Miraculous Feeding, Miraculous Walking, Miraculous Teaching

Good morning, let’s open our Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 1, I want us to look at this passage again this week just as we did last week. To introduce our study this week I want to ask you a question: have you ever been tested by God with something in your life? I mean have you ever been in a situation where all you can see is a huge problem and by comparison your resources seem so tiny? Have you ever faced a situation where it seemed like there was just no way, the obstacle was too big, the problem seemed insurmountable and you felt totally without resources? Well if you are a Christian here this morning, then you either have been tested in this way, or you will be tested in this way over and over, because God tests the faith of every single child of His.

But look at the resources that every Christian has:

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4

“God has given us everything we need for life and godliness” through His precious promises. You see, Jesus Christ is all of God’s promises wrapped up into a Person, and all God’s promises are “Yes” and “Amen” in Him. And so in Him, in Jesus we have all the resources we need for every situation in life, for every problem, trial and yes, even for every test that God brings about. And we are going to see this truth illustrated in story form today when we see the disciples being tested. They will discover that Jesus is all they need for life.

Let’s turn to John chapter 6. There are 71 verses in this chapter, approximately 1500 words, making it the longest chapter not only in the Book of John, but in the entire New Testament. We have come to the longest chapter in all the New Testament now. But what we find in this chapter is really just 3 stories, 3 stories that illustrate the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ. The first story is the Miraculous Feeding. Here the disciples are tested (that’s in verses 1-15), the second story is that the Miraculous Walking. Here the disciples are terrified (that’s in verses 16-22), and then the final story is the Miraculous Teaching. Here that the disciples are taught (verse 23-71). So this chapter is about the Miraculous Feeding of the 5000, the Miraculous Walking on the water, and the Miraculous Teaching of Jesus Christ. In this chapter the disciples are tested, the disciples are terrified, the disciples are taught. That’s John chapter 6 in a nutshell.

Today we are going to look at only the first story: The Miraculous Feeding.

So the first story is that the disciples are tested. Let’s read about it together

1 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Feast was near. 5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, "Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" 8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" 10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 14 After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. John 6:1-15