Introduction
Good morning. Please open your Bibles to John 6.
How many of you are hungry, like right now? I realize that’s an awful way to start a sermon. Probably every professor of preaching that’s ever lived is rolling over in his grave right now, because now all you are going to be thinking about is where you’re going to go for lunch after this. But I’m serious. Raise your hand if you are hungry, right now.
Keep your hand raised if you’ve eaten in the last 24 hours, but you are still hungry.
Keep your hand raised if you had breakfast this morning— like two hours ago, but now you’re hungry again?
Wow.
While scientists say that is is possible to go without food for 3 or 4 weeks, most of us don’t go 3 or 4 hours between meals. Our bodies typically signal hunger within three hours of our last meal. So whether your last meal was at a gourmet restaurant or from the drive thru at McDonald’s, you are still going to get hungry again.
Well, as we continue our series called Greater Love, we are going to look at what is probably the best-known of Jesus’ miracles: the feeding of the five thousand. And we are going to see how it is about so much more than just free food. In John’s gospel especially, Jesus uses this miracle to teach us a crucial truth: every good thing in this world— food, drink, wealth, material possessions, sex, influence, fame, ability, friendships, health— every good thing— can only provide limited satisfaction. But the blessings that come from Jesus provide eternal satisfaction.
Psalm 16:11
Christian Standard Bible Psalm 16
11 You reveal the path of life to me; ? in your presence is abundant joy; ? at your right hand are eternal pleasures.
So how can we experience this greater satisfaction? How can we feel this eternal pleasure? The answer is in John 6. Let’s pray together, and then we will dive in.
I. The Great Sign
Let’s start by looking at the miracle itself. The Feeding of the 5,000 is the only one of Jesus’ miracles that is mentioned in all four gospels. Interestingly, the word “miracle” is almost never used in the gospels. Instead, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and especially John preferred the word “sign.” A sign is something that points to something else, and you’re going to see in just a minute what Jesus was pointing to when He fed the five thousand. Let’s look at verses 4-14 together:
4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
This is a familiar story for most of you, but there are a couple of things I want to bring out that maybe you haven’t noticed before. The first is that John is the only one of the four gospels that connects the feeding of the 5000 to Passover (v. 4). Now, those of you that were at our “Messiah in the Passover” event this past Thursday probably have a greater appreciation for what a big deal Passover was. It commemorated the Jews’ deliverance from bondage in Egypt. For four hundred years the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt. God raised up a deliverer. What was his name? Right. Moses. Through Moses, God performed many miraculous signs. The ten plagues. Crossing the Red Sea. Water from the rock. And, especially significant for our story today, providing manna— bread from heaven—for all the Israelites as they journeyed through the desert on their way to the Promised Land.
All these things were on the Jews’ minds as they followed Jesus to this remote place (the other three gospels all take note of the fact that it’s a “deserted” or “desert” place. See Matthew 14:15; Mark 6:35; Luke 9:12).
So the sign was this: Just as God worked through Moses to provide bread for the multitude in the desert, Jesus now provides bread for the multitude in the desert.
You’re familiar with the story. Andrew brings a boy with five loaves of bread and two fish to Jesus, Jesus blesses the bread, breaks it, and gives it and the fish to the disciples to distribute to the crowd, and after everyone has their fill there are 12 baskets of leftovers. And this is where Wonder Bread came from, because everyone wondered where it came from.
And maybe since Passover was already on their minds, the Jews in Jesus’ crowd immediately made the connection. Look at John 6:14
John 6:14 ESV
14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
What did they mean by “the prophet?” Well, in Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses told the Israelites that,
Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
So the Jews are all, “this is the guy Moses told us about. This is the Prophet like Moses!” And they were ready to make them king. But Jesus doesn’t want any part of that, so he withdraws from the crowd. Put a pin there. We’re going to talk more about that at the end.
But for now, let’s get back to this idea that this great sign of feeding the multitudes with wonder bread. What did Jesus intend it to point to? Well, it wasn’t that Jesus was a prophet “like” Moses.
