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This sermon was preached on Sunday 15/07/2001 Am, by Kevin Matthews.
This morning we look at what may well be the most important of all of Jesus’ miracles, the feeding of the 5000 plus. How do we know that this is the most important miracle that Christ performed? We don’t really, for the Bible doesn’t actually tell us that it is - but we hazard this opinion because it is the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels - Matthew 13:13-21; Mark 6:30-44 and Luke 9:10-17.
Surely this indicates that the miracle was a very significant event and this for a number of reasons, the chief being that in this miracle we see the Lord Jesus Christ creating matter out of nothing. Yes there was bread and fish, but where did the final quantity come from - the Lord’s creative power.
The miracle took place about a year out from the Lord’s crucifixion and about 12 months from the events of chapter 5, if the feast of John 5:1 was also a Passover feast. Significant? Yes, for it was about this time that the Lord had reached His greatest level of popularity and from this time forward He would quickly become despised by the masses as the time of His death drew near.
In this chapter, we stand therefore at the crossroads of Jesus’ earthly ministry - from here the people would begin to reject their Messiah because He was not what they were looking for. They wanted someone who would restore to them an earthly dominion and to greatness through deliverance from the Roman power.
Please Read John 6:1-4
Some time after the events of chapter five, possibly a year as I have already indicated, Jesus and the disciples crossed over the Sea of Galilee, which was also known as the Sea of Tiberias. Luke 9:10 tells us that Jesus ‘took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.’ Mark 6:31 says that Jesus told the disciples, ‘Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while.’ Matthew 14:12,13 tells us that news came to Jesus and the disciples about the death of John the Baptist and that they then went to a deserted place for a rest.
What we see coming from the Biblical evidence at this point, is that the Lord and His disciples were clearly fatigued by their ministry and emotionally distressed by the death of John the Baptist. It was time for a well-deserved break, a time to regroup as it were. So off they go to a place near to the hometown of Philip, Andrew and Peter, off to a deserted place near Bethsaida.
However, the most up to date news concerning Jesus was still a subject of hot discussion among the crowds that had gathered around Jesus. Someone had heard where Jesus was off to and soon the destination was spreading like wild fire among the masses. Almost immediately the masses were again on the move, heading off around the sea to the place where Jesus was going. In fact, Luke 9:11 tells us that the people ran around the sea and even beat Jesus to the place He was going.
The masses had worked themselves up into a frenzy of excitement concerning Jesus and they couldn’t get enough of Him. Yet it would seem from the account here in John that this frenzy had little to do with the real Jesus and His earthly mission, for the excitement stirred up surrounded the miracles only. They were impressed greatly by what He did, but not so much by what He said.
Remember what John tells us in John 2:23-25, ‘Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.’
The times had changed things very little. Yes these people wanted Jesus, but not for what He stood for, only for the wonders that were associated with Him. There was no real concern with the message of Jesus but with the free feeds, the free cures and the free entertainment that Jesus provided for them. Here was a sideshow alley right in their own backyard and the people could follow the main act around the countryside at their leisure. They weren’t attracted to the message of Jesus, but to the miracles and excitement that followed Him.
Today we find pretty much the same kind of thing happening in the churches. There aren’t the miracles and the wonders of Jesus, but there are the miracles of God’s grace. A person here and there changed from what they once were, ‘dead in trespasses and sins, slaves to sin and without hope in the world,’ into godly people. A church begins to exercise a true care and concern for the community in which they minister as a result of the Spirit of God at work in them and the community around about begins to notice.
People begin to go to church, amazed at what they see actually existing in the church and they become caught up in the care, the love, the acceptance, the friendship, the opportunities - yet there is no real interest in the Lord of the Church. Many who head off to church today do so for the satisfaction of selfish desires and gratification, not because of Christ and salvation from sin. They want something, but it is not Jesus, the Gospel or the Headship of Christ - it is a quietened conscience, acceptance by their peers, personal satisfaction, happiness - but not Christ and His message.
Then of course there are those churches in which the masses flock because of the frenzied excitement whipped up by churches that really aren’t even interested in the message themselves. These seek numbers and will go to any lengths to attract the world to them. They hold their concerts, use their gimmicks and make flattering appeals to the unchurched, while the how time keeping the gospel and message of Christ out of reach to a fallen world through their neglect of mentioning it.
But what was the Lord Jesus Christ seeking to achieve by His signs? What was the point of what was happening throughout the ministry of Jesus? Was it simply to gain a following, as the churches today seem so keen to achieve?
