Free Fish Sandwiches Or The Bread Of Life Series

“Free Fish Sandwiches or the Bread of Life”

John 6:1-15, 26-40

John 6 includes a two day account of Jesus’ ministry. If your stomachs are empty this morning, I’m not offering free lunches today, but if your hearts and souls are empty, then God has Himself to offer you to fill you.

I am just going to look at the first 15 verses of this fabulous story what has been known as the “feeding of the “five thousand”. We are going to look at these verses section by section so I invite you to open your Bibles to John 5:45 to give us the setting and transition into chapter 6. There we read the following: "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"

These verses are the culmination of Jesus’ testimonies about Himself in chapter 5; He is saying that Moses was a type of Christ Himself who was to come and fulfill all the prophecy of the Old Testament. Jesus’ statement indicates a most important fact: The entire Bible is a proclamation of Jesus as Lord God! The Jehovah/Jahweh of the Old is the One True God revealed in the Jesus of the New Testament, who is revealed clearly as the Eternal Son of God revealed in the New Testament, and is declared finally in the book of Revelation. The Old Testament looks forward to this promised Savior Redeemer who was to be born of the lineage of David, promised from the very beginning in Genesis 3:15.

This is the Jesus whom Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph typified. This Jesus is the one who would deliver His chosen people from the bondage of sin and death, typified by the LORD’S miraculous Redemption of the children of Israel from Egypt all the way to the promised land of Canaan. (The verb derivative of “Canaan “describes the process of synchronicity; bringing elements from a wild, feral state into a state of common order and mutual benefit (like, a trade agreement)… Synchronicity may demand the abandonment of one's naturally free state.” (from abarim-publications.com) The land of Canaan describes Heaven, doesn’t it? In order to gain access to Canaan, the Kingdom of God, we have to abandon our own agendas and submit to the will of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He has to give us a new heavenly heart that is “in synch” with His Heart, to love Him with our hearts and lives and deny ourselves.

The Judges and Prophets all called the children of Israel to honor this Great God who would send the Savior-Son in the flesh to redeem people from sin. David and his rule typified the king and The Kingdom which would be eternal in the coming of King Jesus in the flesh, fully God and fully man, sent from the Heavenly Father’s side. This is the Jesus of John 6:1-15.

*1 “After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias ). 2 A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs (remember that John’s Gospel reveals these “signs” which point to a greater spiritual reality) which He was PERFORMING on those who were sick. (They were following Him because of the signs, not because of His Divine Person and Work for which He was sent.)

Now I want you to think of Psalm 23 as we read the following verses and the later revelation in John 10:11 where Jesus says: “I am the Good Shepherd.” Remember that a “Good Shepherd” would lead His sheep up into the mountains where there were green pastures so that they would have the best food and a place to rest, trusting in the leading of their caring shepherd.

*We read in John 6:3 “Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. (Verse 4 is very significant: John mentions three Passovers, which the other Gospel writers do not. It meant that there were many people traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate their redemption from Egypt. The blood of their slain Lambs would be applied to the doorposts of their homes and so the angel of death would “PASS OVER” their house and their firstborn sons would be saved from death. At Calvary, the Only Begotten Son of God would give His Life as a sacrifice to save many whom He had chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless by faith in this LORD Jesus, the anointed One from God Himself.)