Jesus Feeds the Multitudes: Part 1

As we continue our series and as we go through the gospel of John, John's gospel, and today's message is going to be on Jesus Feeds the Multitudes. Jesus Feeds the Multitudes is the reason I titled it that way, because if you look in your Bible, and a lot of people titles it Jesus Feeds the 5 ,000.

As we will see, the text says only 5 ,000 men. It's not including the women and the children that were there. So you could probably, if you do a little math there, there's 5 ,000 men, and how many women might have been there, we don't know.

Let's just say another 5 ,000, give or take. That's 10 ,000. How many children were there? Actually, we don't know how many children were there. So you could probably assume it was much more than 5 ,000.

But nevertheless, there was technically a whole city there that was there following the Lord, and we will see in our story why they were there following Him. Before we get started, please bow with me in prayer.

Our Father in Heaven, we bow in Your presence now. Our heart cry is, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, we pray that You would be honored and glorified in Your preached Word.

Just not only here, Lord, we pray that Your Word will be preached in power and truth global. As Your people meet, within this hour and a few hours later, depending on where they are, Lord, that You would bless.

Open the eyes of our hearts, as has already been said. Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, that we may see the wondrous things from Your Word. That we would behold the Lamb of God that was slain. And we ask these things in Jesus' name.

The Setting of John 6 and the Bread of Life Theme

Amen. Well, please open your Bibles with me, if you're not already there, to the Gospel of John chapter 6. Chapter 6 of John. I like to say this at the offset. This is one of the longest chapters in the New Testament.

71 verses. 71 verses. Within this chapter begins Jesus' third year of ministry. This is actually the fourth sign that He performs. And many times you say sign. What are you talking about sign?

Miracle.

It's a miracle from God.

That only God can do.

So this is what we're going to look at. And let me say this. Because of communion today, this is going to be a quick introduction. It's going to be like a jet tour. So, I realize there's a lot of details I'm not going to be able to make this morning.

That's why I've called it part one. So, I don't know how many parts we're going to have, God willing. But we will have more parts. Because there's so much here. And we're only looking at the first 15 verses.

But again, if you go on to study this whole chapter, there's 71 verses. 71 verses of God's Word. So John's Gospel, chapter 6, is no doubt the longest and one of the most important chapters in the New Testament.

We're only going to look at the opening portion. And this is one of the miracles that is recorded only here in John's Gospel. I'm sorry, it's in all four Gospels. In John's Gospel, this particular miracle helps us connect the dots between God's provision to Israel in the Old Testament and Jesus as the bread of life in the New Testament.

So we will see that more clearly in the coming weeks, God willing, as we go through the verses and see it expanded and exposited. But today we are only going to look at the miracle that sets the scene.

So this is going to be an introduction to everything we're going to be looking at. So John, chapter 6, beginning with verse 1 to verse 15. Let me read this text to you, and then we will see what the Lord has for us in this text.

It's a wonderful text. Verse 1 to 15, hear the word of the living God. I'm reading from the New King James Version this morning. After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

Then a great multitude followed Him because they saw His signs, which He performed on those who were diseased. Jesus went up to the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.

Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, and He said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat? But this He said to test Him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

Philip answered Him and said, Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have a little. One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?

Then Jesus said, Make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in the number about five thousand. Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, His disciples, I'm sorry, given thanks, He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down, and likewise of the fish as much as they wanted.

So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost. Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten them.

And then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world. And verse 15 says, Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

May God bless the reading of His word to our hearts this morning as we come before Him. To hear from heaven. Now, in the Old Testament, as you well know, God took His people Israel into the wilderness and provided bread from heaven.

Scripture calls it angel's food. Angel's food that God poured out of heaven to feed His people. And here in John chapter 6, Jesus takes His people once again into the wilderness to provide bread again.

You know, it's an interesting story here we have about God's compassion, about God's mercy, about His loving kindness, His patience toward His people. And how Jesus cares for His people. How He provides for His people.