As we have already begun to discover these miracles of Jesus were really signs and not the means for entertainment or simply wowing the audience. These were signs pointing to the One who performed them as the Messiah and as God and as the Deliverer of Israel. The people needed to be captivated by His Words and not simply by His deeds. They needed to heed what He said and not just crave the wonders. As fallen sinners they needed to respond to the message of the One that came into the world to save His people from their sins. ‘But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (20:31).’ Jesus was concerned with salvation from sin and not mundane affairs. How the church needs to recapture the mission and vision of Christ.
When Jesus arrived at the place where the crowds were already beginning to assemble, He went up into a small hilly area that sat above a grassy plain as verse 10 tells us. Now think about this situation for a moment, think about the place were Jesus went with His disciples. Here is a place with a small hill above a grassy plain near the seaside with ample room for thousands of people to sit. Crowds of people were heading toward Jerusalem for the Passover as the news about Jesus spread like wildfire among them. Verse six clearly indicates that Jesus knew what was going on well before it happened.
What do you see here? You see here a divinely planned event whereby God in His providence brings all the interacting forces together, so that they bring a great assembly together at this specific place at this specific time. Not one person who should be there was missing and not one person who should not be there was there. There were no storms that day, no Roman divisions to send the people on their way, but a prepared place for a planned meeting.
This event is presented to us in such a way here in John that this conclusion cannot be missed, that Jesus on this day was determined to bring this event to pass. He so directed affairs so that this event planned by God actually came to realisation in the history of men. God controlled this event, right down to even a small boy bringing a small lunch for himself. This event has God stamped all over it.
Yet the people themselves were not aware that they were playing a part in a divinely organised event. The people were off to see the miracle worker; perhaps bringing a friend who was off to the Jerusalem Passover celebration. The little boy with the bread and fish may have been on his way to a friend’s place when he is caught up in the throng going out to see Jesus. Yet at the same time this crowd of people had assembled in accordance with the plan of God, though each one was there for his or her own reasons.
God was the director of this scene and the people the actors, who were following the divine script, even though they followed their own. Jesus the star of the scene was very much aware of what was happening as He prepared Himself for the event. The time had come, the scene was ready and action had been called.
‘When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat (6:5)?’
Jesus lifts up His eyes; we are ready to see the event unfold, but then seeming confusion. ‘What can we do to feed these people Philip? There are so many, where can we buy food for these people? Philip, you are from these parts, what can we do?’
Does the crowd catch Jesus off guard? Did he need Philip, a local, to get Him out of this mess? How could such a crowd be fed? Mark 6:34-38 tells us that the event occurred late in the day and after a period of teaching by Jesus. The crowd were hungry and weary and needed food that they might make their journey home. Where was it to come from? Philip, can you answer this question?
The passage doesn’t leave us to our own conclusions, for we would perhaps think that Jesus was stumped by this situation, ‘And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do (6:6).’
This was not a case of Jesus being unsure as to what needed to be done at all. It was not a case of God needing man to help Him out of a muddle. No, it was a test for Philip and the disciples. Did they really recognize who was in their midst? Did they truly trust in Jesus? Did they have faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God? Could they entrust to Jesus the need of the hour? Had they really heard what Jesus had been teaching them?
The answer to the problem was already answered in the plan of God. In fact there was no dilemma here at all, ‘for He Himself knew what He would do.’ The Father had already given Jesus a plan for His entire mission upon earth, for ‘the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do (5:36),’ for the 'Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do (5:19).'
What was the result of the test? ‘Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little (6:7).’ ‘Lord, even if we had money the equivalent of eight months labour for a man, we couldn’t feed this lot.’ Or another way we could say this, ‘the wind is too great, the waves too large and I am sinking - the problem is too great to fix, the problem is just too big.’
Then Andrew piped up and added, ‘There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many (6:9)?’ Andrew is pretty much of the same opinion as Philip, ‘it can’t be done with the resources we have here, it’s impossible to do.’
Yet standing in their very midst was the One who had turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, who had healed all the sick, who had proven Himself by many signs that He was in fact God, the God of Heaven and Earth, the very Creator of Heaven and Earth, yet ‘our resources cannot feed these people.’
These men had been with Jesus for quite some time now, they had witnessed so much, yet not one of them was able to recognize the One who was in their midst! They couldn’t see that Jesus could meet this need if He so willed. ‘We cannot feed them, it is impossible.’ Each of them looked at the problem and saw it as too big; not one looked to Jesus and recognized that it could be met in Him, ‘the Christ, the Son of God... (20:31).’
