WWUTT 846 Jesus Feeds 5000?

In the next miracle in the gospel of John, Jesus feeds 5 ,000 people and this shows his power as God to make so much out of so little. It also shows his power to save many with the gospel when we understand the text.

Merry Christmas from your friends at When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand in John 6

Thank you, Becky. Yes, a Merry Christmas Eve to everyone. We continue our study of the gospel of John, chapter 6, verses 1 through 15. The apostle John wrote, After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

Lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?

Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.

So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

John’s Seven Signs and the Purpose of the Gospel

Now this is the fourth miracle that we have detailed for us in the Gospel of John. And remember there are only seven, leading up to Christ's crucifixion and his resurrection from the grave. And all seven miracles are detailed in the first twelve chapters.

All of these signs John has singled out specifically to show that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. That he has power over creation to do something like take five loaves and two fish and multiply them out to feed five thousand people.

Now immediately after this sign, we've got Jesus walking on the water. And then the rest of John 6 is a long discourse between Jesus and the Jews where Jesus explains that he is the bread from heaven.

He is the fulfillment of the sign of manna that was given in the wilderness back in the book of Exodus. That was merely a type or a shadow. The Israelites ate that bread, but then they were hungry again.

But Jesus says, whoever eats my flesh will never go hungry again. And this is very similar to something that Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4. Where he said, whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst.

But this water will well up in him a spring that will lead to everlasting life. So he says the same thing of himself, feeding on his flesh, which is metaphorical. And we'll explain that when we get deeper into chapter six here.

But eating from Jesus flesh will lead to eternal life for he's the bread that is sent from heaven. In Matthew 4, for Jesus was rebuking Satan and said the following, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

And Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy, where Moses was speaking to the Israelites before they inherited the promised land. That the bread that you've been receiving that's been feeding you in the wilderness, this is not going to sustain you.

But one must feed on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And Jesus is God speaking the words of God, which lead to eternal life. And that's what he's going to show when we get deeper into chapter six here.

He breaks bread, he feeds 5 ,000. And even this miracle, it shows how the gospel of Christ, the word of Christ is going to go out into the world. And is going to bring a multitude to saving faith by the preaching of the gospel.

That's even indicated here by this sign that Jesus performs. So in chapter six, verse one, after this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And I don't know if you remember back to our introduction to the gospel of John.

But the fact that the Sea of Galilee is referred to as the Sea of Tiberias indicates a late dating for the writing of this gospel. Because it wasn't until toward the end of the first century that the Sea of Galilee was referred to as the Sea of Tiberias.

Verse two, and a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Now, again, John only details seven miracles. We've talked about him changing the water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, healing the official son at Capernaum, healing the paralytic by the pool of Bethesda.

Now we're feeding the 5 ,000. That's that's the fourth miracle. Jesus walking on the water immediately after that, which is the fifth miracle. And then he's going to heal a man, a man who was blind from birth.

That's in John chapter nine. And then, of course, one of the most famous stories that comes out of the gospel of John, the raising of Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11. And all of these signs showing that Jesus is the creator himself who has power over creation.

And then when you get to his crucifixion and his resurrection, he is the new creation so that all who are in Christ, the old is passed away and the new has come. So John has very specific reasons for choosing the signs that he does.

But we know that Jesus did many more things than what John is detailing here. Plenty of other miracles mentioned in Matthew, Mark and Luke. So it says here that the people saw all of the signs that he was doing on the sick, even though John hasn't really detailed them for us, but he's taking for granted.

We understand Jesus was performing many, many miracles. Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples. Now, in the gospel of Matthew, in the context of Matthew's gospel, when Jesus sat down on a mountain in Matthew chapter five, this was this is right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

It says in Matthew five one, seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and then he opened his mouth and taught them saying and then you have the sermon.

Now, this is Matthew showing how God has returned to the people of Israel. He is he is speaking to the people of Israel again. The last time God addressed the entire nation of Israel was Mount Sinai when he gave them the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapters 19 and 20.

That was the last time that Israel heard the voice of God and he spoke to them from a mountain. So here in Matthew five, Jesus is showing that. Well, Matthew is showing through what Christ is doing, preaching the Sermon on the Mount, that this is God once again speaking to his people when they have not heard from him in the last fifteen hundred years.

That's really amazing to consider. Now, I say that only to say that I don't know if that's what John means. That's certainly in the context of Matthew's gospel. I'm not sure if that's what it means here, where it says that he sat down on the mountain with his disciples.