Regardless of their waywardness, their murmurings and complainings. And we will see this. That God still provides for them. He cares for them as a great shepherd. Having compassion over His sheep. Now, again, this story is wonderful because that's the focal point.

And how Jesus cares for His people that He has ransomed and brought out of Egypt to serve them and love Him. Now, it's just not a temporary care. It's not something that's temporal.

It's eternal.

I want that to really sink in for all of us. It's just not something that God does daily. And He does do it daily.

He takes care of us.

But we need to see the eternal perspective. That God cares for us eternally. From everlasting to everlasting. That in the eternal mind of God, you matter to Him. God's people matters. Now, again, it cedes the temporal.

It goes to the eternal. Not just care for them for a day or a week or a month. Which is wonderful, isn't it? How many of us today can look back and see the hand of God in your life, my life? Hindsight's always better than foresight, isn't it?

And many times we're in bad situations. And regardless of our waywardness and our sin,.

God still loves us.

And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And the reason for this is because of God's eternal love. That's the way God is. And God's unchangeable. He's immutable. No one changes His love. He changes not.

That's what He says. I am the Lord. I change not. Aren't you glad for that? And again, He cares for us from all eternity. Eternity past to eternity future. And here we are, creatures of time. Born into time.

Born with an origin. We live and we die very short. Then we stand before the King. That's the way we should see it. Life is like a vapor. But while we're here, we should serve Him and love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Now it's an everlasting love that endures for all time and eternity. It's an all-inspiring story. Here in John chapter 6, really it's about the insignificant little boy that comes to give his lunch to feed an entire city.

This young little boy has a small lunch. What are these among so many? What are these among so many? It's about a couple of disciples by the name of Philip and Andrew who we'll see later on. And God willing, I'd like to expand on that next week about faith.

About the test of faith. It's about a couple of disciples that really have no answers through whom Jesus provides to feed the multitudes here. It's a story also about God's awesome power from heaven and how He provides a miracle through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

His one and only Son in whom He's well pleased. And that comes down, this bread that comes down from heaven as angel food as it did in the Old Testament. Here the very bread of life Himself incarnate teaches them a lesson that He is that living bread.

That's really the point of everything that He is teaching. Always remember this. In all the miracles that Jesus Christ performs before people, that miracle is not an end to itself. It always has a purpose.

And that purpose is Christ. You think of it. You think about what's being done here and what the Lord does. He feeds the multitudes. And in this miracle He provides fish and especially the bread in which He's teaching here.

And what is He saying? He's saying, I am that bread. This is a physical bread, but I am that bread that comes from heaven spiritually speaking. And there's enough of me, Christ would say, to go around for everybody.

The miracle always points to Christ.

Always.

And many people don't get that. Even in so-called Christianity today, they want to see miracles, miracles, miracles and just see something wonderful. Something extraordinary. But really it's all about Christ.

It's about Jesus. So that's the purpose of the miracle. And the Lord does this miracle not only to fill us, but He can also sustain us. Not only to satisfy us, but also that you could be used for God's glory.

That you could be a channel that God may pour His life through you to use you for His glory. That not only settles us in the deepest possible comfort, but also in His word by faith alone. Also resettles us inside in the very heart of Jesus Christ our Lord to love Him and serve Him.

Now, it's also a story about the faithfulness of God, the compassion of God as I've already mentioned. His loving kindness. It's about how we can trust in Him no matter what comes our way. You know, many times we think, well these are impossible situations.

Impossible. But God specializes in the impossibles.

Amen.

He is a God that is so large, so big. And He says bring your petitions before Him. Bring your requests before Him. He desires to fulfill them and He desires to meet them. And it's just not in the sense of just about us.

It's about God's glory.

You know, when we bring, as we pray here at Redeeming Grace Church and we have prayer meetings. You know, the requests we bring before God. I believe Brother Ben mentioned this. I'd like to start recording these.

