their business. They want Him to bless their marriage. They want Him to make their business successful. But they don't want Him for Him. They don't want Him for Him.
They want Him for what He can do. Only, bless my business, make my money successfully and continually. They want Him for what He could do. Give me a job, keep me employed, give me a raise, provide more money, more health, not because I want Him, and He's my provider as I do my work. No, no. They want the provision, the security, the success, the lifestyle, the material comfort and prosperity, and He's the means toward that end.
And so, Jesus becomes simply a Christian version of what people have done for thousands of years. Good luck charms, magical amulets, spells of blessing, spirits and ancestors and gods invoked to give me wealth and comfort and health. And there are enough professing Christians who brought that over, sadly, tragically, into Christianity.
Some people give into the offering just to make sure they get good luck on their business because they're really worried. If I don't give, I'd have bad luck. Or, who knows what will happen if I don't give. I need to pay my “god-bill” every month. The lives swirl around the fears, their fears about meals and money and food and finances. And really, the whole spiritual realm is just a kind of superstitious side for getting that. There's a word for that, beloved. There's a word for that, carnal. Just concern for the physical, the fleshly.
But as to who this God is, what He is like, they really haven't even considered the question. Not interested. Not interested. Notice Jesus' response to this exploitation of his provision. What does He do? And this is really telling. Verse 15, it says, “withdrew”. He withdrew. He withdraws. Jesus, mark it down, beloved, Jesus will not be used that way.
He's not a gene in a bottle for those who want Him so. Those whose god is their belly will find Jesus will not be their secondary god, god to support their idolatry. He withdraws.
You see, beloved, abundance, provision, is not for those who would abuse it. It's for those who are grateful because they love God and they love Him truly from the heart.
The other Gospel writers say that he sent his disciples into the boat. He told them to go across the other side of the lake, dismissed the crowd, went into the mountain. Jesus isn't willing to exclusively be a temporal provider. He's not willing to do that. He's not willing to be additive in your life or mine. And it's astonishing to think about it. If He wanted to be Messiah, this would have been his moment if He was just a man with an ambition. But He would not allow them to push Him to become the kind of king that they wanted. And that's the way it is today sadly. The Jesus of the health and wealth prosperity preachers is the false Jesus.
It is a false gospel because the true Jesus isn't there. He's not. He withdrew. He left. He will not be treated in that way. He withdrew into a mountain alone. This was an incredible opportunity for them to affirm that He is the son of God. He is the Messiah. And for them to say, Teach us, teach us the truth of God. We need to be born again. And He will do that. And He will do that later in the chapter where He will teach them. He will give them that great discourse on Himself as the bread of life, the bread of heaven, drawing off that experience in the feeding of the multitude. He will talk about eternal riches and heaven and salvation, and they will tragically reject it. They will reject it.
Jesus does not acquiesce to the whims and fancies of these individuals. He comes to no man on that man's term. People cannot manipulate Him for their own selfish ends. He doesn't promise unregenerate people what unregenerate people want. He will not be a quick fix for felt needs. He will not be the one who just gives you temporal satisfaction.
You want to “come after Me, you must deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and come after me”. You come to Me on My own terms, not your own terms.
And if you market him that way, you're on your own. And that's what you hear all around. Through the health and wealth and prosperity, preachers and others. That's what they do. They market Him that way. And they're on their own. Why? Because he's not there. People do not come to Christ on their own terms. They come to Christ on His own terms. And for what He demands. He calls on sinners to mourn for their sin. To be broken, penitent. Acknowledge him as sovereign Lord, Master. Be obedient to Him, live for Him.
Live to please him. Maybe even die for Him. Serve Him as His slave, a willing slave for a benevolent Master. And when He gave that message, in the rest of the chapter, as we will see when we get there, Lord willing, they were gone as fast as they could. They bailed out.
Jesus always drives the superficial crowd away with the hard demands of the Gospel.
What about you today? Are you one of those superficial followers of Christ? Is that why you're here?
Maybe that's what brought you here this morning. This very moment, this very hour, the Gospel is presented to you. The Good News of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, God the Son. He must be the object of your faith. You must put your faith exclusively in Him. You must put your trust in Him. You must believe upon Him. He is God's final revelation. He is the heir of all things, this Jesus of the Bible.
He is the creator of the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the exact imprint of God's nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power. He and He alone made purification for our sins. He sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is God enthroned forever with the scepter of our brightness. He is worshiped by the angels. His rule will have no end.
This is the one who took on a human flesh, died for us in our place, condemned, was buried and rose victorious on the third day, defeated death and sin and the dominion of sin. And He was crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering. And He is the Author and the perfecter of faith and the founder of our salvation.
And He destroyed the One who had the power of death, the devil. And He delivered us from the bondage of fear. He is the merciful and faithful high Priest. And He is the One who made propitiation for our sins. He is sympathetic because of His own trials. And He never sinned.
Pure, harmless, undefiled. And He became the source of eternal salvation. He appears in the presence of God on our behalf as our advocate, our high Priest. And He will come back to take His people home. And He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Believe on Him and you will be saved.
Come to him and put your trust in Him. And He will save all of those who come to Him by faith. He is able to save to the uttermost. This is the Jesus of Scripture. Turn to Him and be saved today.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for Your glorious Son. We behold Him. What a magnificent, awesome Savior He is. He is the Savior of sinners. He is the Lord, the Creator of the universe, who spoke the world out of the womb of nothing. He is the radiance of the glory of God.
We say with John the Apostle, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became Flesh”. We thank You that we have an omnipotent Savior. God, we pray this morning, for anyone who may be in this place, who is a superficial follower of Christ, just like this crowd, O Lord, that You would open their eyes, and that You would draw them to You, that they will come all the way to Christ, that they would believe and be saved. And for us, Your people, Lord, we pray, that we are reminded today, afresh, that ours is a God who is able, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is able, to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power at work in us. Help us to come to Him and look to Him in the face of our impossibilities and inadequacies, as we seek to live for You, knowing that our God is able. Help us to trust You. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
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