How we recognize the foolishness of these men and how quick we are to cast stones at these disciples who had spent a couple of years with Jesus. Yet there are some here that have been with Jesus for decades and do the same thing. When was the last time you saw the multitudes and not Jesus? When did you last see the waves and the wind and not Jesus? When was the last time that you focused on the difficulty, the trial or whatever it was and not the Lord? Is it not often that you do this also?
‘No one is responding to the newsletters and tracts that we are giving out, what can be done? We can’t get anyone to come to church. The task is too hard; we should be content with what we have.’
‘This person will not respond to the Gospel. We have tried everything and still they will not come to Christ that they might live. It is useless to continue seeking that person’s salvation. Perhaps this is one who will never be saved?’
‘There is no way I can get through this problem that daily confronts me. I just don’t have the resources to deal with it; it is too great a problem. It’s just the way I am, so I’ll just have to live with it. I can’t beat this sin problem I have. I can’t cope with this illness another day.’
All the time in our Christian experience we find ourselves staring mesmerized at the waves and the wind and the multitudes when Jesus is right there in our midst - yet we don’t look to Him. The answer to our difficulty is right there with us, but we don’t seek it in the right place.
‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance (Ps 42:5).’
‘Why am I cast down? Why am I disheartened? Why am I at a loss?’ It is because we have taken our eyes of the Lord and focussed on the issue or the problem. Look to the Lord and you will yet be able to continue on, people will yet be saved, communities will yet be reached with the Gospel.
What do we have? Do we have anything? Do we have a small meal of barley bread and fish? Yes, the resources that we have are not sufficient for the task - but with the Lord it is enough, for He is the One to meet the need and that with abundance.
So while we, like the disciples get all flustered by the problem and begin to panic or become disheartened, the Lord, he is not flustered or stuck. ‘And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand (6:10).’
There is no panic with Jesus, no anxiety, only the settled activity of purpose. The 5000 men plus women and children sat down in groups of 50’s and 100’s according to Mark 6:39 and 40. It is all organised without the slightest hint of panic, for Jesus in now demonstrating His control over the situation.
‘And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten (6:11-13).’
Without any great fanfare Jesus gives thanks for the provision of the food. No one smuggles extra food in in order to fake a miracle. The disciples didn’t bring out hidden supplies. This is a genuine demonstration of the Lord’s divinity.
Think about the scene for a moment. What were the disciples thinking when Jesus gave thanks for the provision of the food for the 5000 plus people - 5 loaves and 2 small fish! What were all the people thinking - hungry and weary and Jesus there to feed them with five loaves and two small fish. What were the thoughts of all then concerned? You can be sure Jesus had no problem with the scene, ‘for he himself knew what he would do (6:6).’
Then Jesus proceeded to break the loaves and fish into peaces to distribute and the food just kept coming. Somehow the food multiplied in His hands. What was not there previously was now called into existence by the power of God right there in His hands.
There wasn’t just a crumb for each person, but 5000 plus meals! Then there was also enough left over to fill twelve baskets that were used to carry large bulky objects! There was so much more at the end then there was at the beginning! There was more than enough to go around. Clearly this was the work of God.
Jesus had met the need and then some. There was no want; it had not proved impossible at all. Yet again Jesus demonstrated His claim to Divinity and Messiahship by a sign that only God could perform.
How many times have you experienced this to be the case when perplexed by a problem or difficulty? You didn’t even have to ask Jesus to solve the problem, yet in His Sovereign grace and providence He did and you were amazed at how simple everything was addressed. Previously it had been a difficulty, but now a breeze.
Friends, look to the Lord in those difficult times. When that person will not respond to the Gospel, look to the Lord, ‘for His arm is not shortened that it cannot save.’ God can bring conviction to that lost sinner and call them unto Himself without doubt, if He so wills. Salvation is always a miracle of grace and a sign of Divine activity, for the spiritually dead need to be raised to spiritual life. Look to the Lord!
That community out there that will not heed the Gospel and the warning to repent before it’s too late, cannot but be moved to accept it when God has many people in it to be saved. When you are at the end of your resources continue to look to the Lord, for the Gospel ‘is the power of God to salvation (Rom 1:16).’
That problem that you face in your walk before the Lord, look to the Lord for that which you struggles to address, for is He not the Almighty God and Maker of Heaven and Earth? Do you not think that He is able to deliver you out of your current dilemma?
Surely there is a rebuke in this passage for us and our often failure to look at the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, for our neglect to continually trust the Lord Jesus Christ and His care and provision for us. Brethren, look to the Lord, for the same Jesus is with each of you all of the time.
May God grant this passage to be for you a mighty stimulation for continued trusting in Him. Keep your eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ at all times. What may be impossible for you is not so for Him. Look to the Lord, for He is able to meet the need of the hour.
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