And each request that we put down, we'd like to say, okay, let's just watch and wait and see God work by faith. And then see how God answers these requests. Because as God answers these requests according to His will and in His timetable, it's really about His glory, isn't it?

It's not about us. I believe Tozer said it like this. If God answers our prayers, it's not because there's something good in us or how good we prayed or how nicely we prayed. No, it's because God is good.

God does good because God is good. And He answers our prayers because of His goodness. So it should be less of us. We're just here to serve Him. And as we serve Him and love Him, we should give our lives completely to Him.

So really this miracle points to Christ and Christ alone is the bread of life. And it should also teach us that we should have confidence to believe that all things are possible in and through Him. All things, all things are possible.

That He is. And that He is a rewarder of them that diligently come before Him and seek Him. And believe Him. That's the problem. And really if you look at it, this is a... Everything that Jesus does, it's an attack against our unbelief.

And Israel's unbelief. And you can see that in Hebrews chapter 3. And you can see this in the wandering of the wilderness as they had unbelief. They did not enter into the promised land. So God says, here, I'm going to test you.

Do you believe Me? So we look to Him.

He's all that we need.

And this is what Jesus is saying.

That He is the bread of life.

And bread is a... It's a basic... It's a basic substance. It's a basic food, isn't it? Just about everybody here, I'm sure, eats bread. I used to be a bread man. I used to deliver a lot of bread. Especially when snows and storms came.

My goodness, now I'm in the milk business. But milk and bread. The basics. Thank God I've been able to see this in this world in a sense. But it always teaches me there's something more important than just the physical bread or the physical milk.

It's the spiritual side of it. That's in Jesus Christ. It's also a story about... Not only that we can see our insufficiency. We should see God's all-sufficiency. We're insufficient. God is all-sufficient.

And His all-sufficiency is in Christ. He's the all-sufficient Savior. So I'd like to use that as just two points today as we look at this as an introduction. My two points is that... We are insufficient.

Our insufficiency. The sinner's insufficiency. And our Savior's all-sufficiency. Now before we can really see Christ's all-sufficiency, we should first of all see our insufficiency. What do I mean by that?

That's my first point. We are insufficient sinners. Redeemed by grace. By His love. Makes me think about when Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount. The very first thing He said at the very bottom. When He began, He opened His mouth.

And the same here as He's about to do a miracle in John chapter 6. It's like a mountain.

There is a mountain there.

And we're going to revisit that again. But the same thing in Matthew chapter 5. And seeing the multitudes, He went up on the mountain. And when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and He taught them saying...

And what was the first thing He said? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That teaches us about our insufficiency. That teaches us that we are nothing. And we need to see that.

That humbles us to say, we are nothing. God is everything. Christ is everything. No one enters into the kingdom of heaven unless he goes down low and becomes nothing. In this world, it's opposite. To be great in this world, you've got to move up the ladder.

But in the kingdom of God, you go down the ladder.

You go low.

And there's that beautiful paradox, right? The way up is down. The way down is up. Jesus said it. He that exalts himself shall be humbled. But he that humbles himself shall be exalted. That's the way it is in God's kingdom.

So we are insufficient. We are insufficient sinners in order to see this and see ourselves as we should see it. And that's the problem, I think, that we all have and struggle with. We must see ourselves how we are before God.

That we need Him. We need Him. Now, let me read something. Go with me to Deuteronomy for us to really have eyes to see this. I'm going to read this chapter very quickly. Chapter 8 of Deuteronomy. For us to really see what is being said here.

And I think this is a great chapter for us to read of what the Lord is doing in John chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 8. This whole chapter is really about remembering the Lord our God.

What does it mean by remember?

Well, like we're going to have communion here today, we remember the sufferings and death of Christ, right? Well, God, that's a covenant language. God does not want us to forget. And how often are we forgetful?