Is that an indication of Christ being God as God spoke from a mountain in Exodus? I'm not sure. That's not an aspect of John's mentioning here that I've necessarily studied all that much, but I wanted to throw that out there.

The Passover, the Crowd, and the Meaning of Discipleship

So going on into verse four now, the Passover, the Feast of the Jews was at hand. That's mentioned for a couple of reasons. Paul or I'm sorry, John. I'm too used to preaching through Paul. We just finished up Second Corinthians in our sermon series in church.

John mentions three Passovers in his gospel, and he kind of does this to show the passing of time, the seasons in which Jesus did the things that he was doing. We don't really know how much time has transpired when we start here in chapter six.

It just says after this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. That's a nondescriptive period of time. But we know this is kind of the second Passover period that John mentions here.

The next one is going to be when Jesus has the Last Supper with his disciples, which is going to begin kind of the second half of the saga in the gospel of John, which will begin in chapter 13. So here is the second Passover mentioned.

And one of the other reasons that John mentions this year in chapter 64 is to show that there was a lot of Jews in the area at that time, because it was the Feast of the Passover. You had Jews that lived all throughout the Roman Empire, but they would come back to the area of the promised land for these feasts.

So among this crowd were Jews that were not ordinarily within the area, but they had heard about Jesus. They'd heard about the signs that he had been doing, and many had seen him heal the sick. So they're coming to see another sign and wonder and have him heal more of the sick.

Now, where we read that Jesus sat down with his disciples, this may not have been exclusively the twelve. It may have been many more than that, because what we have toward the end of chapter six, after Jesus talks to them about things like eating of his flesh and drinking his blood.

It says in chapter 666 that after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well? So there is something distinguishing here in chapter six between who his disciples are, meaning learner.

That's what disciple means. And also specifically, the twelve whom Jesus had called out and chosen for himself. Disciple, again, is a word that simply means learner. So as they're sitting down on the mountain with Jesus, they're there to hear him teach.

These are people who are a little bit more devoted to Christ than the multitude that's walking toward him. But they're not as devoted as the twelve, because once Jesus talks to them about hard truths that they can't grasp, they turn around and walk away from him.

And they realize, hey, we're not going to get any more signs and wonders. Jesus is just going to talk about nonsense like eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Who is this guy, a cannibal? And so that was the that's what ends up happening toward the end of the chapter.

So we've got kind of three groups of people here. We've got the twelve, we've got disciples and we've got the multitude and the multitude are coming simply to see a sign to be done. They're coming to have their flesh appeased.

They don't really want to learn from Jesus. And though the disciples, which are less than the multitude, but more than the twelve, they want to learn from Jesus. But once Jesus gets into deeper doctrines, it shows that their hearts really are not all that devoted to Christ.

They also wanted to see signs and were simply following him to gratify some desire of the flesh. Now, this is kind of indicative of something that Jesus says in Matthew 22, 14, where he says many are called, but few are chosen.

And that's what this story shows us, that there are many who are going to hear the word of Christ, but there are very, very few are actually going to respond to it and follow Jesus as a result. And so going back to Jesus statement that he makes to Philip here, he lifted up his eyes and seeing the large crowd coming toward him.

Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? And he said this to test Philip, for he knew exactly what it was that he was going to do. And Philip answered, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each man to have even a little.

Now, a denarius was a day's wage for a laborer. So if you had 200 denarii, that would be 200 days wages. So it basically be 200 meals, you know, 200 days of eating. That would not even be enough to feed this multitude of people.

That was that was coming toward Jesus. Ten thousand or more. Five thousand men. But when you when you throw in women and children, it was probably many, many more than that. So Philip is overwhelmed by the number that he sees coming toward the disciples who were there.

And there's there's a little boy who has five barley loaves and two fish. And this little boy does not even know that he's there by the providence of God. And however, naively, Andrew makes this particular comment.

He says, well, here's a little boy here. He's got five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they for so many people? And yet this is exactly the little boy Jesus is going to use to feed so many people.

These loaves and these fish are going to result in tens of thousands of people, you know, over 10 ,000 people being fed here. And remember that Jesus says that we are to be like children. In Mark, chapter 10, that unless one has faith like a child, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And Jesus says, praying to God in Matthew, chapter 11. I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

So one who is a child in the kingdom of God is able to go out with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Jesus will use that gospel to reach a multitude of thousands. And we see that going on here, even with this little boy who's come up with these five loaves and two fish.

So do not be ashamed of preaching the gospel for it is Christ who will use that to reach a multitude. You preach it to one person and then they go to share that with others, friends, family, with their children.

