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
I want us to notice four points about this story today:
• We see the Multitude Following (verses 1-3)
• We see the Missing Faith (verses 5-9)
• We see the Miraculous Feeding (10-13)
• We see the Messiah Foretold (14-15)
So the first point is the Multitude Following. Notice verse 2: “and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.”
I just want us to notice the motivation of the multitude here. They followed, not because they loved Jesus and wanted to be with Him, but because they saw miracles. They were curious, interested in this Miracle-Worker, and large crowds followed Him out of curiosity. But these were not true followers of Jesus Christ; they were not following Jesus for the beauty of Who He was, and because they loved Him, but rather but rather out of curiosity, and to see the signs He could perform.
But followers like this never last. Some teaching of Jesus will confront them and send the curious away. Something Jesus says will offend them and off they go. Look at verse 66:
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. John 6:66
They were offended at what Jesus taught in this passage, they could not obey what He said, and they no longer followed.
So the obvious application is “why are we following Jesus?” Are we curious, interested, or are we fully prepared to obey what He says in His Word? If we’re not, we will not last, we will become offended, and sometime in the future, people will see us “turning back”, no longer following, away from church, just wasting our lives, living and dying apart from Christ. Are we prepared to really follow?
So that’s the Multitude Following. Now let’s look at the Missing Faith. Notice verses 5-8:
Jesus asked, "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?"
So the disciples were tested here. You can see that plainly in verse 6: “Jesus asked this only to test Him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do.” Isn’t that amazing, Jesus had a plan all along. Jesus knew He was going to use the boy’s lunch to feed the multitude, but He put the disciples into a situation to test them.
And you can see the disciples trying to rationally figure out a solution. They immediately go to their brains: one of them goes, “let’s see, it would take about 8 months wages to buy food for these people”, another one says, “here’s a boy with a sack lunch, but how far will that go?” And so they try to reason and think logically about their problem, and devise a plan.
What’s wrong with this picture? Something is terribly amiss here. I mean you have the God of the Universe standing right here, the God Who made the world, the God Who created both people and food standing right there. These disciples saw Him turn water into wine, couldn’t He turn stones into food? Hello! Why didn’t anybody think to go to Jesus? I mean, they just didn’t get it, do we?
Oh yes, before we start condemning the disciples for their lack of faith, what happens to us when we get a huge problem and it seems that our resources are so small? We start trying to figure things out logically, as if our brain were the biggest resource we have. Oh it’s not wrong to use our brains, God gave the ability to think rationally and come to logical conclusions, but there are some problems that are much bigger than our brains.
How about when we’ve had things go badly financially, and cannot pay our bills, cannot figure out where the money will come from? Do we go to credit, or to Christ? How about when we get the news that it’s cancer. Do we rush home, get on the Internet, and start researching all the latest treatment plans. Do we go to the Internet or to our Intercessor, Who ever lives to intercede for us?
There’s nothing wrong with using our brains or researching the Internet, but how about going to Jesus first and asking Him what the plan is. He’s got one. Underline the last part of verse 6 because you are going to need it. “Jesus already knew what He was going to do.” Listen, in every problem you are ever faced with, Jesus already knows what He is going to do. Every test you face, Jesus already knows what He is going to do.
The disciples failed to realize that Jesus was all they needed - nothing more! They did not need money, they only needed Jesus.
This passage tells us that God tests His people; we need to understand right now that being tested is a normal part of Christian life. And the tests can be very severe, and can seem quite extreme. You know how Genesis 22 opens up? The very first verse says, “and some time later God tested Abraham.” And what a severe test it was: “sacrifice your son, your only son whom you love.” But Abraham knew God had a plan; the Bible says Abraham believed God could raise the dead. Abraham believed God already knew what He was going to do. Abraham believed God had a plan and that God could raise the dead.
God tests His people, and we need to understand that right now, or we will not know what to make of trials and difficulties that come in to our lives. Let’s turn in our Bibles to the Book of James chapter 1. James is writing to Christians who are facing trials and hardships and difficulties. And they are being tempted to turn from Christ, to throw in the towel, to stop following Jesus because of all the trials. And
James says to them in Chapter 1 starting with verse 2:
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4
This passage tells us that we will be tested; our faith will be tested. And tested how? Through trials of many kinds: the loss of a job, physical sicknesses, the death of a relative or close friend, a car accident, terrorist attacks, famines, earthquakes, hurricanes, financial trials, physical trials, marital trials, relational trials, emotional trials and spiritual trials.
And we are to count these tests as pure joy. How do we do that? We understand that God has a plan in the testing, and we know that we will mature in the testing, but most importantly understand that Jesus is all we need. The disciples in John 6 didn’t need money, they didn’t need loaves and fishes, they just needed Jesus. Faith says, “I just need Jesus in this trial, He is all I need for life and godliness.”
So we have the multitude following, the missing faith, and now we look at the miraculous feeding in John 4. And notice the miracle here starting with verse 10:
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.
Just notice here who did this miracle. The people were sitting and starving, Jesus took the loaves and fish, Jesus gave thanks, Jesus distributed the food, and somehow a sack lunch fed approximately 20,000 people. And anyone who is fed by Jesus has plenty left over to give to others. They picked up 12 basket-fulls, one for each of the disciples. The people realized that in Jesus is all they needed for life, because little is much when Jesus is in it.
This is a miracle of multiplication. Taking a little and multiplying it for the benefit of others. The application is clear: whatever little we have, if we give it to Jesus He can do miracles with it.
So let’s add the miraculous feeding on to the list of miracles Jesus has done: turned water into wine, healed a nobleman’s son, raised up a paralyzed man, and now fed thousands of people with a boy’s sack lunch. Wow!
And this passage concludes with the Messiah foretold in verses 14 and 15, that the people recognized Him as the prophet to come, the prophet who was to be king. But He hid Himself because He had to die before He would reign as King. He had to wear a crown of thorns before He wore a crown of crown of glory.
So we have the multitudes following, the missing faith, the miraculous feeding and the Messiah foretold.
So let me bring out some applications for us today, and let me mention 3 of them:
1. When we have needs, where do we go? When we are faced with problems in the future, where will we turn?
2. Jesus is all we need, are we trusting Him? The disciples should have gone straight to Jesus and said, “you have all we need for life and godliness, what is Your plan to fix this problem?” Remember this, Jesus is all we need.
3. Do you see the gospel in this story? Are you seeing all stories in the Bible in light of the bigger story? The reality is this story shows us that the universal longing of all mankind is met at the cross. You see, we were this multitude, sitting and starving in sin, hungering in our souls, yearning and craving and pining. And we had no resources. We couldn’t fix our problem, we were hopeless. And then God sent His Son as the bread of life. And He came to this earth to die for our sins, His body was broken and distributed to all who believe. And now who eat of Him are satisfied in Him, and have some left over to share with others.
But is this really how we are to interpret this passage? To see the gospel in it? Look at the end of this chapter. Verses 48-51:
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:48-51
Yes, this is how we are to see this story, this Miraculous Feeding, as pointing forward to the bigger story of the gospel. And I close now with
Romans 8:32:
32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32
God didn’t withhold His Son from you, what will He not give to you? In Jesus, is all we need for life, and godliness.
Let’s pray: Lord Jesus, you Who came as Bread to hungry people, You Who died to nourish us in forgiveness, to nourish us in freedom from the guilt of sin, we are grateful to you. Lord help us to feed on you, to be nourished by you, and to find our life in you.