I challenge you, I'll tell you how forgetful we all are. Next week, I may ask somebody, someone of y 'all here, to challenge you. Did you remember what I preached on last week? Well, maybe you will. And then I may say, can you remember the points?

And can you remember everything I said and how I conclude? Many times we forget those things. That's important, the Word of God. We should be playing and being engaged. And yes, take notes. I think that helps us remember, right?

But, unless you have a photographic memory, and you can just take that in. But so often we are prone to wonder, because we're prone to forget. And we forget God. Well, Deuteronomy chapter 8 is about remembering the Lord our God.

Notice what He says in this. He says, the very commandment which I command you today. You must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply. And go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers.

And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness.

To humble you.

And to test you. To know that what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Notice the insufficiency there, that we need to know. Whether you would keep His commandments or not.

So He humbled you. Allowed you to hunger. And fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. That He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone. But man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God.

To walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. A land of brooks of water. Of fountains and springs that flow out of the valleys and hills. A land of wheat and barley.

Of vines and fig trees and pomegranates. A land of olive oil and honey. A land which you will eat bread without scarcity. In which you will lack nothing. A land whose stones are iron. And out of whose hills you can dig copper.

And when you shall have eaten and are full. Then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Then he says this. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments.

His judgments, His statutes which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full. And have built beautiful houses and dwell in them. And when your herds and your flocks multiply. And your silver and your gold are multiplied.

And all that you have is multiplied. And when your heart is lifted up. And you forget the Lord your God. Who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Who led you through the great and terrible wilderness.

In which were fiery serpents and scorpions. And thirsty land where there was no water. Who brought water for you out of the flinty rock. Who fed you in the wilderness with manna. Which your fathers did not know.

That He might humble you and that He might test you to do you good in the end. Then you shall say in your heart. My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. And you shall remember the Lord your God.

For it is He who gives you power to get wealth. That He may establish His covenant. Which He has sworn to your fathers as it is this day. Then it shall be that if you by any means forget the Lord your God.

And follow other gods. And serve them and worship them. I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroys before you. So you shall perish. Because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Such blessing but such woe. Such sweetness but such bitterness. God shows us in His love. And you see the warnings of those who forget God. You notice the chapter. That it is God that supplies the wealth.

And for the children of Israel to be filled.

And yet they got filled. And what happened?

They forgot God. They went against the commandments and the warnings that God gave. Isn't that a warning to us here in America?

Here is a church.

If God blesses us. And He widens us. And whatever He does we must remember that it is Him. It is God's glory. And God is not to be forgotten. We always give thanks. And you notice the story of the children in the wilderness.

The children of Israel in the wilderness. What did they do?

They murmured.

They complained. They were unthankful. For even the simplest thing. The food, the angel food from heaven. And they said. They got sick. They complained. You give us so much angel food. We get sick of it.

Give us meat. Give us meat. God sent the quail by wind. And blew in the quail. They even complained about that. But God says I'm going to give you so much quail. It will be coming just out forth. And they were literally almost to the point of sickness.

Now God does not want to be forgotten beloved. And if you notice that. Israel's 40 years in the wilderness was a time of God's affliction and testing. So that the basic attitude of the people toward God and his commandments.

Could be made known. Now God humbled them through these afflictions. And these trials. And God chose to sustain his people that were hungry in the wilderness. By means previously unknown to them. It was a miracle.

But God was faithful. God was patient. And he's patient with us. And he's faithful. That's what Paul said. Even when we're unfaithful. God still remains faithful. Because God cannot lie. He cannot change.

That's his attribute. It's one of his great attributes. Again through this miraculous provision. God both humbled the people of Israel. As we just read. He tested them. He tested their obedience. Now as we turn to John chapter 6.

In verse 1 to 15. We see God doing the same thing. Again providing a miracle. But except there's something greater. And it's the greater one. Jesus says a greater one than Solomon's here. A greater one than Jonah's here.