And then many more come to the faith and on and on it goes. This is the way that God uses the work of the gospel. And we won't see the full effects of it on this side of heaven. We won't know exactly what kind of an impact we had when we shared the gospel with somebody else.

The Lord knows that we must be faithful to the calling to share the gospel with others and teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded. According to the Great Commission that Jesus gave in Matthew, chapter 28.

The Twelve Baskets and the Bread from Heaven

So here by the providence of God is this little boy with five loaves and two fish. Jesus takes the loaves. He tells his disciples, have the people sit down. And it says now there was much grass in the place.

So one of the things that this indicates is that it wasn't a rocky place. This mountain where Jesus had sat with his disciples wasn't a rocky area, but we don't necessarily have a clear description of exactly what area this was.

Somewhere near the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias. And so they sit down. The men sat down about five thousand in number. That's what we've got. Five thousand men, maybe including women and children.

Because, of course, we've got a child here that's already been described. You've got about ten thousand. Jesus then took the loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.

So also the fish as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

Now, I'm going to get a little symbolic for you here. The number 12 is used in the New Testament to show the people of God. What's really used the whole Bible this way, because how many tribes of Israel did you have in the Old Testament?

You had 12. How many disciples do you have following Jesus and then preaching the gospel in the New Testament? You've got 12. And in the book of Revelation, you often have that number of 12 used to describe the elders around the throne.

And there will be 24 elders. There's 12 and there's 12. The 12 tribes of Israel, the Old Testament, the 12 apostles who went out with the gospel in the New Testament. And this is showing the full people of God, both on the Old Testament side of the cross and then the New Testament side of the cross.

All of these gathered together, singing God's praises forever around the throne in heaven, in glory. That's what's being indicated by that number, especially in the book of Revelation. So here Jesus gathers over the leftover fragments and it fills 12 baskets.

And this is showing the gospel going out and the P and those who hear the gospel, who receive it, who feed on the flesh of Christ and his blood, which Jesus is going to go on to explain in the rest of chapter six, they become part of the family of God.

And they're gathered up into these 12 baskets indicating the 12 people of God. So though they are in number, multitudes, tens of thousands and so much more. A thousand was a number that is used in the Bible to just indicate a lot of something.

We get a little jaded with large numbers, especially in an American context, because whenever we talk about the national debt, you know, we get into the trillions of dollars, trillions is an incredibly huge number.

You won't even live a trillion seconds in your lifetime. A billion seconds is like 30 something years. OK, so so trillions of dollars. And we just hear these huge numbers that gets that get thrown out.

Well, a thousand is a lot. You have a thousand of anything. You have a whole lot of that. So that word thousand gets used throughout the Bible to indicate a large amount of something. Here we have five thousand, at least five thousand men.

That's that's a whole lot. And when they're all fed as much as they want to eat, even the leftovers are gathered up and they're put in 12 big baskets. There's so much there that there is more than enough that could have gone around.

Now, this is certainly certainly pointing toward the divinity of Christ, that he had this ability to multiply out these loaves and this fish to to make something out of. Practically nothing miraculously to feed all of these people.

And the people saw it and they recognized this sign that was performed among them. And they even said, this is the prophet. This is the one who had been prophesied about. Moses prophesied about Deuteronomy, Chapter 18.

This is the prophet who was to come into the world. So they see the sign that had been performed among them. And symbolically, this even points to something else. The gospel that's going to go out and feed multitudes of people and all of these people who receive the gospel, whether they are Jew or Gentile, they will be the people of God because they were fed by the word of Christ.

And that's indicated by that number 12. They received it from Christ. They become the people of God. And this is the power of Christ to do this. You know, Romans 1 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And the gospel is going to go throughout the whole world. And many are going to come to believe in his name by the power of God, because it is Christ who does this. So there's, yeah, even something symbolic that's happening here.

This is a literal miracle. We should take it literally. But there's even some symbolism that's going on in what we see happening in the usage of numbers and and what we know of Christ speaking of himself as the bread.

It was come down from heaven, which we get to later on in chapter six. So verse let's see. Make sure I get all of this here. Verse 12. When they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.

So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that had been done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king.

Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. His time had not yet come. This is only the second Passover. The third Passover doesn't get mentioned until we get to chapter 11. And of course, that's going to be the time when Jesus sits down with his disciples for the last supper.

So that's our lesson for today. And we'll continue with our study of the Gospel of John.

Yep.

Just picking up where we left off tomorrow, Christmas Day. God bless. And I'll talk to you again then. Have a Merry Christmas.

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