It was that Jesus was greater than Moses. That isn’t point 2 on your listening guide, but if you want to write it in as point 1.5, go ahead. Skip down to verse 32:
John 6:32–40 ESV
32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
The two most important figures in Judaism are Abraham and Moses. Moses was the deliverer, the leader that brought them to the Promised Land, and the lawgiver. But understand that every blessing Moses provided (or that God provided through Moses) was temporary. It was for this life. Eventually Moses would die. The people of Israel would be brought into captivity again. The manna would stop falling. And the Law of Moses, as comprehensive and all encompassing as it was, would never provide anyone with eternal security.
It was all a placeholder. It was all temporary.
But because Jesus is greater than Moses, Jesus offers a greater solution than Moses ever could. Let’s read verses 26-27.
2. Greater Solution (John 6:26-27)
John 6:26–27 ESV
26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
3. The Greatest Problem (John 6:32-40)
Do you remember back in verse 15 where it says that when Jesus perceived the people wanted to make him king by force, he withdrew from the crowd?
Maybe you are wondering why Jesus wouldn’t let the people make Him a king. And the reason why is because a king wasn’t going to solve the people’s greatest problem. You see, it’s possible for a human being to be a great king, or president, or prime minister, or Grand Poobah, or whatever your country calls it. And he or she might do a lot of great things. Secure the border. Stabilize the economy. Lower the price of eggs. Create jobs. But at the end of the day, no human being can solve the greatest problem human beings have. Lostness.
Let’s look at John 6:35-40
John 6:35–40 ESV
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
[Note-- I'm thankful to fellow SC contributor Shawn Drake for the next section. His Sermon "The Table of Life" is excellent: https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-table-of-life-shawn-drake-sermon-on-lord-s-supper-42409]
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven," Jesus says. "Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews said to each other, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (John 6:52, NRSV).
It’s a repulsive image. But Jesus goes on: "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life" (John 6:53, NRSV).
In the Greek it is even more repulsive: the word for "eat" is the word "trogon", which is usually translated, "to chew." "Chew my flesh," Jesus says. "That’s the way to eternal life."
The Jews walked away. "This is a hard saying," they murmured. "Who can hear it?" (John 6:60, KJV).
And they were right. It is hard. But it is not impossible. You who have ears to hear, hear Jesus say something like this: "I am the Source of Life, but in the same way that you won’t get full by having bread in your house, you won’t gain eternal life by being merely acquainted with Me. It takes more than that.
It takes a kind of daily ’feeding’ on Me, if you will allow such a crude analogy. I must become the air you breath, the water you drink. You must learn to hunger for Me in the same way you hunger for meat and potatoes."
So that’s what this table is for, this table of life: not to satisfy our hunger but to whet our appetites, to call us into ever deeper communion with Christ so that every day of our lives we might wake up longing to feast on the Bread of Life.
These are hard words, I know. But if you would do anything for eternal youth, will you do this one thing for eternal life? Will you make a promise as you eat the bread and drink the cup this morning that this will be only the beginning for you, that this symbolic act will be only the first step in a lifetime of "feeding" on Christ? If you can do that, I think you will find that the next time we gather at this table you will have discovered what few people ever do, and you will know just what Jesus was talking about when He said,
"This is the bread that came down from heaven, and those who eat this bread will live forever."
[Invitation]
[
Communion]
When Jesus fed the 5,000, everyone ate together. There was enough for all, and twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered. This miracle points to the abundance of God’s provision and the unity we share in Christ.
As we take communion today, we are reminded that we are one body in Christ. The bread we share symbolizes our unity as believers. No matter our differences, we are united by the same Savior who satisfies our hunger and quenches our thirst.
Conclusion?As we come to the table today, let’s ask ourselves: What are we hungry for? Are we chasing after temporary fixes, or are we seeking the greater satisfaction that only Jesus can provide? He is the Bread of Life, the one who fills us, gives us life, and unites us as His body.
His shed blood is the blood of the new covenant. It replaces the old covenant of Moses, where sin was atoned for by the blood of bulls and goats. Paul called the law of Moses the law of sin and death. But grace is the law completed, and it is available through the blood of Jesus, shed for you.
Let’s pray:?Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Bread of Life. As we partake of this communion, remind us that You are the only one who can truly satisfy our deepest needs. Fill us with Your presence, nourish our souls, and unite us as Your body. May we find our greatest satisfaction in You. Amen.
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