Jesus is that greater one. He's the incarnate bread of life. And he does all that and more. And it's through Christ as one and only son. The bread from heaven himself. Think of it. There's a greater revelation.

They have greater light. And much more they're going to be held accountable for. And it should go for us as well. We have all this revelation. I read something here previously. Our brother David Miller.

He's with the Lord now. He was in a wheelchair. And he was just a country preacher. I just love this man. He spoke at the G3 what a couple years ago. He couldn't turn to the Bible. He just memorized it.

And he read like the whole chapter of Hebrews 1. He memorized the word of God. So he just gave Hebrews 1. But a quote that he said I read here the other day.

He says,.

My biggest problem in sanctification is not having more revelation. My problem is applying the revelation that I have. Amen. I mean that's what we need. We need to apply the revelation that we do have.

And Jesus is that light. We have so much light. May God grace us and help us to live by that light. And we all fall short of that don't we?

I know I do.

But we need God's grace to help sustain us. To go forward and live out in the revelation in our daily life. What we do have. Well, God does a great miracle through his incarnate son. The bread of life.

Bread.

The living bread from heaven.

The greater revelation is Jesus Christ. And he makes provision for his people. Now in the Christian life there is no other place to start than with our own insufficiency. Our own utter weakness. To recognize that we are utterly weak.

And that we are utterly powerless. And that God is all sufficient in Jesus Christ. To humble us. To keep us humble. So that we can see that we are nothing. And that Christ is everything. Now, well let's look at verse 1.

And I'd like to touch on a few verses here. And I'll try to go through this story as fast as I can. But again, we're going to look at some more details in the coming weeks. Lord willing, next week we'll pick up where I left off today.

The Multitude Follows Jesus for His Signs, Not for the Messiah

Look at verse 1. After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of Tiberias. Let me stop right there. The expression after these things basically means a period of time. Here that has elapsed.

And that period of time has elapsed since the events in chapter 5 took place. Now we actually do not know how much time there is. That there was I should say. Between chapter 5 and chapter 6. But we do know that Jesus traveled.

From the area around Jerusalem up to the Sea of Galilee. If you look at a map. He goes northward up to the Sea of Galilee. Which is known here which is also the Sea of Tiberias. When it says that He crossed the sea.

He probably means that He went from the northeastern shore. To the north. I'm sorry from the northwestern shore to the northeastern shore. He traveled from the west to the east. In that geographical setting.

So also the Sea of Galilee was known as the Sea of Tiberias.

Why is that?

Well because the city Tiberias if you were to study this was located on its western bank. So this city was the capital of the province of Galilee. And it was named after of course an emperor by the name of Tiberias.

So that's pretty much the background of the Sea of Galilee. Which is the Sea of Tiberias. Verse 2 and verse 3. Verse 2 says then a great multitude followed Him. Now as you know this is a capital city.

And here are many many people a great multitude. This is probably the height of Jesus' popularity in His ministry. As His third year of ministry begins. Because they saw and this is very interesting. Don't miss this.

Why were there so many of the multitude of people following Him? It tells us. Because they saw His signs. The miracles. Which He performed on those who were sick or diseased. So they basically the reason why they were following Him is because He was a miracle worker.

But they really didn't see Him as the Messiah. And as you will see in the scriptures. They could just call Him a great prophet. That's all they saw Him as. As a great prophet. But not as the Messiah or the Son of the Living God.

A great crowd of people followed Him. And again not necessarily because they were believers in Him. They followed Him because of the miracles. You still have this today don't you? People are just miracle hungry.

But they don't care about who Jesus really is. Most of what is called Christianity sadly to say in America. Is because people are so called following Jesus only for the blessings and the miracles. And not for who He is.

How do we know this? Because anyone who preaches what Christ really says to be His disciple. Deny yourself. If you are going to follow me Jesus says. You deny yourself. You take up your cross and you follow me.

You count the cost. You repent of your sin. And you follow Christ. Many many motives that people have. But they want to follow Jesus just for the blessings. But not all the way to the end.

But I am here to tell you beloved.

You read this Bible. This Bible is soaked and dripping with blood. This Bible is soaked with pain and suffering and affliction. And that means if we follow Jesus. There is the greatest of rewards before us in eternity.

But as far as Christ is what He preaches. When you follow Christ now. And you suffer with Christ now.

But we don't know this.

This is foreign to us in Christianity. What is going to happen when real suffering hits? Then the church is going to be cleaned up. Then we will see who really follows Christ. You see when persecution comes.

But you see this in the New Testament church. Persecution made the church stronger. Now prosperity makes the church weaker. Sad to say. But that's pretty much what you have in America. The Americanized pseudo Christianity.

It's a faith that is founded on miracles. And that's spurious. And that's not pleasing to God. That's founded. And the kind of faith that's pleasing to God. Is founded on the word of God alone. And that means it goes with suffering.

Brother Ben mentioned it last week. Just read the closing verses in chapter 11 of Hebrews. Many of them suffered.

They went dens.

The lions.

Persecuted.

Sawn asunder. Look at the Apostle Paul. His whole life was full of suffering. But yet he was the greatest dynamo. And the greatest missionary. And the theologian that ever walked this earth. For Jesus Christ.

So it's a gospel suffering. But there's a great reward. People would say.

Why would you want to follow Jesus.

If you suffer so much.

Oh beloved.

If we get a glimpse of how he suffered. Our sufferings are nothing. We catch a glimpse of him. That took the pains of the wrath of almighty God. While he died on the cross. For our sins.

Forgave us.

And our little sufferings is not anything in comparison. That's why the apostles could rejoice. When they were beaten severely. For Jesus sake. They said don't you dare speak in this name again. And they went out rejoicing.

That they were worthy even to suffer for him. And they continued to preach Jesus Christ. That's the way the church should be.

They were unmovable.

Militant.

But loving.

And gracious. There was great grace. There was great fear. And nothing could stop them. The more they persecuted him. The more the church grew beloved. Oh that God would bring this. And by the way he's going to do it again.

We're heading down that road.

So.

Take heed.

Make sure you're part of the true church. God's word should not require miracles beloved. To verify it. God's word doesn't need that. Anything that God says is true. He doesn't have to have miracles to verify his word.

He doesn't have to have archaeologists prove that his word is true. Archaeologists. That have seen the chariots. At the Dead Sea. They're there. But we don't believe the Bible because of what the archaeologists have found.

That those people have dug up. Like Noah's Ark. They say it's on Mount Ararat. Ararat in Russia. We don't believe the Bible because of what they say. We believe the Bible even if it wasn't there beloved.

Right?

Let God be true. Paul said. Let God be true. And every man found liar. I like what R .C. Sproul says here. When God speaks the arguments over folks. There is no argument.

Well.

God is sufficient. We are insufficient. And he's more than enough. Look at verse 3. And Jesus went up on the mountain. And there he sat with his disciples. A little translation here actually says that.

Jesus went up on the mountain top. But it can read that a mountainous hilly region around the sea. So. Again. You notice the mountain. Jesus spoke the great sermon on the mountain. As he was sitting down.

The sermon on the mountain. God speaks from mountaintops. He does something from mountaintops. Let me just name a few here.

Mount Moriah.

God told Abraham to bring up Isaac as his only son. To test Abraham's faith. Mount Sinai. God spoke to Moses to give the Ten Commandments. Mount Carmel. God assured Elijah. Answered Elijah's prayer from Mount Carmel.

As the challenge was on against the false prophets of Baal. Which Jezebel had there. And Elijah said a short prayer. And then God answered by fire. And consumed the sacrifice. God answered with fire. Mount Zion in Jerusalem.